music diplomacy
The crowd of roughly 10,000 fans cheered, and the lights glowed electric blue as a woman in a bright white gown introduced the next act in the giant auditorium here. “Please give it up now for Albania!” she shouted.
Dressed in a nun’s habit, with the crowd on its feet and a tattooed rap-star judge fighting back tears, Sister Cristina belts out a hip-shaking rendition of “No One,” by Alicia Keys, that brings down the house at auditions for Italy’s equivalent of The Voice. Her performance quickly goes viral on the Internet, topping 47 million views on YouTube. Now, gossip magazines have splashed her on their covers in her habit and featured her in articles.
London crowds can get ready to lose themselves at the sight of Eminem, who will be the first rapper to headline at the Wembley Stadium in July. The show will be Marshall Mathers' first London concert in 13 years and he’ll play to a 90,000-capacity stadium.
One minute she's singing "Happy Birthday" to an African king, and the next she's being lambasted by human rights activists for endorsing the continent's "last absolute monarch" — the brutal and despotic Mswati III of Swaziland.
Korean pop, which is radically increasing in global popularity, is setting the tone for the nation's mourning by going absolutely silent. Billboard reported this week that K-pop charts have come to a standstill, as music and TV programming have halted as well. This is unprecedented.
In September 2009, Charles Rivkin, the U.S. ambassador to France, drove to northern Paris for the unveiling of a mural at the Collège Martin Luther King, a middle school in the suburb (or banlieue) of Villier-le-Bel.
Christoph A. Geisler, MIMA Media founder and current MPD candidate speaks about the importance of public diplomacy during geopolitical crises. The “Band Together” program, co-sponsored by the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg and MIMA Music, teaches songwriting, recording, and filmmaking by bringing American facilitators to train Russian musicians and NGO leaders in these skills. St. Petersburg Public Affairs Officer Steven J. Labensky states, “I think more important sometimes than the diplomats speaking to each other, are people speaking to each other.”
In April 2013, I had the opportunity to accompany the Hawaiian slack key guitar ensemble Keola Beamer and Jeff Peterson, with Moanalani Beamer, as tour manager as the group toured Brazil with the U.S. Department of State's American Music Abroad program.