The Global 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

Lucio Dalla: L’anno che verrà / The Coming Year
Lyrics & music: Lucio Dalla
Italy, Italian, 1979

Rokia Traoré: M’Bifo / Thank You
Lyrics & music: Rokia Traoré
Mali, Bambara, 2003

It’s a strange world in which noble birth makes you an outsider, but Rokia Traoré knows how to buck the system. In Mali music is generally the field of griots, the hereditary class of singer-storyteller-genealogist artists who traditionally served the nobility. As the daughter of a diplomat, Traoré also spent much of her youth outside the country she has come to represent so passionately through music. M’Bifo, a love song in the form of a woman’s birthday message to her husband, features her graceful voice and minimal accompaniment.
Thank you my beloved/Whatever happens you are by my side/From the time of my solitude and my fears/I kept a distant memory/Now I am strong from your support/Your presence makes me brighter/I still remember my sad thoughts/When I watched couples/Crumbling under the weight of their union/Men and women for whom/The union becomes a straitjacket/“Loneliness guarantees me a better life,” I told myself…/By your side, I reached a milestone…/Thank you my love, Oh thank you darling/From the time of my solitude, I brought you an empty container/Thou hast filled me with love, thou hast filled me with happiness

BTS (Bangtan Boys): Bomnal / 봄날 / Spring Day
Lyrics & music: Si Hyuk Bang, Yun Ki Min, Ho Weon Kang, Nam Jun Kim, Peter Ibsen, Arlissa Ruppert, Soo Hyun Park
South Korea, Korean, 2017

The best-selling Korean musical act of all time, BTS began as a hip-hop boy band and expanded their musical palette into a wide range of genres, often focusing on the challenges of school-age youth, mental health and fame. Spring Day—which revolves around an endless winter—is a reflection on love, loss and yearning for the past; without mentioning the incident, it was meant to honor the victims a ferry tragedy that riveted their country’s attention in 2013.
I miss you/Saying this makes me miss you even more/I miss you/Even though I’m looking at your photo/Time is so cruel, I hate us/Seeing each other is now more difficult/It’s all winter here, even in August/My heart is running on time, alone on the Snowpiercer/I want to go to the other side of Earth, holding your hand to put an end to this winter/How much should my longings fall like snow/Before the days of spring return, friend?/Like the tiny dust, tiny dust floating in the air…/The morning will come again/Because no darkness or season can last forever

James Taylor: Sweet Baby James
Lyrics & music: James Taylor
U.S., English, 1970

Yungchen Lhamo: Changchup / བྱང་ཆུབ་ / Awakening
Lyrics & music: Yungchen Lhamo
China, Tibetan, 2022

In Tibetan, Yungchen Lhamo’s name means “Goddess of Melody.” To pursue her dream of singing, she crossed the Himalayas, her baby son on her back, to the Indian city that hosts the Dalai Lama and Tibet’s government-in-exile. Like a mountain wind or a force of nature, her voice gracefully and powerfully opens Awakening, title song of her sixth album, demonstrating that beauty exists to direct our attention. In a rare convergence of planetary decay and the Covid-19 pandemic, she suggests, all humanity confronts the same existential challenge, highlighting how connected and interdependent we are. Surely, she conveys, this is the moment for healing, spiritual renewal, transformation, and action. Just as surely, music plays a role in worldwide mobilization.
May humanity understand the interdependent nature of the modern world and all people, and strive to be more compassionate in our lives as we awaken to how brief a time we have on this earth/Awaken to suffering in its many forms, for humans, for animals, or for nature/Global issues may seem insurmountable, but every small act of kindness helps/Awaken to your full potential to be the shining light in the darkness and of help to others

U2: One
Lyrics: Bono/Music: U2
Ireland, English, 1992

One is, for lack of a better word, a singular song, inspired by both unity and disunity. It’s from the album Achtung Baby, which the band recorded in Berlin in October 1990, on the eve of German reunification. But as Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. started work they were feuding over the direction of their music. In the midst of the struggle in the studio, the Edge was experimenting with chord progressions for Mysterious Ways, one of the album’s existing tracks. As he tried out some variations, they all stopped, recognizing that something special was happening, from which a new piece was emerging, with “melody, structure, the whole thing was done in 15 minutes,” Bono recalled. It was One, for which Bono also said the lyrics “just fell from the sky.” Band feud over, a country united. One became a benefit single, with proceeds going toward AIDS research.
Is it getting better/Or do you feel the same?/Will it make it easier on you/Now you got someone to blame?/You say one love, one life/When it’s one need in the night/One love, we get to share it/Leaves you, baby, if you don’t care for it/Did I disappoint you/Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?/You act like you never had love/And you want me to go without/Well, it’s too late tonight/To drag the past out into the light/We’re one, but we’re not the same/We get to carry each other, carry each other/One

Netsanet Mèllèssè: Doju /  ዶጁ / The Dodge Calls
Lyrics & music: Netsanet Mèllèssè
Ethiopia, Amharic, 1992

Mèllèssè was the lead singer of the Walias Band, a prominent jazz-funk force on the Addis Ababa music scene from the 1970s to the early 1990s. In her solo career she has infused her jazz base with western, Indian and pan-African influences. The Dodge Calls, her best-known song, is the story of a woman, a man and a car.
The Dodge calls, the Dodge calls/Kua!… kua!… the Dodge calls/It’s the driver that I like, the handsome one…/The Dodge calls, he gives me a smile, the Dodge calls, he talked to me once/The Dodge calls, the Dodge calls, that loving feeling is starting to kick in/The Dodge calls, the driver is the one I love, the Dodge calls, he’s the one who makes my heart fly/He asked where I live, I said Arat Kilo [a public square in Addis Ababa]/He asked when he should I come, I said morning and evening…/He asked what he could I bring, I said chocolate/He asked what about a drink, I said Arenchata [a chocolate beverage]/Arenchata… Arenchata/ Shua! Shua! … Arenchata/At night in the moonlight, you wearing a woolen coat/Buy chocolate on Churchill Street/Come to me tonight

Nina Simone: Sinnerman
Lyrics & music: Traditional
U.S., English, 1965

Suzanna Owiyo: Kisumu 100
Lyrics & music: Suzanna Owiyo
Kenya, Luo, 2001

In 2001 Owiyo was studying at the Kenya Conservatory of Music in Nairobi when she was invited to compose a song for the centennial of Kisumu—her hometown on Lake Victoria, in the heartland of the Luo people. At the centennial ceremony she sang Kisumu 100 before 60,000 people and the song helped launch her career. She has since performed around the world, notably at the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring Kenyan environmental activist Wangarï Maathai and in 2009 to honor Barack Obama, the first Luo-descended president of the United States. The song that started it all is an homage to her city and region’s traditions, landscape and products.
Take me on a tour of Kisumu/To the home of my mother, to the home of my father/Luo people, you are special, you have built Kisumu…/Let’s go and build Kisumu…/Let’s plant sugarcane and cotton, let’s also farm sugarcane and cotton/So we can harvest well

