Category Archives: interview

“We should support each other” – an interview with Lena Chamamyan

interview, , , ,

The Syrian singer-songwriter Lena Chamamyan (born to an Armenian family in Damascus, living currently in Paris) is one of the friends guitarist Jan Akkerman invited to play at his anniversary concert at Carré in Amsterdam on September 17. Her participation was one of the highlights of the show, especially the magical dialogue with trumpeter Eric Vloeimans. For News and Noise it was a good opportunity to speak with Lena about her work and the situation in Syria. We met her and Maher Sabra, her manager, in a busy Amsterdam terrace cafe a few days before the concert.

Continue reading “We should support each other” – an interview with Lena Chamamyan →

“Todd Akin could be a person in power and that scares us” – an interview with Bria and Chrissy

interview, , , , ,

This week the Republican Missouri US Senate candidate Todd Akin made comments about rape and abortion that many consider bizarre and offensive. He said that the “female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down” in the case of what he called ‘legitimate rape’, in other words: she won’t get pregnant (Global Post) unless she wants to. Of course he had to apologize, but he also expressed that he still believes that the rapist has to be punished and not the unborn child. Presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants him to abandon his campaign for a Missouri Senate, which Akin is not planning to do (The Guardian). Meanwhile of course, most media will not let go of this story. Popular media in particular erupted and many musical comments can be found on the internet. Like the song Legitimate Rape of the duo Bria and Chrissy. Not long ago they started to use humor and political comments in their songs. I asked them some questions about that by email.

Continue reading “Todd Akin could be a person in power and that scares us” – an interview with Bria and Chrissy →

“In France I found my Tunisian identity”- an interview with Emel Mathlouthi

interview, , , , ,

Antwerp – It looks like Tunisia, where the Arab Spring started, had a successful transition to democracy. Ben Ali has fled the country and the moderate Islamist party Ennahda won the elections in October 2011. They allegedly take Turkey as an example; a secular democracy governed by a party with an Islamic identity. Lately, however, there have been tensions between Islamicists and secular liberals and the economy is still very fragile. In April the government puts a ban on demonstrations which generated new protests (New York Times). This weekend at the Sfinks Festival in Boechout, Belgium, I spoke to the Tunesian singer-songwriter Emel Mathlouthi, currently living in France, about Tunisia and her music.

Continue reading “In France I found my Tunisian identity”- an interview with Emel Mathlouthi →

“Please, boycott the Eurovision Song Contest” – Interview with Cirttan

interview, , ,

Amsterdam – Last year Ell and Nikki from Azerbaijan won the Eurovision Song Contest with their love song Running Scared. Following Eurovision tradition, that the winner gets to host the following festival, this year’s contest will be held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. According to activist and singer-songwriter Cirttan (Azer Mamedov) who is truly running scared and had to flee to the Netherlands for safety reasons, it will have a strong effect on the Azerbaijani authorities if the European countries would boycott this musical event. He says that for sure Azerbaijan will be a very good host. It will want to show the world all of its modernity and prosperity. What we won’t get to see, according to Cirttan, are the poor conditions of the Azerbaijani people. Corruption is a way of life and the people are afraid to stand up for themselves. On Music Freedom Day (March 3, 2012), globally organised by Freemuse, Cirttan played some of his songs at the Soeterijn Café in Amsterdam. On the eve of this event we had a conversation about his hopes and fears for Azerbaijan and his role as an activist.

Continue reading “Please, boycott the Eurovision Song Contest” – Interview with Cirttan →