Zeca Afonso (1929-1987) was a Portuguese folk and political musician. Zeca lived in Angola and Mosambik in his youth and later studied in Coimbra, Portugal. In 1974, his politicaly banned song “Grândola, Vila Morena” was played by the radio after midnight and became a symbol in the fight against the dictatorship and started the Carnation Revolution.
Really an amazing musician so have a listen to “Canção de Embalar” too:
Big Mimma is a Mediterranean Rock group from Sicily. Listen to their track “Pani Mottu”:
Moseqar is a producer and DJ from Al Qahirah, Egypt. Listen to his chillstep piece “Only One”:
Hasna El Bécharia is extraordinary. She is still the only woman in the Maghreb to play gnawi music, a ceremonial beat that has remained an exclusively male preserve since the animist beliefs of the Bilad es-Sudan, (in Arabic, the Land of the Blacks – today’s Guinea, Senegal, Mali, Niger and Chad) encountered the monotheist faith of Islam from across the desert. Her choice has exposed her to a great deal of rejection and sarcasm, but Hasna’s mind and soul are irrevocably bound up with the mystic trance music learnt from her father, a pious man who was himself a maâllem or master of gnawi (the plural of gnawa) syncretism, a black Sufism forged by the descendants of sub-Saharan slaves in White Africa, also called diwan in East Algeria and stambali in Tunisia. Here is her song “Hakmet Lakdar”
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Googoosh, born in 1951, is a female pop singer from Tehran, also known as Faegheh Atashin. Listen to her nice piece “Baghe Bi Bargi”:
Thanks for this nice suggestion, Orientaldrumming!
The Zig Zag Orchestra is a world and pop music group from Kosovo. Listen to their great piece “I Dehur Jam”:
BRANDNEW SONG! A song I don’t know more about, but it’s multi-cultural. Seems to be from Fore from Mali. But it’s awesome good african music. The ‘Ce n’est pas bon’ in the background is by Amadou & Mariam. About political and society problems. “C’est pas Bon”, in english: that’s not good:
Dobet Gnahoré, born in 1982, is a singer from Côte d’Ivoire. Since 1999, she’s living in Marseille, France due to civil wars in her homeland. Listen to her nice song “Abiani”:
The indie band Eric & Magill from Kenya and the US released a new album called “Two Travelers”. Really an interesting and relaxed indie album. Like it!
Listen to “They make it so good” too!
Cem Karaca, born in 1945 was a turkish rock singer who died in 2004. After an military coup in 1980, many intellectuals were arested, and so he left for an exile in Germany. My friend Emre is a big fan of him – for right! Listen to his amazing song “Oh Be”, including the “most turkish” instrument, the saz, or baglama. It’s a bout his wish to come back to his homeland Turkey. But he wasn’t allowed…
Listen to Mein Deutscher Freund
World Music - the Music Journey 