Paulinho da Viola: Coração Leviano / Frivolous Heart
Lyrics & music: Paulinho da Viola
Brazil, Portuguese, 1968

Paulo César Batista de Faria has lived a life of music. He was born a family of sambistas in Rio de Janeiro and early in his career played in the restaurant owned by the samba legend Cartola. At a recording session a publicist suggested he change his very common name, Paulo César, to Paulinho da Viola (“Paulie Guitar”). He has composed songs for the samba schools that compete in Rio’s annual Carnival procession and he was chosen to sing the Brazilian National Anthem at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016. Coração Leviano, one of his most iconic songs, is a samba of heartbreak.
You plot your mischief in secret/And leave without saying goodbye/You don’t even remember my grief/You hurt me, I lost everything/Oh, that frivolous heart doesn’t care what it did to mine/Oh, that frivolous heart didn’t care what it did to mine/This poor sailor/My loving heart/Faced the storm/In a sea of passion and madness/The fruit of my journey/In search of happiness/Oh, naïve heart, you were wrong/To expect love from a frivolous heart/That will never belong to anyone

Idir, feat. Mila: A Vava Inouva / O Father Inouva
Lyrics: Ben Mohamed/Music: Idir
Algeria, Kabyle, 1991

Idir (stage name of Hamid Cheriet) was a leading figure in the promotion of Kabyle and Berber culture, language and rights in Algeria. A Vava Inouva was the first song he performed on Radio Algeria, in 1973, and it became the title track of his first album two years later in France, where he spent much of his life in exile. The song tells the story of a young girl trying to save her father from danger, against the backdrop of a traditional Kabyle household.
Open the door for me, oh my father/Make your bracelets clink, my daughter R’liva/I am afraid of the ogre in the forest, oh my father/I am afraid, too, oh my daughter/Grandfather is wrapped in his burnous/And warms himself near the fire/His son worries about food supplies/His mind knows no rest/Behind the loom, the daughter-in-law adjusts the fabric’s tension/While grandmother tells the children stories from the old times/The snow is piled up against the door/Porridge cooks in the cauldron/People dream of spring/The moon and stars are hidden

Damir Imamovic: O bosanske gore snježne / Oh, the Snowy Mountaintops
Lyrics & music: Omer Ombašić
Bosnia, Bosnian, 2020

As a boy during the Siege of Sarajevo, Imamović took advantage of confinement and learned to play guitar. He didn’t envision a music career, but after earning a philosophy degree and landing a job in publishing, fate intervened, dressed as an assignment to edit a book on the songs of his grandfather, Zaim Imamović, a leading sevdah artist of the twentieth century. By the time the book was published in 2004, the grandson had fallen in love with the Bosnian folk genre and embraced it. Like fado, blues, tango and rebetiko, sevdah has its own romantic-melancholy tones and melting-pot influences. The younger Imamović has pioneered a form that resonates with new urgency but remains faithful to the old storytelling art. Oh, the Snowy Mountaintops, from the artist’s seventh album, expresses longing for a simpler time.
Oh, the snowy mountain tops/Oh, the longing sevdah songs/Tender are your dawns/Our courtyards and gardens/Glimmering with dew drops/If only I could return/If only for sojourn/To Bosnia and its peaks/That hold my memories and dreams/Sing to quench my soul’s thirst/Let ancient sevdalinka burst/Let beauty shine a light/On Zemka’s face, warm and bright/Sing a song of sevdah by the Drina/Let me hear about the pride of fair Fatima

Farhad Darya: Salaam Afghanistan /  سلام افغانستان / Hello Afghanistan
Lyrics: Yama Nasher Yakmanesh/Music: Farhad Darya
Afghanistan, Dari, 2003

One of the most influential Afghan musicians of his time, Darya’s work has embraced ghazals and folk as well as rock and pop; early in his career many of his songs dealt with the Soviet-Afghan war and its impact on the country. One conspicuous feature of his career has been interruption. He started his band in university, but his studies and music were suspended three times by military draft orders. He went into exile in 1990, producing several albums in Germany and the United States, and his song Beloved Kabul was the first song played on Radio Afghanistan after the Taliban regime fell in 2001. Salaam Afghanistan is the title track of the first album Darya released after his homecoming.
From this ruin/From this distress (wandering while feeling lost)/From this loneliness/And from this prison/To dear Kabul/Hello dear Kabul/Hello to Afghanistan/I am a traveler; I don’t have my home, friends/I am a stranger, from a place near the Kabul river/Oh Qurban!/I want to visit those who are heartbroken/Where can I go so I won’t feel sorrow, friends?/The world accuses me of a crime I did not commit/I am an exhausted orphan, left as target on my killers’ path, friends/The voice of an unfortunate and ruined people/Like an old rubab [Afghan lute], and wounded/But, friends, I am patient

Suvi Teräsniska: Hän Tanssi Kanssa Enkeleiden / She Danced with Angels
Lyrics & music: Jussi Hakulinen
Finland, Finnish, 2013

Atongo Zimba: No Beer in Heaven
Lyrics: Atongo Zimba/Music: Ralph Maria Siegel
Ghana, Frafra/English, 2005

Zimba is a griot and singer from northern Ghana who learned how to build and play a kologo, the Ghanaian lute he has relied on for most of his career. Once an opening act for Fela Kuti, he developed a distinctive voice which he uses—in the words of Ghanaweb.com—for “praising, cajoling, poking fun, criticizing and tender caressing.” No Beer in Heaven is one of his most beloved songs.
Living in the world, my brother/Living in the world, my sister/To live in this world/You’re living in the world, my mama/Some are really going to hate you/Some are really going to love you/Living in the world, my sister/In heaven, there is no beer/That is why we be drinking all of it here/For when we will be going right to heaven/All our friends will be drinking all the beer/Hey, hey, hey

The Shirelles: Will You Love Me Tomorrow
Lyrics: Gerry Goffin/Music: Carole King
U.S., English, 1961

Parno Graszt: Rávágok a zongorára / Hit the Piano
Lyrics & music: Parno Graszt
Hungary, Hungarian, 2002

The band’s name means “white horse” in Romani, linking the color and creature that are symbols of purity and freedom. Formed in 1987, they did the stage circuit for 15 years before releasing their debut album, for which Hit the Piano is the title track. They combine the traditional energy of Roma bands with originality, writing most of their own songs. Said Simon Broughton of Songlines magazine, “The do not use sources of Gipsy music — they are the source itself.”
If I go to the pub/I’ll hit the piano/The organ whispers that/Gézs’s mother ran away/Hey Romale, my dear friend

Anda Union: Jangar
Lyrics & music: Yel Kexi & Uni
China, Mongolian, 2016

Anda Union uses traditional vocals, overtone (throat) singing and Mongolian long song, playing horsehead fiddles, lutes, flutes and drums, to tell stories of herds and heroes, lands and families. The driving forces of their music are nostalgia and a passion to preserve the essence of a nomadic culture threatened by urbanization. Jangar displays the full range of the band’s vocal and instrumental talents.
This epic story relates the legend and the heroic deeds of the invincible and magical Jangar and his twelve warriors. Tales of their exploits were sung by travelling bards called “Jangarchis.” The Oirat people (westernmost of all the Mongols) were so fond of Jangar that they spent whole days and nights listening to a singer’s stories, seated around a fire with tobacco and hot milk-tea, immersed in the glory of their heroes’ adventures.

