music

Video: Colombian rock star Juanes's outburst against Cuban concert censorship

Team Observers — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:17:18 +0200

The Colombian rock star Juanes gave a much anticipated concert for peace in Havana, the Cuban capital, along with 14 other Hispanic artists on September 20. But the concert was nearly cancelled when the singer realised his every move was being spied on by Cuban authorities. A cell-phone video captured Juanes exploding before the Cuban concert producers hours before the show.

In an intensely emotional breakout in the lobby of the hotel where the artists were staying, Juanes and the Spanish singer Miguel Bosé denounced the behaviour of Cuban authorities after discovering several "preventive" measures taken to avoid any controversial incident during the concert (see Observer Ernesto Hernandez Busto's detailed explanation below).

After they repeatedly threatened to cancel the show, the Puerto Rican singer Olga Tañón, and a member of Cuban rap group Los Orisha, intervened to calm them down and convince them to perform.

The video was leaked by an exiled Cuban radio journalist, Leticia del Monte, who filmed the outburst on her iPhone. She later gave her interpretation of events in a TV interview. "Juanes paid a high emotional price for singing in Havana. For the first time, the reality of the oppression and fear that 11 million Cubans experience every year hit him in the face," she said.

Rock band Muse gets back at Italian TV with hillarious prank

Team Observers — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 09:49:32 +0200

The rock group Muse was invited to perform on Italian TV channel Rai 2 to promote its latest album "The Resistance"on Sunday, September 20.

The show's producers "Quelli che il Calcio" forced them to give a playback performance. Furious, the band came up with a hillarious revenge: the band's lead singer, Matthew Bellamy, swapped places with the drummer, and didn't even pretend to stay on beat. The show's female presenter didn't notice a thing, and if the audience did they never said a word. But web users weren't fooled...

Putin's not a fan of punk rock

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:43:44 +0200

With lyrics like "Just don't listen to him; a pig will always find mud to roll in", it's no surprise that punk band PTVP can't be found on Russian TV. But one of our pro-Kremlin Observers tells us it's got nothing to do with politics.

Punk has been more or less entirely removed from the Russian media since Vladimir Putin's first term as president in 2000. Last month we were made aware that some of the music fans had even been added to the government's extremist list and supporters of punk groups were being placed under police surveillance. The lengthy crackdown pushed some groups to go mainstream. But one band which did not succumb to the censorship, is PTVP, or "The Last Tanks in Paris". After AFP published a story about the band on Monday, the Western media fell in love with PTVP, being particularly taken with the idea of calling Putin a pig.

The song in which Putin is referred to as such is called FSB Whore (referring to the Federal Security Service, successor to the KGB). The lyrics are short and to the point:

He always lies to you

Just don't listen to him

Putin-Putin-Putin

A pig will always find mud to roll in

The group also sings in more details about Putin in their take on the Sex Pistols legendary hit God Save the Queen. In the following video they're performing "God Save Putin" at the Tabula Rasa rock club in Moscow, November 2007. Before he starts singing, front man Alexei Nikonov recites a little rhyme about Putin being like a rat.

Worldwide MJ mourners dance off their woes, flash mob style

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:25:15 +0200

Over a month after Michael Jackson disappeared from the mortal world, the King of Pop's sprawling fan base remains devoted to paying him that last and most heartfelt homage. In cities across the globe, unlikely crowds shopping, chatting, tying their shoe laces, are finding themselves faced with a group of choreographed dancers suddenly gyrating to the songster's "Beat It".

It all started in Sweden with street artists Bounce Street Dance Company. After stunning evening shoppers in Stockholm and then wowing YouTubers with their MJ-mourning initiative, they invited dancers around the world to have a go themselves, and from Paris to Hong Kong, the message was heard loud and clear.

“Punk’s not dead, it’s just under police surveillance”

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:10:56 +0200

One of our Observers in Russia, blogger Sean Guillory, has made us aware of an unusual addition to the country's "extremist" list. The authorities have added none other than, punks, to their blacklist.

Sean Guillory, a graduate student at UCLA (California) is writing his dissertation on the Young Communist League in NEP Russia.

Russian authorities just keep stretching and stretching the meaning of extremism. Now the list of extremists will include a variety of youth subcultures extending from skinheads to fans of the iconic Soviet rock band Kino. This is according to a report released by the St. Petersburg Prosecutor's Office which places music fans under police surveillance. From the St. Petersburg Times:

The district's criminal police have identified and included on a register 88 people who attribute themselves to informal entities such as ‘Skinheads,' ‘Aggressive Football Fans,' ‘Punks,' ‘Emos,' ‘Black Metallers,' ‘Fans of Kino,' ‘Alternative Rock Fans,' ‘Anarchists' and others'. Kino was a local 1980s pop-rock band influenced by The Cure and Duran Duran, and is still popular with young people in Russia, though it split up when its front man and sole songwriter Viktor Tsoi died in a car crash in 1991. Plans to erect an official monument to Tsoi are underway in the city.

