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Arts features on Weekend Network | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Africa's rich and diverse cultural life has featured prominently on Weekend Network. We have collected together some of our personal favourites here for you to enjoy at you own convenience. Thanks for listening. Amadou and Mariam
In the UK this couple have so many fans and they've just won two major awards. At the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music they won Best African Act, and Best Album awards for "Dimanche a Bamako", their latest release. They avoid letting their music become too Westernised and sing in a mixture of Bambara, Peul, Dogon, Bobo and French. Polly de Blank takes a look at the blind couple from Bamako who are being billed as the biggest world music stars at the moment. Maurice el Medioni
Seventy-seven year old Algerian music legend, Maurice el Medioni was born into a Jewish family in the port city of Oran, where he played Jewish Andalous music at coffee houses and weddings as well as the boogie and rumba in bars and parties. He introduced the piano into early Rai music and became a cabaret star in Paris in the 1960s. Maimouna Jallow met him to find out what keeps him performing. What has happened to 'Hollywood on the Nile'? Egyptian film makers between the 1930's and 1950s could do no wrong, they were highly respected in the industry. Cairo produced quality action films, comedies, dramas and musicals earning the Egyptian film industry the nickname 'Hollywood on the Nile'. Today's film scene however struggles to make such an impact and Eva Dadrian looks into why this is... Hot Water Bottle
Steve Vickers reports on a controversial one-woman play staged recently at Harare's Theatre in the Park. The central character is Maya - played by one of Zimbabwe's top TV soap stars Tinopona Katsande - and the play's subject matter left some male members of the audience feeling a little less than comfortable. It's called Hot Water Bottle, and it explores how a woman may react when she discovers that her husband is cheating on her. TV talent show is a major hit in Ethiopia Reality TV show Pop Idol Ethiopia won the highest ratings on state-run TV, and broke new ground. In the programme's format, four judges give verdicts on the amateur participants ' performances in a brutally honest way; they likened the voices of some contestants to the barking of dogs or donkeys But it's the singing of the contestants which has also won the hearts and minds of viewers. Abdirahman Koronto, reports on the frenzy. Emmanuel Jal
Joseph Warungu met Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier from the south of Sudan who traded his gun for a mic and has established himself as an major international hip hop artist. |
LOCAL LINKS  The make up of Maurice el Medioni19 March, 2006 | News EXTERNAL LINKS The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Profile of Mali's Amadou and Mariam