Mahalia Jackson: Trouble of the World
Lyrics: Mahalia Jackson, Traditional/Music: Traditional
U.S., English, 1959

Jackson was a groundbreaking gospel singer and also an important figure in American race relations. Granddaughter of slaves and born in poverty, she found her purpose in life in church, delivering a divine message in song. In her early career she worked odd jobs between performances at funerals, revivals and political rallies. In 1947 her recording of Move on Up a Little Higher sold two million copies and reached number two on the Billboard chart, both unprecedented achievements for a gospel song. In short order she was appearing on radio, then television and touring Europe. In the 1960s she notably sang at John F. Kennedy’s presidential inauguration and the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I-Have-a-Dream speech. Trouble of the World is a traditional African-American spiritual, evoking a world of emancipation and hope, likened to going to heaven to live with God. Jackson sang Trouble of the World in the 1959 film Imitation of Life.
Soon it will be done/Trouble of the world/Trouble of the world/Trouble of the world/Soon it will be done/Trouble of the world/Going home to live with God/No more weepin’ and wailin’/No more weepin’ and wailin’/No more weepin’ and wailin’/Going home to live my Lord/I want! To see my motha/I want! to see my motha/I want! to see my motha/Going home! to live with god!

Franco, feat. Madilu System: Mario
Lyrics & music: Franco Luambo Makiadi
D.R. Congo, Lingala, 1985

Franco Luambo and Madilu System (the name Franco gave to rumba singer-songwriter Jean de Dieu Makiese) formed one of the permutations of TPOK Jazz, the seminal, shapeshifting band that dominated the Congolese soukous scene from the 1960s to the 1980s. In 1985, it seemed everyone in Africa was singing the name “Mario.” The character at the center of the song was a gigolo living off a successful, older woman. Despite a good education he refused to work. She complained about his abuse, his sexism, his irresponsibility, all while he lived at her expense. At the core of the song was the figure standing for tired, unfortunate women. Many thought there must be an actual model for Mario, assuming it was a Congolese celebrity. Franco just kept quiet, allowing suspicions to create a buzz.
Problems upon problems, I’ve had enough!/Daily fights and bickering, I can’t take it anymore/I don’t want to be left with scars and scratches/Mario, I’m tired, get a job/I told you to stop running after rich women/Mario, this is how she ridicules you all over Kinshasa/You, the guy with five diplomas…/Oh, Mario, look for one woman to marry/You have a tendency to go after older women/Will you ever get enough of them?/Today problems, tomorrow problems, I’m tired/Today fighting, tomorrow quarreling, I hate it/I don’t want you destroying my body with your nails anymore/Mario, I am tired/Mario, I don’t like it

Diego Torres: Color Esperanza / The Color of Hope
Lyrics & music: Cachorro López, Coti Sorokin, Diego Torres
Argentina, Spanish, 2001

An actor as well as a singer-songwriter, Torres is known for his Latin pop/rock style with shades of rhumba, reggae and flamenco. Color Esperanza was a song of hope in the face of hard times, released during Argentina’s economic depression in 2002.
I know what’s in your eyes just by looking/You’re tired of walking and walking/Walking in circles/I know the windows can be opened/Changing the air is up to you/It’ll help you, it’s worth it one more time/Knowing that you can, wanting it to happen/Release your fears, push them aside/Paint your face the color of hope/Tempt the future with our hearts/It’s better to get lost than never to start out…/Even if it’s not easy to try/I know the impossible can be achieved/That sadness will one day go away/And so it will be, life will change, and change again/You’ll feel your soul fly/By singing once more

Ayub Ogada: Kothbiro / The Rain Is Coming
Lyrics & music: Ayub Ogada, Mbarak Achieng
Kenya, Dholuo, 1993

Ogada was a singer-songwriter with a pure voice, backed only by a nyatiti, an east African lyre. Culturally, the nyatiti is said to have a female character: “When you start to play it, you practically get married,” he once said. “She won’t like you to play another instrument. Suit’s me fine, I’m happily married.” At age 30 he decided to try his luck in London, where he began singing on the street and in the underground. After two years there he was invited to play at a music festival in Cornwall, where his big break came: Another band cancelled, and his ten-minute slot turned into an hour. In the audience was Peter Gabriel, who signed him to Real World Records.
Oh mother/If you can hear me/The rain is coming/Bring the cattle home/Hah Hahye hahye aye hahye/Oh these children/What are you doing?/The rain is coming/Bring the cattle home/Hah Hahye hahye aye hahye

Agustín Lara: Maria Bonita
Lyrics & music: Agustín Lara
Mexico, Spanish, 1947

To some it seemed like a match made in heaven: Agustín Lara, the leading Mexican singer-songwriter of the era and María Félix, one of the most beautiful and talented actresses of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Lara wrote at least four songs inspired by the relationship, including Maria Bonita (Pretty Maria), which became and remains one of his most popular works. But there were problems from the start. Aside from public speculation that the marriage was a publicity stunt and questions about how a movie star could fall in love with a man 20 years older, their marriage was stormy—and Maria Bonita itself was apparently composed in an effort to reconcile after an argument. The marriage lasted only three years. The song is timeless.
Remember in Acapulco/Those nights/Pretty Maria, Maria of my soul/Remember on the beach/How you rinsed the stars/With your little hands/Your body, a sea toy, a boat adrift/Waves coming in, tossing the boat/As I watched you/I told you my feelings/My thoughts betrayed me/I spoke beautiful words/The kind that lull hearts/Asking you to love me/To make my dreams come true/The moon was watching us/Amusing itself/And when I saw it hide/I kneeled to kiss you/And to offer you my life/Loves, you’ve had many loves/Pretty Maria, Maria of my soul/But no love is so true, so deep/As the one you planted in me

Milton Nascimento: Nos Bailes da Vida / In the Dances of Life
Lyrics & music: Milton Nascimento, Fernando Brant
Brazil, Portuguese, 1981