The report said that apart from the criminal police, "this work" is also conducted by neighbourhood police inspectors and juvenile police departments. Once exposed and registered, the music fans and members of the other "informal entities" are the subject of "preventive work" conducted by the district's police officers, the district's administration officials and educational institution staff to "prevent crimes, including those of an extremist nature.

Wonderful. But far from anything new. A list of ‘ideologically harmful' music was concocted by the Komsomol in the 1980s. It didn't work then and it sure as hell isn't going to work now. One would think the St. Petersburg police have better things to do with their time.

And they say punk is dead. Nah, it's just under police surveillance."

Michael Jackson, Black or White?

Julien — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:41:36 +0200

News of Michael Jackson's death spread like wildfire across Africa and the world. But do Africans still consider the performer - who spent much of his life attempting to whiten his skin - as a black singer they can identify with?

What do you think?

Putin the superhero banished from Ukrainian airwaves

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:47:35 +0200

"Vova", commonly known as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, is a superhero according to Ukrainian band Dress Code, who have released a song devoted to the merits of the James Bond-defying, child-saving, universally adored Russian. Banned in Ukraine, the video is causing quite a stir.

The band behind the controversial homage is certainly profiting from its prohibition. Since the song "And Vova Rules" was taken off air for "political reasons", the illustrated music video has become a huge online hit in both Ukraine and Russia, where, incidentally, it was never shown on TV in the first place. Putin propaganda, a big joke, or a publicity stunt? Whatever it is, the video's already been viewed over 350,000 times.

The illustrations are pretty self-explanatory, but here are a few of the lyrics:

"James Bond isn't fit to shine his shoes. He's a superman, he's adored by the rich, by celebrities, by professors, by village folk and the West. He'll always be there in your time of need. He'll always protect you. If necessary he'll whack bad guys, even in a toilet. Indeed, Vova rules, and, surely, he rules just the way it should be done."

'Playing for Change': buskers worldwide unite for peace

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:04:25 +0200

Can music bring together the entire human race? That's the belief of "Playing For Change", a group of young Americans who travel the world recording buskers, amateur choirs and singers of every nationality, and then put them on the same record.

The project began ten years ago when a group of friends took off on a music-themed road trip. It's since become the subject of two independent music documentaries, one of which was presented at the Tribeca Film Festival. Clips posted on YouTube by the group have been viewed over 10 million times and have spread like wildfire across MySpace and Facebook. Now, thanks to money raised through the popularity of the project, the group has launched the Playing For Change Foundation, set up to build music schools in ghettos and shantytowns around the world.

The musicians featured in the videos were filmed in the street, listening to the tracks recorded before them. None had heard or worked with the other musicians before.

Sinhalese find strength in a "lovers' story" while troops press on with offensive

Team Observers — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:36:09 +0200

Unusual to see a soldier performing a love song on stage at a time of war, but according to one of our Sinhalese Observers, it's a useful moral booster as the Sri Lankan Army battles through what it says are the last days of its bloody offensive against the cornered Tamil Tigers.

The video was broadcast on the Sri Lankan state TV channel, Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, on March 10, 2009. It's footage from a live concert put on by the Seva Vanitha, the welfare service of the "Army Ladies" branch of the Sri Lankan Army.

Unemployed un-kissed 47-year-old to win 'Britain's Got Talent'?

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:41:12 +0200

The latest woman to wow YouTube is quite the opposite of what we're used to. Unlike the majority of video clip fodder, Susan Boyle is highly unattractive and greatly talented. And everyone loves her. A fairytale come true, or a showbiz fake?

The frumpily dressed 47-year-old charity volunteer astonished crowds on UK TV show "Britain's Got Talent", which pulled in an audience of over 10 million on Saturday night when she sang "I Dreamed a Dream" from "Les Miserables". In an interview posted on the programme's website the Scot explained that she had ignored her talent because of "personal circumstances", but that she sung in village competitions and "around the house" (in which she lives alone, save her cat, Pebbles, apparently). The story has become a massive online hit in both the UK and elsewhere, but it all seems a little too contrived. Another question, if she is the real thing, is whether she'll be able to make it without a serious makeover and a change-of-name.