WOMEX (short for Worldwide Music Expo) is an international world music support and development project based in Berlin, whose main event is an exposition held annually in different locations throughout Europe. It integrates a trade fair, showcases, conferences, film screenings, networking sessions, and awards. Musicians and their labels have the possibility to make contacts for international touring and album distribution. [1]
WOMEX was founded in 1994 by Christoph Borkowsky [1] and Ben Mandelson. [2]
WOMEX runs during October every year, and in many cases, during the last October weekend. On-site registration begins on Wednesday, when the opening ceremony is held. Conference attendees can visit the opening event, the conference program, the trade fair, the showcases on the evenings of Thursday, Friday and Saturday and the WOMEX awards on Sunday, the last day of the event. Although WOMEX is primarily intended for professionals and trade visitors within the world music scene, locals and tourists can buy tickets for most of the evening showcases. In 2020, due to COVID-19, WOMEX took place digitally for the very first time. [3]
The locations of WOMEX events are listed below:
The WOMEX Awards were first introduced in 1999. Since then, WOMEX presents its awards to artists or professionals each year for special achievements in the international music industry. Since 2006 WOMEX, in coordination with World Music Charts Europe and, from 2017 on, also with Transglobal World Music Chart, has presented Top 20 labels of the year who had the most chart-topping artist releases. [31] [32] [33] [34]
Dulce José Silva Pontes is a Portuguese songwriter and singer who performs in many musical styles, including pop, folk, and classical music. She is usually defined as a world music artist. Her songs contributed to the 1990s revival of Portuguese urban folk music called fado.
The 2001 FIFA Club World Championship was a football tournament arranged by FIFA to take place in Spain from 28 July to 12 August 2001. It was supposed to be the second edition of the FIFA Club World Championship, after the first edition in 2000, but was cancelled owing to a combination of factors such as the collapse of FIFA's marketing partner ISL. FIFA had originally planned to postpone the tournament until 2003.
Chrisavgi "Kristi" Stassinopoulou is a Greek singer, lyricist, and fiction writer. A native Athenian, she is an internationally known artist of the world music circuit. She is accompanied by composer, arranger, co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Stathis Kalyviotis. Their music combines traditional Greek rhythms and sounds, Byzantine vocal lines, rebetiko music, psychedelic rock, ambience and electronica.
Mariem Hassan was a Sahrawi singer and lyricist from Western Sahara. She usually sang in Hassaniyya, an Arabic dialect spoken mostly in Western Sahara and Mauritania, and occasionally in Spanish. Her use of the Spanish language was related to the former status of Western Sahara as a Spanish colony.
Le Trio Joubran is an oud trio playing traditional Palestinian music. The trio consists of the brothers Samir, Wissam, and Adnan Joubran, originally from the city of Nazareth, now dividing their time between Nazareth, Ramallah and Paris. The Joubran brothers come from a well-known family with a rich artistic heritage. Their mother, Ibtisam Hanna Joubran, sang the Muwashahat while their father, Hatem, is among the most renowned stringed-instrument makers in Palestine and in the Arab world. They are the first oud trio.
World Music Network is a UK-based record label specializing in world music.
The WOMEX Awards also known as World Music Expo Award is an established award for World music. It was first introduced in 1999 to honor the high points of world music on an international level and to acknowledge musical excellence, social importance, commercial success, political impact and lifetime achievement. Every October at the WOMEX event, the award figurine - an ancient mother goddess statue dating back about 6000 years to the Neolithic age - is presented in an award ceremony to a worthy member of the world music community.
The Atlantic Axis high-speed rail line, also called Atlantic Corridor high-speed rail line, is a high-speed railway line that links A Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, Pontevedra and Vigo in Spain. The Atlantic Axis was inaugurated in April 2015.
La Noche Más Larga is the fifth studio album by Spanish singer Concha Buika. The record was released on June 4, 2013 via Warner Music Spain label.
Orkesta Mendoza is a Latin music band from Tucson, Arizona. It was founded by singer and guitarist Sergio Mendoza in 2009. Through the use of Latin percussion, accordion, brass, and steel guitars, the band's style, dubbed "indie mambo", is a combination of ranchera, cumbia, psychedelic and indie rock.
Lula Pena is a Portuguese fado singer, composer and poet from Lisbon, Portugal.
Ramón Eduardo "Guayo" Cedeño was a Honduran musician and producer from La Ceiba, Honduras. He worked with many Garifuna music stars, including Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective and Aurelio Martinez, as well as performing at jazz festivals with his band or in his jazz-rock trio. After a career as a sideman, his first solo album was released in the spring of 2015. His trio performed with Aurelio Martinez at World Music Expo in 2014.
Davide Salvado is a Galician Traditional music and World music singer from Galicia, Spain. He performed at World Music Expo 2014 in a trio with accordionist Santi Cribeiro and Cristian Silva on pipes and percussion.
Damir Imamović is a Bosnian musician, singer, composer and author of the traditional music of Bosnia and Herzegovina, "sevdalinka" or "sevdah". The winner of "The Best Artist of Europe" in 2021 Songlines World Music Awards.
Kleztory is a klezmer and world music ensemble founded in 2000 and based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. While remaining respectful of the rich heritage of klezmer, Kleztory takes the liberty of arranging parts of the traditional repertoire. This gives their music their own personal uniqueness and flavor. Kleztory is influenced by many sources of inspiration including jazz, classical, gypsy, country, folk and blues. The ensemble were awarded both the Opus Prize in 2007 as the best Jazz / World Music album of the year in Québec for Nomade, and the Fürth Klezmer Prize at the 3rd International Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam in 2012.
Malouma Mint El Meidah, also simply Maalouma or Malouma, is a Mauritanian singer, songwriter and politician. Raised in the south-west of the country by parents versed in traditional Mauritanian music, she first performed when she was twelve, soon featuring in solo concerts. Her first song "Habibi Habeytou" harshly criticized the way in which women were treated by their husbands. Though an immediate success, it caused an outcry from the traditional ruling classes. After being forced into marriage while still a teenager, Malouma had to give up singing until 1986. She developed her own style combining traditional music with blues, jazz, and electro. Appearing on television with songs addressing highly controversial topics such as conjugal life, poverty and inequality, she was censored in Mauritania in the early 1990s but began to perform abroad by the end of the decade. After the ban was finally lifted, she relaunched her singing and recording career, gaining popularity, particularly among the younger generation. Her fourth album, Knou (2014), includes lyrics expressing her views on human rights and women's place in society.
Carmen Souza is a Portuguese jazz singer and songwriter of Cape Verdean heritage. She combines traditional forms of Cape Verde with contemporary and traditional jazz.
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