Nascimento is one of the most successful Brazilian artists of all time. He started out singing in samba groups, went solo, and by the 1970s he was one of the leading lights of MPB (Música popular brasileira), the post-bossa nova wave that embraced samba, jazz, rock and foreign styles. His 1974 appearance on an album by American jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter put him on the world stage, leading to collaborations with Paul Simon, Sarah Vaughan, Carlos Santana, Cat Stevens and others. Nascimento has won three Latin Grammys and also the 1998 Grammy for Best Global Music Album. Nos Bailes da Vida, one of his signature songs, is about the wonder of a life in music.
It was in the dances of life, or at a bar/In exchange for bread/That many good people began in the profession/Of playing an instrument and singing/Not caring if those who paid wanted to hear them/It was like that/To sing was to seek the path/That leads to the sun/I carry the memories of what I was/To sing, nothing was too far, everything so good/Even the dirt from the road in the truck cab/It was like that/With soaked clothes and a soul full of earth/Every artist has to go where the people are/If that’s how it is, so it will be/Singing I disguise myself and never tire/Of living or singing

Sheila Majid: Sinaran / Light
Lyrics & music: Johan Mohamed Nawawi, Azlan Abu Hassan
Malaysia, Malay, 1989

At age 17, Sheila Majid was discovered singing at a friend’s party and quickly received an offer of a record contract. The daughter of an Oxford scholar and great-great-great granddaughter of the founder of Kuala Lumpur, she strategically decided to finish school before pursuing her career. Patience served her well, and today she is known as the Malaysian Queen of Jazz. Sinaran, her most iconic song, remains part of the soundtrack of Malaysian life; it has been covered by numerous artists and also appeared on the soundtrack of a 2015 feature film of the same name.
I remember in the past/Playing in a beautiful garden/Happiness springs in my heart/Because now we are together/My love is fulfilled/We are free/And you have succeeded/Light… the sun is shining/Penetrating my soul/When I’m with you/Light… even the sun shines/When you come home with me/A bond is forged/My heart is open/I feel it in my soul/Friendship intertwined with love/Oh… it feels strange/When you are not here/Like a memory that arrives/Reaching for the light

Tinariwen: Iswegh Attey / I Drank Some Tea
Lyrics & music: Sanou Ag Ahmed, Kedou Ag Ossad, Liya Ag Ablil
Mali, Tamasheq, 2011

Tinariwen is a Grammy-winning band of Tuareg musicians from the Sahara region of northern Mali, though its members have also been exiles and soldiers who at times carried guns and instruments at the same time. Though their guitar-driven sound is typically called “desert blues,” band members say they had never heard American blues music until they began touring internationally, years after their founding. Their guitar-driven songs have roots in West African sound and traditional styles of the Tuareg and Berber peoples. Iswegh Attey is a song emblematic of their environment that invokes confinement, wilderness, freedom, love, nature and the comfort of hot tea.
This pain is a burden/If only my cell would turn into an open plain/I drank a glass of tea/That scorched my heart first/You told me something and I never answered/But if we meet one day, I will answer/I drank a glass of tea/That scorched my heart first/This woman, who I glimpsed/Without even sitting down or kneeling/I drank a glass of tea/That scorched my heart first/If only this cell could become as vast as a prairie/I’d fly off like a bird/I drank a glass of tea/That scorched my heart first/The lion is intrepid and the frog is vulnerable/But the latter is better at finding the path of water/I drank a glass of tea/That scorched my heart first

Lola Beltrán: Cucurrucucú Paloma / Coo-coo Dove
Lyrics & music: Tomás Mendez
Mexico, Spanish, 1965

Lola Beltrán’s life was cinematic, and not only because she was an actress. She was married to a bullfighter—and she was one of the most acclaimed ranchera singers of all time. She gave concerts for the common folk and for kings, queens and presidents, from Washington to Madrid, from London to Moscow, as well as in her native Mexico. She wasn’t the first to sing Cucurrucucú Paloma, but she performed the version by which all others are measured in the 1965 film that took its name from the song.
They say that every night/He just started crying/They say he never slept/He was no longer able to drink/They swear that heaven itself/Shuddered at hearing his cry/How he suffered for her!/That even in death he called to her/Cucurrucucú, he sang/Ha ha ha ha, he laughed/Ay, ay, ay, ay, he cried/Of mortal passion, he died/They say that a white dove/Very early in the morning goes to him to sing/To the little house alone/With its little doors wide open/They swear that the dove/Is none other than his soul/Still waiting/For his ill-fated beloved to return

Habib Koité, feat. Eric Bibb: L.A.
Lyrics & music: Habib Koité
Mali, Bambara/English, 2014

What is true of Los Angeles is also true of the song Habib Koité dedicated to the city: There’s more than meets the eye. The Malian singer-songwriter favorably measures L.A.’s sun, hills, even livestock, against what his own country offers. But what appears to be envy or even a form of worship is, deep down, humility reflecting generosity. L.A. is an outlier in Koité’s oeuvre, a rare song set outside his country, except that in the land of giants he still finds comfort with his drinking buddies, reflecting the social glue of friends, couples, families and communities so emblematic of home.
I saw the hills of California/They are like those of Bamako, but none can match those of Los Angeles/The stallions of San Diego are the same as those of Ménaka/But those of Los Angeles are the most beautiful/The radiance of the sun in Salinas is like that in Nara/But the sun of Los Angeles is the brightest/In Madison, Madou Biallo has a farm/His cattle are like those of Macina/But the bulls of Los Angeles are the most powerful/Avoid comparing yourself to a race of heroes/Theirs is a special brew you should avoid drinking/Tequila gave me a moment of joy/Tequila in L.A./One shot, two shots, three shots, four shots, five…/Tequila, Tequila make me happy…

Nolwenn Leroy: Tri Martolod / Three Sailors
Lyrics & music: Traditional
France, Breton, 2010

Nolwenn Leroy was classically trained in violin and opera, and at the start of her career she faced a stark choice: In 2002 she was offered the role of Scarlett O’Hara in a French stage adaptation of Gone With the Wind. At the same time she was offered a slot on the reality music show Star Academy. She chose the TV competition and won; within a year, she had a platinum album to her credit. Born in Brittany, Leroy is proud of her Celtic roots and sings in Breton and Irish, as well as in French and English. Tri Martolod is the lead track from her 2010 album Bretonne, The song reflects the lure of the sea for a coastal region that sent many of its daughters and sons to North America.
Three young sailors, tra la la/Three young sailors went traveling/Went traveling/And the wind pushed them, la la la/The wind pushed them to Newfoundland/All the way to Newfoundland/Next to the windmill stone, la la la/Next to the windmill stone, they threw down the anchor/They threw down the anchor/And in that windmill, la la la/And in that windmill was a servant girl/Where have we met before?/We met in Nantes at the market, la la la/In Nantes at the market, we chose a ring

