Elderly woman finds solace in music amidst destruction
By AFP
15 August 2020 |
1:00 pm
A day after a deadly blast ripped through Beirut, a video of 78-years-old May Melki went viral, showing her playing the piano after returning to her damaged home. AFP met her and asked what inspired her to play music amidst destruction.
In this article
Related
17 May 2022
Brooklyn-based duo Bottler (aka producers Pat Butler and Phil Shore) have created a unique soundscape blending a myriad of styles including pop, indie rock, trip-hop and club music. In 2020, they released a double bill of EPs, "Clementine" and "Grow". Now the childhood friends are back with their debut album "Journey Work", in which they’re on a mission to explore and express the full spectrum of human experience. They joined us on Encore! to tell us more.
19 Jun 2022
Ukrainian opera singer Sergiy Anastasyev, who had to flee the war in his home country, now lives in Bonn, Germany. He talked to DW about how singing has become therapy for him, and how he longs to return to Ukraine.
30 Jun 2022
The 'Because of You' hitmaker's marital split from Brandon Blackstock - who she first filed for divorce from in June 2020, after seven years of marriage - has impacted Kelly's song choices as she only wants to release material she is "comfortable" with.
6 Jul 2022
After two years of cancelled events due to the pandemic, it was severe storms that disrupted the opening of one of France's biggest music festivals. The gates of Les Eurockéennes had only been open for 20 minutes when heavy rain and strong gusts of wind brought down multiple trees across the Belfort event, damaged some of the equipment on site and left several of the early festivalgoers injured.
1 Aug 2022
A section of Beirut's massive grain silos that withstood the 2020 explosion have collapsed following a weekslong fire. Its unclear if there have been any injuries.
5 Aug 2022
DJ Aus J is shaking up Nigeria's music scene. August Akpeji Ayodele became blind when he was a baby. But the musician and DJ, also known as 'Aus J' has made a name for the positive vibes of his music.
13 Aug 2022
Two years after the massive port blast in Beirut that killed more than 200 people, the recent collapse of a landmark grain silo has revived traumatic memories and further dimmed hopes for accountability.
16 Aug 2022
For many, "Wacken" is more than just a music festival — it's holy ground. Fans from around the world travel to the small town in northern Germany for the Heavy Metal meet — one of the world's largest.
19 Aug 2022
Mona Magdy, a popular Sudanese singer, has not stopped performing in concerts despite undergoing treatment for stage 2 breast cancer.
6 Sep 2022
This year, France is celebrating Portuguese culture. Fado music is often upheld as the essence of Lisbon, a mainstay in a rapidly changing capital city. In this special show from Portugal, Eve Jackson meets the duo reinventing the music that embodies the nation's soul. Fado Bicha are Portugal's queer anti-racist feminist musicians and they're challenging the traditional, conservative, ritualistic fado.
17 Sep 2022
Her career has seen her smash glass ceilings in classical music, first at the prestigious Bayreuth Festival and now at Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Oksana Lyniv is the first female director of an Italian opera house. The Ukrainian conductor spoke to FRANCE 24's Olivia Salazar-Winspear about her many achievements and how the war in Ukraine makes her public role even more important.
9 Oct 2022
France is bustling with classical music events this autumn. Paris's Opéra Bastille is performing Mozart's timeless "The Magic Flute", with Franco-Italian conductor Antonello Manacorda at its helm. He stopped by the FRANCE 24 studios to tell us more about how the themes of this Singspiel still apply in 2022.
Latest
1 day ago
Angelina Jolie is collaborating with French luxury house Chloé to unveil hew new capsule collection for sustainable fashion label Atelier Jolie.
1 day ago
The spiritual leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics has suffered several health issues in the last year, but the pontiff is recovering well from his operation, the Vatican has said.
1 day ago
France, Portugal and Spain, as well as the US, are joining the fight to put out hundreds of active wildfires in Canada. Heavy smoke from wildfires has traveled thousands of miles and shrouded many US cityscapes.
1 day ago
Northeastern states in the US are experiencing historically high levels of air pollution due to wildfires in Canada. Experts say these types of situations will only increase in the future as the climate warms.
1 day ago
English midfielder Jude Bellingham is set to leave Borussia Dortmund for Real Madrid, the Bundesliga club have confirmed. The teenager has scored 24 goals in 132 appearances for BVB.
1 day ago
The former US vice president is launching a bid for the White House. This is no normal set of circumstances for Mike Pence, who was loyal to former US President Donald Trump for years, only parting ways with him after the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol. Pence is polling in the single digits and along with former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is entering a growing field of Republican candidates challenging Donald Trump, who is the current frontrunner by far.