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How to Be a World Music Star: Buena Vista, Bhundu Boys and Beyond

Documentary telling the story of the British world music revolution from the early 1980s to the present, featuring the Bhundu Boys, Mariza, Youssou N'Dour and many others.

Documentary telling the story of the British world music revolution from the early 1980s to the present. Through a variety of careers, starting with Zimbabwe's Bhundu Boys and culminating with Portugal's Mariza in the new millennium, the film explores what it takes to bring music from 'out there' over here.

Through the testimony of artists from all around the world alongside key British producers and broadcasters including Andy Kershaw, Joe Boyd and Nick Gold, it tracks the evolving story of what British audiences have wanted from what has come to be called 'world music' and what a range of artists, including Les Mystere des Voix Bulgares, Salif Keita, Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Buena Vista Social Club and Tinariwen, have made of us.

At the dawn of the 80s, in an age of spandex and synthesizers, many music fans were becoming bored with the pop charts and hungered for a new music that could excite them once again. Where music from the rest of the world had once been regarded as mere exotica, there was increasingly a sense that world music could be the future of pop music.

The documentary traces the hopes and ambitions of a new music industry as cultures came together for the first time, producing much brilliant music and a degree of human comedy.

From the tribal warriors of Mali who fought in rebellions with guitars and guns strapped to their shoulders, all-female choirs from the other side of the Iron Curtain playing to rock fans, a band from Zimbabwe who supported Madonna to a group of old men from Cuba who took the world by storm with their music from another era, these tales from musicians from out there arriving over here trace an evolving market that has both offered a blueprint for the future and an escape into a romantic past.

1 hour, 30 minutes

Last on

Sat 16 Jun 2018 01:30

Music Played

  • Manu Dibango

    Soul Makossa

  • Wham!

    Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go

  • Echo & the Bunnymen

    All My Colours Zimbo

  • The Drummers of Burundi

    Makebuko

  • Manu Dibango

    Soul Makossa

  • Bhundu Boys

    Viva Chinhoyi

  • Bhundu Boys

    Hupenyu Hwangu

  • Bhundu Boys

    Kuroja Chete

  • Bhundu Boys

    Chekudya Chose

  • Bhundu Boys

    Chemedzevana

  • Bhundu Boys

    Jit Jive

  • Manu Dibango

    Soul Makossa

  • Madonna

    Material Girl

  • King Sunny Ad茅

    Ase

  • Nadka Karadjova

    A Lambkin Has Commenced Bleating

  • Bauhaus

    Bela Lugosi's Dead

  • Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir

    Pilentze Pee

  • Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir

    Svatba

    • THE WEDDING.
  • Cocteau Twins

    Ivo

  • Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir

    Lazarski Bouenets

  • Trio Bulgarka

    Tregnale Malika Moma

  • Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir

    Poleganala E Todora

  • Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir

    Strati Na Angelaki

  • Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir

    Erghen Diado

  • The Smiths

    Ask

  • Najma Akhtar

    Dil Laga Ya Tha

  • Bob Marley & The Wailers

    Exodus

  • Rail Band

    Foliba

  • Youssou Ndour

    Immigr茅s/Bitim Rew

  • Salif Keita

    Soro

  • Salif Keita

    Sina

    • SOUMBOUYA.
  • Mory Kant茅

    Ye Ke Ye Ke

  • Paul Simon & Ladysmith Black Mambazo

    Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes

  • Baaba Maal

    Lam Tooro

  • Baaba Maal

    Daande Le帽ol

    • THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE.
  • Baaba Maal

    Gorel

  • Baaba Maal

    Sidiki

  • Baaba Maal

    African Woman

  • Youssou N'dour, Neneh Cherry

    7 Seconds

  • Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

    Allah Hoo Allah Hoo

  • Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

    Ni Main Jana Jogi De Naal

  • Buena Vista Social Club

    Candela (Live)

大象传媒 Four: World Music Season

大象传媒 Four: World Music Season

This programme聽is part of 大象传媒 Four's World Music Season.

From afrobeat to zydeco via juju, panpipes and Uzbek folk, this is the story of the music that broadened our horizons.聽

  • 聽- Friday 23rd August, 10.30pm
  • - Sunday 25th August, 9pm
  • - Friday 30th August, 9pm

Credits

Role Contributor
Executive Producer Mark Cooper
Producer Ellen Hobson
Director Ellen Hobson

Broadcasts

A-Z of World Music

Find out more about the companion programme featuring performances from over 40 acts.