As a performer, Parveen Sultana runs the gamut of Indian genres—from Hindustani classical music and ghazals to devotional works, pop and films. She is the recipient of prestigious awards from the Sangeet Natak Akademi (India’s national academy of music, dance and drama), the film industry, the Indian national government and the Assam state government. Her performance of Hamen Tumse Pyar Kitna in the film Kudrat won her the Filmfare Best Female Playback Award in 1982.
I don’t know how much I love you/All I know is that I cannot live without you/I’ve heard that people bear the pain of separation/I don’t know how they live their lives with such pain/To me each day feels like a year/When someone else looks at you, my heart feels jealous/With great difficulty then, I have to placate my heart

De Gregori isn’t just a singer-songwriter. He is known widely as “Il Principe dei cantautori,” the prince of his class. Buonanotte fiorellino became arguably his best-known song of all time, but it also generated criticism. In the 1970s, cantautori were expected to be political, and for some a love song was a thing of frivolity. Never mind that his influences included Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Fabrizio de André, all of whom managed to balance societal relevance and romance. Fifty years on, De Gregori remains active and Bunoanotte fiorellino is a classic.
Good night, good night my darling/Good night between the telephone and the sky/I thank you for having stunned me/For having sworn to me it’s true/The corn in the fields is ripe/And I need you so much/My blanket is cold, the summer is over/Good night, this night is for you/Good night, good night little flower/Good night between the stars and this room/To dream of you, I need you close to me/And close to me isn’t good enough/A sunbeam has just stopped/Right on my expired ticket/Between your snowflakes and tea leaves/Good night, this night is for you

A big man among puny politicians: In 1980 the New Jersey State Assembly passed a resolution naming Born to Run the “rock theme of our state’s youth.” But the measure failed to pass in the State Senate. Why? Because the song was about a desire to leave New Jersey. So the state legislature is officially recorded as one of the few entities of any kind that never put Born to Run—in the estimation of Billboard “one of the best rock anthems to individual freedom ever created”—on its list of greatest hits. The artist didn’t blink. And in 2017 he established the Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at New Jersey’s Monmouth University, near his hometown of Freehold and on the campus where he played many of his early concerts.
In the day, we sweat it out on the streets/Of a runaway American dream/At night, we ride through mansions of glory/In suicide machines/Sprung from cages out on Highway 9/Chrome wheeled, fuel injected and steppin’ out over the line/Oh, baby this town rips the bones from your back/It’s a death trap, a suicide rap/We gotta get out while we’re young/Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run/Yes, girl, we were/Wendy let me in, I wanna be your friend/I want to guard your dreams and visions/Just wrap your legs ’round these velvet rims/And strap your hands across my engines/Together we could break this trap/We’ll run till we drop, baby we’ll never go back…

Mark Warshawsky was a Ukrainian Yiddish poet and composer. In 1900 he published his first collection of Jewish folk songs with the support of, and a forward by, the writer Sholem Aleichem. In the collection was Oyfen Pripetchick, a lullaby that became known known throughout the Yiddish-speaking world. The song is about a rabbi teaching young students the alphabet, reflecting both a love of learning and the importance of literacy in a cruel world. Given the condition of Jewish life in the Russian Empire (of which Ukraine was a part) and what would happen to many of the people who grew up singing the song when the Nazis came 40 years later, the verses took on added weight—and the song was included on the soundtrack of Steven Spielberg’s film Schindler’s List. Chava Alberstein was born in Poland after World War II into a family of Holocaust survivors. They moved to Israel when she was three years old and she became one of the country’s greatest singer-songwriters. Though she performed mainly in Hebrew she also released several albums of Yiddish songs.
The fire burns in the stove, and the room is warm/And the rebbe teaches little children, teaches the alphabet/Look children, remember dear ones, what we are learning here/Say it, and say it again… Komets-alef-aw…/Learn children, don’t be afraid/Every beginning is hard/Lucky is the one who learns Torah/What more does a person need?/When you become older, you will understand/How many tears lie in the letters, how full they are of crying/When you learn, children, the oppression of exile, totally tormenting/You should create power from the letters

A pioneering singer-songwriter, Milanés had a two-fold education. He studied at the Havana Municipal Conservatory but always said he learned just as much from the street and café musicians in his neighborhood, who exposed him to a greater diversity and richness of sound than his classroom. In addition to Cuban influences he also opened himself to Brazilian and North American sounds, and he ultimately became one of the founders of the nuevo trova movement. A supporter of the Cuban revolution, he was imprisoned twice, resumed his career, and in 2004 moved to Spain. El Breve Espacio en Que No Estás, one of his most beloved and debated works, is a poetic expression of passion, longing and separation.
Moist traces remain/Her smell already fills my solitude/In the bed her silhouette/Sketches a promise/Of filling the brief space/Of her absence/I don’t know if she will be back/No one knows, the day after, what you will do/Breaks all my models/Doesn’t admit to sadness/Doesn’t ask anything in exchange/For what she gives/She can be violent and tender/Doesn’t talk about eternal unions/But gives herself as if/There was but a single day to love/I still have not asked, “Will you stay?”/I fear the answer will be “Never”/I prefer to share her/Rather than empty out my life/She’s not perfect/But comes close to what I simply dreamed of

Attieh, whose stylistic palette includes classical Arabic tarab and Levantine dabke, rose to prominence in the first season of Super Star, the pan-Arab import of Britain’s TV reality competition Pop Idol. She finished second but, as described in the Rough Guide to World Music, “her decision to perform a classic by the late Egyptian diva Umm Kulthum won her wide respect and reminded the Arab world that, for Syria, old is not irrelevant.” Her subsequent hits maintained the connection, “her full deep voice recalling Kulthum’s powerful tones.” Rashresh is a song of unrestrained passion.
You put so many conditions on me, but I cannot control my love for you/If you tear out my eyes/I would give them to you as a gift/Hurt me/Hurt me and bandage the wound/Sprinkle/Sprinkle salt on my wound/By God, if you slaughter my heart/I will feel no pain/We have grown up, my love, at dawn you are my share/With the wound, you are my doctor/And with the darkness, you are my care…/With love, you are the beginning, you are my life and the end/You are my dreams and my goal/And you are the spirit that lives in me/Hurt me/Hurt me and bandage the wound/Sprinkle/Sprinkle salt on my wound/By God, if you slaughter my heart/I will feel no pain

Saida Karoli: Orugambo / The Quest
Lyrics & music: Saida Karoli, Traditional
Tanzania, Haya/Swahili, 2017

