A tribute to Maurice El Medioni, the last of the Algerian-born Jewish musical stars: Maurice El Medioni, Algerian-born Jewish musician and mentor to young performers, died on 25 March 2024, leaving a legacy of musical production on three continents – Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Maurice El Medioni lived his early life in Oran, …
Changing the lyrics to hit songs might be increasingly noticeable – but it’s a longstanding musical practice: Electronic dance music band The Prodigy are the latest act to attract attention for changing the lyrics to a longstanding hit in recent live shows. They now repeat the opening line “change my pitch up” in place of …
Frozen’s 10th anniversary: how the musical reignited our love for sing-along cinema: Disney Media Ten years ago a musical phenomenon hit our screens, one which captured the hearts of a large and diverse audience and whose songs have already become classics. The 2013 film Frozen is now widely recognised as one of the most memorable …
Nkoli: The Vogue Opera – the making of a musical about a queer liberation activist in South Africa: The history of South Africa’s struggle against apartheid (separatist white minority rule) is taught only through the broadest of brushstrokes in the country’s schools. So might music be a way to bring the story of one anti-apartheid …
How music heals us, even when it’s sad – by a neuroscientist leading a new study of musical therapy: Sangoiri/Shutterstock When I hear Shania Twain’s You’re Still The One, it takes me back to when I was 15, playing on my Dad’s PC. I was tidying up the mess after he had tried to [take …
Kora: in search of the origins of west Africa’s famed stringed musical instrument: “How come we’ve never heard of this beautiful instrument until now?” This was posted by a first-year college student to my world music course discussion board recently. He voiced what many of his peers probably felt after watching the extraordinary documentary Ballaké …
Disney films have always been musical – even in the silent era: Disney is celebrating its 100th birthday this month. It’s hard to imagine the studio enjoying such longevity without its strong musical legacy. Songs from recent Disney films, such as We Don’t Talk About Bruno from Encanto (2021) or Let It Go from Frozen …
Rock Follies review: powerful new musical brings 1970s feminist TV sensation to the stage: Rock Follies was a groundbreaking television series about an all-female rock band that originally aired for two seasons in 1976 and 1977. It wove fantastical, trippy and campy rock-musical numbers together with the often less glamorous realities of show business. The …
Schmigadoon!: darker musical influences make season two a more complex, but satisfying watch: Warning: the following article contains spoilers for Schmigadoon! series one and two. Apple TV’s musical comedy Schmigadoon! has just aired its second series. It follows couple Josh (Keegan-Michael Key) and Melissa (Cecily Strong) in their adventures in the magical town of Schmigadoon, …
Happy songs: these are the musical elements that make us feel good: The music we listen to can have a profound impact on our mood. Merla/Shutterstock Music has a unique power to affect the way people feel and many people use music to enhance or change their mood, channel emotions and for psychological support. The …
De La Soul’s Trugoy The Dove was a true musical disruptor who broke the hip-hop mould: David Jude Jolicoeur (better known as Trugoy The Dove and Plug 2), who has died at the age of 54, was a music disruptor who changed the sound and look of rap and hip-hop in the late 80s and …
Christine McVie – the talented anchoring force of the musical giant Fleetwood Mac: When the “classic” line-up of Fleetwood Mac that had produced the wildly successful album Rumours reunited on stage for the first time in over a decade to play President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993, it marked the triumph of a particular kind …
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, singer who inspired Elvis: one of many women sidelined from musical history: James J Kriegsmann/WIkipedia, CC BY-SA Elvis Presley is the perfect subject matter for Australian film director Baz Luhrmann. Not just because the opulence of Presley’s showmanship and Lurhmann’s trademark visual style are perfect bedfellows, but because the “Presleyverse” itself is …
Legendary Mike Mzileni captured South Africa’s history and also its musical stars: Mike Mzileni at home in 2018. Screenshot City Press/News24 Video Sophie Mgcina, composer, educationist and performer, gazes out from the page, uncompromising and direct. She’s just swung around from the piano to face us; behind her, a score sits open. It’s 1993, and …
A cool Cape Town image: Musical performers in Cape Town Markets Image by Arthur Chapman Young Musical performers and dancers at the Greenmarket Square Markets, Cape Town, South Africa. Photographed on 16 June 2012. ©© Audrey Bendus with permission. Image automatically curated and published by www.free-mail.co.za – CLICK HERE to learn more about WP Robot …
Meat Loaf – a complicated musical giant: Sheri Lynn Behr/Alamy Ridiculed by critics and custodians of cool, Meat Loaf’s bombastic performances were loved by millions, providing the soundtrack to the lives of various generations. The man born Marvin Lee Aday was something of an unreliable narrator. He offered contradictory accounts in interviews of such basic …
Zakes Mda on his latest novel, set in Lesotho’s musical gang wars: A masked herdsman in Lesotho. Edwin Remsberg/The Image Bank via Getty Images Zakes Mda is one of South Africa’s best-loved novelists – though he is also a celebrated playwright, children’s book author and an increasingly visible painter. His latest novel, Wayfarers’ Hymns, is …
A nice Cape Town image: Musical performers in Cape Town Markets Image by Arthur Chapman Young Musical performers and dancers at the Greenmarket Square Markets, Cape Town, South Africa. Photographed on 16 June 2012. Image automatically curated and published by www.free-mail.co.za – CLICK HERE to learn more about WP Robot for WordPress. Have you tried: …