Nine wedding singers in Turkey were detained and taken to court for allegedly praising terror organisations during wedding ceremony performances.

Turkish police arrested 7 members of famous band Grup Yorum on charges of assault, resisting and insulting police, and being members of a terrorist group.

The film ‘Tibet in Song’ shows Chinese officials and troops persecuting anyone performing Tibetan folk music. It is directed by musicologist and former Tibetan political prisoner, Ngawang Choephel, and has been described as “a story of beauty, pain, brutality and resilience”. ‘Tibet in Song’ is a tale of cultural exploitation …

Singer and musician Ferhat Tunç from Dersim in the Kurdish part of Turkey speaks about his personal experiences with and understanding of music censorship in Turkey   The Kurdish-Turkish singer Ferhat Tunç was born in 1964 in Turkey’s most eastern region, Dersim. His music has been censored in Turkey, and he …

Norwegian and Sámi singer Mari Boine speaks about her personal experiences with the religious ban of joik singing. The interview was recorded when Mari Boine participated in an event in Norway to mark the annual Music Freedom Day in March 2008.   Mari Boine grew up in an environment where …

Montreal International Jazz Festival cancelled performances of SLĀV, a show featuring a majority white cast singing African-American slave songs.

German-Kurdish singer Singer Hozan Cane was sentenced to six years and three months in jail for "being a member in a terrorist organisation".

(Basque Country)   Musician Fermin Muguruza sings in the Basque language – a language which was forbidden in Spain during Franco’s regime. In this interview Fermin Muguruza speaks about his personal experiences with music censorship in Spain: Its mechanisms, its impact on the artist, and the authorities’ fear of what …

Singer and composer (Turkey)   “In total, if you add all the court cases against me, that will add up to 10 and a half years imprisonment – if they all come to pass. But in spite of all this censorship, we continue to sing, we continue to express our …

Sivan Perwer is arguably the best known Kurdish folk musician, known as ‘The master of piercing and outspoken Middle Eastern songs’. In this interview, recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark, in September 2006, he speaks about ‘the power of music’, the role of the musician in a political context, and about how …