Saida Karoli is a Tanzanian singer and songwriter from the Lake Victoria region, known for her mellow vocals and her performance of Ngoma music, a broad term encompassing song and dance surrounding celebrations, competitions, life cycle events and rites of passage. She sings mostly in Swahili and her native Haya. Orugambo is an episodic song that involves a mission to retrieve an important object, a voyage of discovery, love and the mixing of cultures.
I went to the market and found what I was looking for/My father told me to find it and bring it home/I brought it all the way from Dar es Salaam, I am standing proud about what I accomplished/Life and music speak for themselves/Focus on the music and let it carry the words/This is a dance and my friend is teaching me how to do it/I’m still learning but I’m trying my best/Baby, you’ve captured my heart and I’ve captured yours/Don’t abandon me and leave me in pain/I saw many things and met many people, I’m fascinated by foreigners speaking their language/In Dar es Salaam I found myself among people who speak their language and I tried to learn their songs

Wolf Biermann: Ermutigung / Encouragement
Lyrics & music: Wolf Biermann
Germany, German, 1974

A singer-songwriter, poet and former East German dissident, Wolf Biermann is hard to shake. As a teenager he moved from West to East Berlin where, he believed, he could live out his ideals. But within a few years he ran afoul of the authorities, was refused membership in the ruling Socialist party and blacklisted from publishing or performing in public. He continued to write and compose, recording his songs on equipment smuggled in from West Berlin. During his isolation he was visited by western artists, including Joan Baez. Finally, while on a sanctioned tour of West Germany in 1976, the East German government stripped him of his citizenship—prompting protests from East German intellectuals. Biermann wrote Ermutigung to encourage himself and others to keep struggling against authority, and to avoid bitterness. Now pushing 90, he is still active.
My friend, don’t let yourself become hardened in these hard times/Those who are too hard will break/Those who are too pointed will sting and break off immediately/My friend, don’t let yourself become embittered in these bitter times/The rulers will shiver, once you are behind bars/But not because of your suffering/My friend, don’t let yourself be horrified in these times of horror/That’s what they want/That we lay down our arms even before the great struggle/My friend, don’t let yourself be used up, use your time/You can’t go into hiding/You need us/And we need your joy right now/We don’t want to keep quiet in this time of silence/The greenery is sprouting from the branches/We want to show that to everybody/Then they will understand

Tabou Combo: Tu a Volé / You Stole It
Lyrics & music: Daniel Pierre, Roger Eugene, Bazin Yves
Haiti, Haitian Creole/French/English, 2000

They started in 1967, a band of teenagers who called themselves Los Incognitos (The Unknowns). Within a year they changed their name to Tabou Combo, a name they thought better reflected Haitian culture and also because their quick rise made them widely recognized, first in Haiti and later around the world. More than 50 years on, half of the band’s dozen members today are from the original group. Their music starts with a healthy dose of compas, leavened with soukous, funk and soul; their sound and movement rely on vodou ceremonial rara drums and Haiti’s kontradans and quadrilles. Tu a Volé is a high energy song designed to get people dancing. Punctuated by cries of “Get on up” and “Out, out” the reverberating lyrics combine a story of a child who stole his mother’s hat with morals about educating youth not to repeat their mistakes and maintaining forward motion to rise above the struggles of life.
We′re gonna back it back/We’re gonna back it, back-track/To where the music was/Ha!/And we′re funky!/Get on up/Get on up…/Get on up/Yeah!/Go there/Yeah!/Ah, my heart is broken, look at it (out, out)/Because you think you’re smart (out, out)/If I don’t speak dryly, I don’t want to (out, out)/I prefer to observe (out, out)/Look how you take it in (out, out)/Everyone is pointing fingers at you (out, out)/You were so mean (out, out)/You spend the day on a subway…/You stole it (Mom’s cap)/You stole it (Mom’s cap)/You stole it/You stole it…/Don’t let him in/Don’t let him in/Tramp…/Attention, everyone/You’re right, move forward! (forward forward)/Retreat (back, back, back off)/Left, left (left left)/Right, my dear (right, right)/Cry, cry, cry, cry/I didn’t hear…/

Paul Robeson: Ol’ Man River
Lyrics: Oscar Hammerstein II/Music: Jerome Kern
U.S., English, 1936

When it opened in New York in 1927, Show Boat was revolutionary on many scores. It was a radical departure from the light, often trivial, musical fare typical of American theater and was essentially the prototype of the Broadway musical as we know it today. Beyond its place in theatrical development, the show also stood out for its focus on racial prejudice, for having a racially mixed cast and for featuring a racially mixed marriage. Ol’ Man River was one of the show’s central songs, contrasting the hardships of African Americans with the perpetual, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River. It was performed by a Black stevedore named Joe, who serves as the play’s Greek chorus. The role was written for Paul Robeson, but he wasn’t available when the show had its debut. He did perform in the musical’s 1928 London production and, notably, in the 1936 Hollywood film.
Ol’ man river/That ol’ man river/He must know somethin’/But don’t say nuthin’/He jes’ keeps rollin’/He keeps on rollin’ along/He don’t plant taters/He don’t plant cotton/And them that plants ’em/Is soon forgotten/But ol’ man river/He jes keeps rollin’ along/You and me, we sweat and strain/Body all achin’ an’ racked with pain/Tote that barge!/Lift that bale!/Get a little drunk/And you lands in jail/I gets weary/And sick of tryin’/I’m tired of livin’/And scared of dyin’/But ol’ man river/He jes’ keeps rolling’ along

Stromae: Papaoutai / Papa, Where Are You?
Lyrics & music: Paul Van Haver [Stromae]
Belgium, French, 2013

Stromae is Belgian singer-songwriter and rapper known for his songs blending hip hop and electronic music. Raised by his Flemish mother, he barely knew his father, who was visiting family in Rwanda in 1994 and died in the genocide against the country’s Tutsi community. In Papaoutai he portrays a boy wondering what happened to his father and also worrying that without a role model he won’t know how to be a father himself. The song’s title is a mashup of “Dad, where are you?” and a French slang term meaning “You tricked me.” Stromae has won more than 50 music prizes in Europe and Quebec. Until 2023, Papaoutai was the most viewed French-language song on YouTube and the second to reach one billion views.
Tell me where he’s from/Finally I’ll know where I’m going/Mom says that when we really look for something/We always end up finding it/She says that he’s never very far away/That he often leaves for work/Mom says “working is good”/Better than being in bad company/Isn’t that right?/Where is your Dad?/Tell me where is your Dad?/Without even talking to him/He knows what’s wrong/Oh what a Dad/Tell me, where are you hiding?/It must be at least a thousand times that I counted on my fingers/Where are you, Dad where are you?/Where are you?

