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Chiwoniso and Sergio Mendes

Here are two self-narrated pieces that aired recently on PRI’s The World.
In the first piece we hear from Zimbabwean singer Chiwoniso.  My colleague Marco Werman actually spoke with her. I took the 45 minute raw file and turned it into a 5 1/2 minute Global Hit. The only voice you hear is Chiwoniso and the [...]

Dan Zanes – Nueva York!

One song left on the cutting room floor from this Lisa Mullins/Dan Zanes interview is the tune Pollito Chicken. It’s the fourth track on Dan Zanes new CD “Nueva York!” I don’t know why, but I find the word ‘chicken’ funny . It’s also funny in Spanish ‘pollo.’ I wanted Lisa to ask Dan Zanes if he thought the word [...]

Angelique Kidjo: What’s on her i-pod?

Benin singer Anelique Kidjo is no stranger to our program.  The World’s Marco Werman has caught up with Kidjo many times before. So, to make the interview a bit different we simply wanted ask her, “What on your i-pod?” We got four very different answers. 
You can WATCH and/or HEAR the edited interview here: http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/20571

Indian musician U Shrinivas

Today’s Global Hit feature is a profile on master Indian mandolin player U Shrinivas. The first thing that caught my attention in his bio is how the mandolin was often viewed by musicians in India. You see, for decades the it’s been regulated to popular Indian music, ie: Bollywood soundtracks and the like. So when U Shrinivas picked up the [...]

Singapore – Unofficial Anthem

Apologies for not blogging in a while.  My time passes!!
Anyway the second piece in on our ongoing series of Unofficial anthems aired on Monday. This piece comes to us from freelance reporter Michael Switow. He’s based in Singapore and pitched the story. Thanks Michael for your contribution!
You can listen to his report by clicking here: http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/20050

UNOFFICIAL National Anthem Series

Today, we’re kicking off an occasional series on Unofficial National Anthems. You know, songs like God Bless America or Stars and Stripes. We’re familiar with these tunes and some people may think they’re the US National Anthem, but they’re not. So, the goal of this series is to explore songs like these. In the future [...]

WOMEX 08: The World Music Expo

I registered today for WOMEX — the World Music Expo. It’s a professional trade fair and music festival featuring artists from around the globe. This will be my second trip to WOMEX and once again it will be held in Seville, Spain. The dates are Oct 29 to Nov 2.
I went last year and came back with nine [...]

Hip-hop musician Wang Xiaolei

Chinese hip-hop artist Wang Xiaolei (Wahng Shau-lay — shau rhymes with cow) is featured in a documentary airing tonight on the PBS program Frontline.  The doc is called “Young & Restless in China.”
Frontline is produced at WGBH — just across the street from The World studios.  In fact a couple of World reporters (Marco Werman and Clark [...]

Japanese Country Singer: Toshio Hirano

Kudos to reporter Julie Caine and World editor Margo Melnicove for today’s Global Hit!! It’s a fun profile of Toshio Hirano.  Hirano is a  teacher by day, but at night he sings the songs of country legend Jimmie Rodgers at a club in San Francisco. Julie and Margo worked hard on this story. The result will bring a smile to [...]