Malian duo Amadou & Mariam are featured in the first installment of a video interview series from difrent.org, a new website dedicated to promoting music and culture as a means for social change. They talk with the site's founder, musician/activist Stephan Said, about the roots of social change in Malian music and how the universal language of music can break down barriers all over the world. "We have always sung for social change," says Amadou. Watch the interview here.
Malian duo Amadou & Mariam are featured in the first installment of a video interview series from difrent.org, a new website dedicated to promoting music and culture as a means for social change. The site was just launched by Iraqi-American musician/activist Stephan Said, an arts and culture organizer for the Occupy movement.
In the interview, Amadou & Mariam talk with Said about the roots of social change in Malian music and how the universal language of music can break down barriers all over the world. The couple discusses songs from their own repertoire, like “La Paix” (“Peace,” from their album Dimanche à Bamako) and “Unissons Nous” ("Let’s Unite," from Welcome to Mali), in which they have aimed to do so, encouraging artists everywhere to raise their voices for change.
"We have always sung for social change," says Amadou. "Solidarity between all peoples, liberty too, and justice, these have always been themes to our songs."
Watch the interview below. For more information, go to difrent.org.
To pick up a copy of Dimanche à Bamako and Welcome to Mali in the United States, head to the Nonesuch Store, where CD and vinyl orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the album at checkout.
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