Mercedes Sosa: Como La Cigarra / Like the Cicada
Lyrics & music: María Elena Walsh
Argentina, Spanish, 1979

Sosa was a seminal singer who became renowned across Latin America and the globe. Rooted in Argentina’s folk music, she ultimately became one of the founders of El nuevo cancionero, a movement, launched in the 1960s, that challenged the hegemony of tango and commercial folk. She won six Latin Grammys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004. Como la Cigarra describes the cicada as a symbol of survival, transcendence and liberation; it was composed by María Elena Walsh, an Argentine poet and composer best known for a series of classic children’s books.
So many times they killed me/So many times I died/However, I am here/I rise/Grateful to misfortune/And hand holding the knife/Because it did a poor job of killing me/And I kept singing/Singing in the sun/Like the cicada/After a year under the ground/Like a survivor/Coming back from the war/So many times I vanished/So often disappeared/I went to my own funeral/Alone and crying/I made a knot of tissue/But later I forgot/That was not the only time/And I kept singing/Singing in the sun/Like the cicada/After a year under the ground/Like a survivor/Coming back from the war

Karine Polwart: Waterlily
Lyrics & music: Karine Polwart
U.K., English, 2004

Once the lead singer for Malinky, a groundbreaking ensemble specializing in Scots language song, Polwart has continued as a solo artist to tell stories with a rich sense of place, tenderly conjuring beauty and magic, sorrow and complexity. She based Waterlily on book by Scottish journalist Colin McKay who, while doing humanitarian work during the Bosnian civil war, fell in love with a woman from a village near Sarajevo; one day he went to arrange visas and transportation back to Scotland for his fiancé and her two children and came back to the village to find it destroyed and its inhabitants massacred.
Caught between the air and the windless deep/You float like a lily flower/And you look just like you fell to earth to sleep/And you’re waiting for your waking hour/And I swear to God I saw an angel hand attend you/But that was just the dancing of the light/No mortal or immortal did deliver or defend you/All hands have forsaken you tonight/Are you dreaming of a lover who will carry you away/And keep you from the crying of the crowd?/No cradle in the rushes, you are broken like the day/With darkness all around you like a shroud

Shizuko Kasagi: Rappa To Musume / ラッパと娘 / Trumpet and Girl
Lyrics & music: Ryoichi Hattori
Japan, Japanese, 1947

Shizuko Kasagi sang in a girls’ opera company before World War II, and as American influence spread after the war she became an overnight sensation, singing jazz with an American sound but distinctly Japanese subject matter. She appeared in Drunken Angel—the 1948 production that Akira Kurosawa considered his first serious film—singing Jungle Boogie, with lyrics written by the director himself. (Drunken Angel was also the first film in which Kurosawa cast Toshiro Mifune.) Dubbed the Queen of Boogie, Kasagi gave one of her most riveting performances with Rappa to Musume. Among other distinctions, it was the first Japanese song to feature scat singing.
There are people having fun, and people in sorrow/But they all love this song/Bad geez digi dohdah!/Just by singing this song, without warning, everyone starts to lighten up/The trumpet sounds and the swing comes out/and as the sound fills up, it becomes a pleasant, sweet melody/Da-dozy podgy doo dohda/Dozy dodgy digi doodah/C’mon, let’s sing this happy song/Bad geez digi dohdah!/Blow that trumpet, bring up our spirits/Digi digi dohdah, digi dohdah/Bad dodgy dea-dohdah!

Maryla Rodowicz: Małgośka / Maggie
Lyrics: Agnieszka Osiecka, Katarzyna Gärtner/Music: Katarzyna Gärtner
Poland, Polish, 1974

Rodowicz is one of the most renowned Polish singers of all time, a fixture of the nation’s culture for almost 60 years. Performing a repertoire of folk, rock, pop and sung poetry, she has released 20 albums in Polish, plus albums in English, Czech, German and Russian. She was closely associated with Agnieszka Osiecka, a poet, dramatist, film director and journalist who wrote lyrics for more than 2,000 songs—including Rodowicz’s signature work Małgośka.
It was May/Saska Kępa [a Warsaw neighborhood] smelled/Of intense green lilacs/It was May/The dress was ready/And night became day/We were already engaged/White shirts were drying on the clothesline/I didn’t know/What would become of me/When I spotted that girl/Under his arm/Maggie, they tell me/He’s not worth one tear/Not one tear/Maggie, love us, a time for sorrow will come/Just sing once, dance once/Maggie, dance and drink/Go ahead and mock him, go ahead/If he comes back tell him “No,” let him go where he wants/Hey, you fool, you fool/You fool

W.D. Amaradeva: Mindada Hee Sara / මින්දද හී සර / The Mind Is a Mysterious Place
Lyrics: Madawala S. Rathnayaka/Music: W. D. Amaradeva
Sri Lanka, Sinhala, 1979

A singer and composer, Amaradeva mixed Sinhala folk sounds with Indian ragas, playing the violin and also incorporating traditional instruments like sitars, tablas and harmoniums. Many consider his contributions to the development of Sinhala music unmatched. Mindada Hee Sara is one of his most beloved songs.
Pierced by Cupid’s arrow, my heart aches/Can you catch the mournful tunes it makes?/To my bed, adorned with sandalwood’s grace/May the golden moon ascend its lofty place/Blue clouds riding on a horse/As they depart from the sky…/I gaze with wide eyes/Heart brimming with laughter/Released from the shroud of darkness/That silenced me for so long/Light up the path with the glow in your eyes/Pave the road for the future to appear

Pete Seeger: Turn, Turn, Turn
Lyrics: Traditional, Pete Seeger/Music: Pete Seeger
U.S., English, 1959

Najat Aâtabou: Hedi Kedba Bayna / هادي كذبة باينة / Just Tell Me the Truth
Lyrics & music: Najat Aâtabou
Morocco, Arabic, 1987

Najat Aâtabou was so determined to sing that as a teenager she ran away from her conservative small-town family to realize her dream in Casablanca. Not only did she become one of Morocco’s leading singer-songwriters, she also used her music to become a champion of women’s rights and of the ethical foundation her family thought she was ignoring. Her songs, written in Berber but often sung in Arabic and French, channel heartbreak and loneliness into frank, and sometimes humorous, tales of urban romance. Hedi Kedba Bayna is her most emblematic song.
Hay, hay, hay/The lie is obvious/Hay, hay, hay/Just tell the truth: Death exists/Hay, hay, hay/How long will I have to wait alone at home?/People saw you at the beach with the messy-haired girl/I asked where you’ve been, you said, “With my family”/Hay, hay, hay/The lie is obvious/Hay, hay, hay/Just tell the truth: Death exists/You spent the night having fun and came home in the morning/I heard the phone, you turned and picked it up, it was her/I asked you who was it, you told me, “Just my mom”/Hay, hay, hay/The lie is obvious/Hay, hay, hay/Just tell the truth: Death exists/How long will I have to wait alone at home?

