Music

Historical attempts to curb Romanian culture have only aided creativity, says SOPHIA DEBOICK. José Ferrer in crisis. Picture: Submitted – Credit: Archant For a short while, Romania looked like it might become a beacon of creative freedom in the communist east. When Ceausescu became general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party in 1965 he adopted […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK on Lucky Dube, the South African reggae star who made his life a mission, until it was cut tragically short It was just one murder among thousands. The shooting of a 43-year-old man in a botched carjacking in a Johannesburg suburb in October 2007 was barely worthy of note given that 18,487 killings […]

The Siberian city might appear a musical backwater, but it doesn’t sound like one, says SOPHIA DEBOICK The winter temperature plummets to 20 below zero in Novosibirsk and as the capital of Siberia it is a place easily associated with the inhumanities of Tsarist-era penal colonies and the Soviet Gulag. In fact Novosibirsk – the […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK on the French resort that came to embody the very essence of glamour and hedonism. Juan-les-Pins had two golden eras, one in the carefree inter-war years and one in the 1960s, both decades of revolution in fashion, cinema and music and of beautiful people. Situated between Cannes and Nice, the Cap d’Antibes peninsula […]

The Floridian city has a prolific record of producing boisterous, exuberant music. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports. Miami is the party city without rival, and its music has rarely deviated from pure aural sunshine. But for all idyllic associations, its geographical location has meant it has faced directly into geo-political strife. In the 15 years after the […]

Once a stop-off on the hippy trail, the Nepalese capital has a distinct musical culture – complete with its own version of hip hop – which must carefully navigate the country’s sensitive politics. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports Kathmandu is the gateway to Everest and to dreams. Here, the final outpost of urbanity before the 13,000 feet […]

Many of its greatest musical talents may have left the city behind, but the success they enjoyed is built on their experiences there, says SOPHIA DEBOICK. Although it began at the periphery, as a Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall in 122 AD, Newcastle spent many subsequent centuries at the centre of the world. It was […]

SOPHIE DEBOICK on how a city’s legacy of musical manufacturing and industry has been repurposed in the pop era A city of lakes and mountains at the foot of the Alps and 20 miles from the shores of Lake Garda, Brescia has an affinity with the finer things in life. The plains around the city […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK on a city where music has been shaped by a traumatic history, but often transcends it. Derry has been a byword for the Troubles, its disputed name a symbol of the divide between nationalists and unionists. After a history of sectarian tension dating back to the 17th century, the Troubles began in earnest […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK on two cities divided by a river but united by style and sounds. Kinshasa – capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a former Belgian colony – faces Brazzaville – capital of the much smaller, previously French-held, Republic of the Congo – just across the river for which both countries are named. […]

Elvis Presley did much to promote Hawaii’s musical culture, but its native sons have far more to offer themselves. SOPHIE DEBOICK reports. Honolulu is more than 2,000 miles from the West Coast of the US, but is a place deeply embedded in American mythology. As a tourist playground focussed on Waikiki – once the home […]

The Vengaboys are perhaps Rotterdam’s best known recent export, but the city also has its very own curious genre, SOPHIA DEBOICK reports Exterior view of the Rotterdam Ahoy, the official venue for the planned Eurovision Song Contest 2020 which has been cancelled due to coronavirus. (Photo by Robin Utrecht/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) – Credit: […]

The music of the Big Apple is every bit as brash, bold and brilliant as the city itself, says Sophia Deboick. The musical soul of New York is the musical soul of America. The vagaries of 20th century history have rarely dented the confident, even arrogant, spirit of the music from and about the city, […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK explores the musical heritage of the Japanese capital through two of its most enchanting talents. Tokyo – a kaleidoscope of neon and skyscrapers – was a megacity even in the 18th century, when the population of the city then known as Edo topped one million, 50 years before London reached that milestone. With […]

From the Hippodrome to the Pavilion to the Corn Exchange, Brighton’s love for music is deep-rooted in the city’s history. Brighton was a byword for hedonism long before big beat became the city’s biggest export. It was the sea that made it so, sea bathing being all the rage among the 18th century elite and […]

The city renowned as Israel’s 24-hour capital has produced music fit for its reputation, says SOPHIA DEBOICK In few places has music been so important in defining a nation as in Israel. As early as the late 19th century, well before the state’s foundation in 1948, music was seen as a way to promote unity […]

A stunning musical heritage is one of the things that keeps this disparate nation together – even through the hard times. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports ‘Music is our cotton, our gold and our diamonds,’ says Grammy-winning Malian musician Toumani Diabaté, a key ambassador for the music of his homeland. Landlocked and half desert, Mali boasts a […]

How Italians are using their shared musical heritage to get through a national crisis. Medical staff from Rome’s Forlanini Hospital step out with protective masks to join a flash mob performance of “Volare”. Picture: Getty Images – Credit: Corbis via Getty Images Across Italy, music has been connecting people as 60 million have been confined […]

The Icelandic capital has had a cultural impact out of all proportion with its size, says SOPHIA DEBOICK. Iceland’s iconic natural features belie the new dance craze taking the capital by storm. PHOTO: C Hutchinson – Credit: Archant Rarely has the world needed a silly dance craze more, and Iceland – a place of deep […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK reports on the troubled yet creative Mexican city. Tijuana is a city in crisis. Home to one of the world’s busiest border crossings, it has become a flashpoint in Trump’s border wall war. Its international bridge is a principal point of entry to the US and in this city Mexicans running from the […]

The Polish capital is freighted with a traumatic past but musically that has never held it back, says Sophia Deboick In the last century, Warsaw became a byword of bleakness and destruction. A city completely levelled by the Nazis after the failed Warsaw Uprising of the summer of 1944, in its communist era it was […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK on a genre which tells the story of a city – and a nation – through the good times and the bad. “Without the streets or dusks of Buenos Aires, a tango cannot be written.” This was how Jorge Luis Borges, Buenos Aries’ – and Argentina’s – most famous poet summed up the […]

Once a byword for glamour and exuberance, the Chinese city was effectively silenced for much of the 20th century. But now it is becoming a centre for music publishing and distribution, says Sophia Deboick. The financial district of Pudong in Shanghai. Photo: Getty Images – Credit: AFP via Getty Images Few places have been subject […]

The French town may not have produced much of its own musical heritage, yet it boasts one of the greatest venues in the world. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports. The atmosphere of a venue can make the difference between a so-so musical experience and one that speaks to the soul. There are no more affecting venues than […]

SOHPIA DEBOICK on how the Yorkshire city, unbound by fashion, political orthodoxy or gender division, spawned a look and sound that lasted. Leeds loomed largest in rock mythology when the Who’s landmark Live at Leeds (1970) was recorded at the unlikely venue of the university’s parquet-floored refectory. The record was seen as marking a return […]

The great city is known for melding different cultural influences, says SOPHIA DEBOICK, but that does not mean it lacks a voice of its own. Mumbai is the entertainment capital of India, the home of a film industry that has become one of the country’s cultural touchstones. Yet Bollywood, like the city itself, is the […]

The city’s legendarily sweaty pub circuit has produced some unforgettable rock sounds, some macho, some political and some sentimental. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports. For thousands for years, Sydney was the dominion of the Eora nation, but it took only 100 years for that to be irrevocably changed and for the rich musical culture of indigenous Australians […]

The German city has had a long association with elegance and fashion, and a more recent one with ground-breaking music. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports. Berlin might have a reputation as the gritty home of Germany’s musical cutting edge, but on the other side of the country is a small, chic city that has produced some of […]