Live reviews
Femi Kuti review – ‘I do not want to be my father!’
Femi Kuti brings his usual vivacity and fervour to a transfixed crowd at Islington Assembly Hall, supported ably by the London Afrobeat Collective.
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Features
Watch: New video from Calypso Rose featuring Angélique Kidjo & Manu Chao
Check out the latest video, 'Wah Fu Dance!' from Calypso Rose's Songlines Music Awards 2017 winning album, Far from Home.
Features
20 Great Artists from 20 Years of Songlines
All of these artists who released their first solo album during the lifetime of Songlines (ie since 1999), including Fatoumata Diawara, Mariza, Sam Lee and many more
Features
Duo Ruut: “Whatever is going on around you will influence the art you make”
How does an ancient plucked stringed instrument speak to contemporary Estonian identity? Jane Cornwell tracks down Duo Ruut, the Estonian band reimagining the boundaries of their homeland’s musical tradition
Features
Quickfire: George Telek
One of Papua New Guinea’s most celebrated singer-songwriters talks secret society survival strategies, and hypes up some of his region’s most essential artists and albums
Features
Electric Jalaba: “It’s the feeling of being grabbed by the music and lost in the groove”
Gnawa music from Morocco forms the basis of Electric Jalaba’s groove-laden sound. Jane Cornwell speaks to Oliver Keen and Dave De Rose about how the band came together and their experimental, improvised approach
Features
Quinie: “I initially felt like I shouldn’t sing these songs”
Thomas Newell speaks to a Scottish singer threading Scots Traveller songs with a grassroots DIY aesthetic
Live reviews
Angélique Kidjo and Ibrahim Maalouf perform ‘The Queen of Sheba’ - review
Angélique Kidjo and Ibrahim Maalouf perform a special show with the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra for C’est pas Classique festival in Nice
Features
British & Irish Folk Round-Up (Susy Wall, DUG, Lavinia Blackwall, Àirdan, Rose Io)
Tim Cumming takes a look at an assortment of releases from England, Scotland and Ireland (via California)
Features
Sona Jobarteh interview: “It’s either education or your culture, and that was a big problem for me”
Gambian kora player Sona Jobarteh speaks to Lucy Hallam about how she is shaking up the continent’s antiquated education system and dragging the griot tradition into the 21st century
Features
Rituals, femininity and mother earth are at the heart of Italian-Iranian group Hysterrae
An extended version of our Q&A with Italian-Iranian 5-piece Hysterrae about their hypnotic new album
Features
Mari Boine interview: “I was on my way somewhere, but now I’m really, really me”
Fiona Talkington speaks to Sámi activist and singer Mari Boine who, now in her 60s, finally feels confident in her own work
The Rough Guide to World Music
The Rough Guide to World Music: Nigeria
Nigeria's best-known cultural exports – juju, Afrobeat and fuji music – barely scratch the surface of the vast and vibrant cultural topography of the nation
The Rough Guide to World Music
The Rough Guide to World Music: Jamaica
Jamaica is a serious contender for the title ‘loudest island in the world’. On any night, and especially at weekends, it shakes to the musical vibrations of thousands of sound systems
