ADVERTORIAL: UPBEAT Platform’s Best New Talent Award directs the limelight on Europe’s best upcoming artists who fuse tradition with fresh energy, celebrating distinctive music scenes beyond the mainstream. Meet this year’s 10 shortlisted nominees and vote for your new favourite artist.
Russ Slater Johnson speaks to the host of Puerto Rican podcast, La Brega, about dignity, Bad Bunny and the art of the hustle
After Martin Carthy’s sudden Alzhemier’s diagnosis, Eliza, his daughter, reflects on the hastily rearranged UK tour put together as the headline act quietly steps down
Russ Slater Johnson talks with the Uruguayan singer-songwriter about Latin American music’s recent global renaissance, cultural gains in his home country and new collaborative candombe-charged album, Taracá
Charis McGowan speaks to Silvana Estrada in the house of Mexican ranchera icon, Chavela Vargas. It’s where Estrada learned how to channel grief into song, laying the foundations for her latest album
Jane Cornwell unpicks the sepia mythology of Buena Vista Social Club to reveal a story of chance, politics and marketing, turning a Havana recording session into a cultural phenomenon
Florence Adooni, Santrofi, Kay Slice, Ata Kak, Me & My Friends and Ireke select their favourite Ghanaian highlife releases
The Norwegian singer-songwriter shares the minimal, spooky and emotional beauty of five albums that have left a lasting impression on her own work
Jim Hickson on the London duo channelling Ethiopian tradition and contemporary cool into experimental pop gold
Erin Cobby talks to the duo defying French folk tropes with progressive Occitan song
'Through my music, with every note I play, I walk alongside the Iranian people'
Russell Higham visits Louisiana, home of the world-famous Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans and Lafayette, where he finds a state proudly and positively celebrating its musical connections to the wider world
Chris Wheatley catches up with the owner of a Belgian imprint curating the rhythms of Congolese rumba
A Colombian singer-songwriter whose words have soundtracked her country’s protests
Simon Broughton meets SONICO, a Belgian ensemble dedicated to reviving the repertoire of Eduardo Rovira, an overlooked and innovative Argentine composer
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