Since the CD was published on 3 March 2010, broadcasters in countries such as Swittzerland, Germany and the Czech Republic have featured special programmes about it, while other national radio stations, for instance in the Scandinavian countries, have featured live interviews with the imprisoned singer Lapiro de Mbanga from Cameroon and the exiled singer Tiken Jah Fakoly from Ivory Coast.

Interviewed by Jungeltelegrafen, the popular world music programme of NRK, the National Broadcasting Corporation in Norway, Tiken Jah Fakoly strongly supported his imprisoned colleague Lapiro de Mbanga:

“Lapiro did what artists must do in our societies, where people cannot speak freely. He fights for democracy and they should release him,” Tiken Jah Fakoly said. He added that he found ‘Listen to the banned’ an excellent idea:

“Normally people get trophies for selling most records, but this CD highlights artists, who fight for justice and that’s a good idea,” said the Freemuse Award Winner 2008.

His controversial call on corrupt political leaders to ‘Leave power’ is one of the songs featured on the CD and in terms of the message of the lyrics, it shares many similarities with the song 'Constipated Constitution' which led to the imprisonment of Lapiro de Mbanga in Cameroon.

Musicians inprisoned, tortured, exiled
Lapiro de Mbanga is not the only artist featured on the CD, who has experienced imprisonment. So has Ferhat Tunc and the late Uighur singer, Kurash Sultan, who was imprisoned and tortured by Chinese authorities and after his escape found a new home in Sweden and a very fruitful musical collaboration with Ale Möller.

Several of the artists featured on the CD have collaborated with Freemuse for many years and their stories are told on freemuse.org. They include Marcel Khalife, who spent time in a court room in Beirut charged with blasphemy, Chiwoniso, who was harassed by police in Zimbabwe and Mahsa Vahdat, the Iranian singer, who has performed at Music Freedom Day and at Freemuse related festivals several times.

‘Listen to the banned’ includes a booklet portraying some of the world’s most renowned artists facing censorship. Their stories are often painful, but they are also the stories of remarkable artists, who will not give in. Artists who believe they can make a difference.

The CD is published by Norway’s most successful music label, Grappa Records, and distributed internationally.

Where to buy the CD
‘Listen to the banned’ is distributed by different companies in Europe. For further information contact:

Interviews
Listen or watch exclusive video and audio interviews about music and censorship with some of the artists here