Rapping for Social Justice

As Iranians continue to brave a deadly crackdown to protest against their regime, Iranian exiles living abroad have joined the movement in any way they can. For French-Iranian opera singer and composer Ariana Vafadari, that’s meant rallying support through music.

The album "Silent Tears" features poems set to music by women who survived the Holocaust. It is the first Yiddish-language album that has topped the European World Music charts.

“To be awarded the Polar Music Prize is humbling,” Kidjo says in the release. “I have no words to say how important this is for me. It comes with a sense of responsibility that is bestowed upon me as an artist to continue to do great work.

The Nigerian hip hop duo P-Square tell us how important it is to be vocal when it comes to politics in the country. The duo speak about how music plays a role in empowering the youth.

British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has threatened to quit music should he lose his ongoing copyright trial. The 32-year-old is being sued by the heirs of Ed Townsend, who co-wrote the 1973 hit 'Let’s Get It On' with Marvin Gaye. Sheeran is accused of copying the song’s harmonic progressions as well as both rhythmic and melodic elements.

For more than 75 years, the "Maîtrise de Radio France" choir has been training schoolchildren to become classical singers. Andrélia is one of them. She has undergone demanding training, with music theory, piano and singing lessons. With the other choir members, the teenager is preparing a special concert alongside the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra. Based in Paris, the choir now has a branch in Bondy, in the north-eastern suburbs of the French capital.

Johnny Kitagawa, who died in 2019 at the age of 87, was the architect of Japan's vastly successful boyband empire and his company, Johnny and Associates, still dominates the lucrative J-pop market. Yet allegations of child abuse and sexual exploitation surrounded the music mogul for decades. Yuka Royer speaks to former idol Kauan Okamato, who says he was sexually abused as a teen.

Marking Johann Sebastian Bach's arrival in Leipzig 300 years ago, this year's festival features conductor Jörg Widmann and pianist Lang Lang — as well as a message from outer space.

Albi X, a German rapper with Congolese roots, was born with albinism, a rare condition that affects the production of melanin. He uses his powerful Afro-trap beats to fight stigma.

The Vesta Orchestra and Opera Foundation are trying to raise the profile of classical music — and the prospects for the musicians who make it — in Nigeria.

Paulo Furtado aka "The Legendary Tigerman" has been making bluesy music for over two decades. He's gearing up to release in September an album he composed during a three-month residency in Paris back in 2019, and for which he features a number of female guests. Most notable is Asia Argento, with whom he duets on the single "Good Girl".

Hundreds of people in Ukraine have been sexually assaulted by Russian soldiers since the invasion of their country began. Now, for the first time, four alleged perpetrators are in the sights of Germany's justice system.