Joan Manuel Serrat: Mediterráneo / Mediterranean
Lyrics & music: Joan Manuel Serrat
Spain, Spanish, 1971

Serrat has devoted much of his life to defending the Catalan language, so it is noteworthy that Mediterráneo, his eighth studio album, is widely regarded by critics and the public to be one of the greatest albums in the history of Spanish-language music. The title track evokes the Barcelona shore as he remembers it from his childhood. One critic noted that for Serrat “the sea represents tranquility and freedom,” and that the song represents the artist’s essence.
Perhaps because my childhood still plays on your beach/And hidden behind the reeds my first love sleeps/I carry your light and your scent/Wherever I go/And mixed with your sand I save love, games and sorrows/My skin has the bitter taste of the eternal cry/Tears shed into you by a hundred towns, from Algeciras to Istanbul/Allowing you to paint blue their long winter nights/By virtue of misadventures your soul is deep and dark/To your red sunsets my eyes grew accustomed, as to bend of the road/I am a singer, I am an impostor, I like gambling and wine/I have the soul of a sailor. What can I say?/I was born on the Mediterranean…

CajsaStina Åkerström: Min Enda Vinge / My Only Wing
Lyrics & music: CajsaStina Åkerström
Sweden, Swedish, 2009

The song begins seemingly in mid-conversation, drawing you in. Suddenly you are above the landscape, flying on a melody. That’s the effect of Min Enda Vinge. It also reflects the trajectory of CajsaStina Åkerström, who started her adult life as an archaeologist, exploring what was underground, and ended up soaring as a singer-songwriter, novelist and painter.
Stars twinkle most when there are two of you/Going hand in hand through the night/Not alone like me/Ideas are best when shared/With someone on the same wavelength/It’s a law of life/Tonight I fly/I lift my one wing and see how far it carries me/Who is waiting when I get there/Maybe someone like me, with a broken wing/And a whole one to borrow/Who needs one/Travel, the city pulse and nature’s beauty/Should be enjoyed together/Not alone like me/Happiness is a mountain top, difficult to reach/The chance increases if there are two of you/Fighting for the same thing/I am flying…/Freedom is something you give each other/When you live with each other/Not alone like me/I am flying…

Angélique Kidjo: Afrika
Lyrics & music: Angelique Kidjo, Jean Hébrail
Benin, Fon, 2002

Five Grammy Awards (among dozens of other honors), 18 studio albums over 40 years, a humanitarian activist, designated by Time magazine as “Africa’s premier diva,” a worthy successor to Miriam Makeba as the artist who embodies, as much as anyone can, a continent: As a singer-songwriter and as a leader, Angélique Kidjo has no peer today. Her anthem Afrika is a call to action.
Who sees the beauty in you, Mother Afirika?/Don’t cross your arms and stand still/We have to work day and night/Each day we say that Africa is lost/But who will wake up to see her beauty? This is in our hands/No one else worries about our happiness/Each day we speak ill of Africa — Let’s stop/Africa is for all of us/Blessings on Mother Africa

Céline Banza: Tere Mbi / My Body
Lyrics: Céline Banza/Music: Jeff Kikasa
D.R. Congo, Ngbandi, 2021

Her voice is so captivating it seems to eliminate emotional distance, bringing melancholy toward hope, grievance toward comfort, artist toward audience. On Céline Banza’s 2021 debut album Praefatio (Preface), she spun stories of love, separation and chauvinism, childhood innocence lost and miraculously recovered, subjects she infused with her own hard experience. In Tere Mbi, the lead track, she asserts her value as a woman.
My body/My body/Has become a toy/Now my words/Are like a cry/Is this what you want?/That I am, I am, a woman/You have physical strength/My strength is my womb/You think you’re better than me/You remind my heart that you endow me with your money/You think you’re better than me/But you don’t have more strength than me/Despite what I don’t have/No nerves to knock someone down/Strong men of the world/You have physical strength/My strength is my womb/You see me as a thing for you/To cry and serve you/I am the mother of the Earth/Your mother/Your mother

Marisa Monte: Ainda Bem / Thank Heaven
Lyrics & music: Marisa Monte, Arnaldo Antunes
Brazil, Portuguese, 2011

Rated by Rolling Stone Brazil as her country’s second greatest singer of all time (behind Elis Regina), Marisa Monte has been a pillar of Brazil’s musical culture since releasing her first album in 1991. Rooted in MPB and samba, she has won dozens of music awards, including five Latin Grammys and eight MTV Video Music prizes. Ainda Bem is a ballad of unexpected love.
Thank heaven/I’ve found you now/I really don’t know/What I did to deserve you/Because no one/Gave me anything/Whoever wanted to, I wasn’t into/I didn’t believe in myself/My heart/Was already used to/The loneliness/Who could accept that and stay by my side/You’d stay/You came to stay/You, who makes me happy/You, who makes me sing like this/My heart/Had already retreated/With no illusions/After being abused/Everything changed/Now you’ve come to me/You, who makes me happy/You, who makes me sing like this

Arif Lohar & Meesha Shafi: Alif Allah (Jugni) / الف اللہ – جگنی / The Letter Alif of God’s Name Is a Jasmine Flower
Lyrics: Sultan Bahu/Music: Arif Lohar
Pakistan, Punjabi, 2010

Arif Lohar is a Punjabi folk singer popular in his native Pakistan and in India. He composed Alif Allah – Jugni (The First Letter of God’s Name), adapting a work by the 17th century Sufi poet Sultan Bahu. “Jugni” is a narrative device, common in Punjabi music, denoting a poet who poses as an observer to make incisive, humorous or sad observations. Lohar’s most popular rendition of the song was in a 2010 duet with the Pakistani-Canadian artist Meesha Shafi.
The letter alif of God’s name is a jasmine flower/And my Guide has planted it in my heart, He has!/Watering with the negation and affirmation (no God but God)/Watering each vein and each pore, He does!/May my beautiful Guide live forever/Whose hand planted this flower – He has!/O Pir of mine, Spirit-being!/Indeed, this is the Godly Ones’ Spirit-being!/Indeed, this is the Holy Prophet’s Spirit-being!/Indeed, this is the Spirit-being devoted to Ali, the Friend of God!/Indeed, this is my Pir’s Spirit-being!/Indeed, this is the long-living Pir’s Spirit-being!/Like a dove’s call, with every breath, my heart echoes God’s name

Hetty Koes Endang: Ingkar Janji / Broken Promises
Lyrics & music: Traditional
Indonesia, Indonesian, 1987

Hetty Koes Endang is one of her country’s leading singers, performing Indopop and krocong, a melancholy style built around a Javanese string instrument similar to the ukulele. She went into semi-retirement in 2011 but has continued doing charity events. Ingkar Janji, one of her most enduring hits, is a song of love and betrayal. 
Day after day goes by/I am waiting for you/Seven months already/Without any news/Oh wind, send my regards/To my love far away/I feel so sad in my heart/Without you beside me/I’m tired of waiting/When will you come back?/My tears have already dried/My love, hear my lament/Hold, please hold my hand/I am in pain waiting for your promises to be fulfilled/The moon and stars bear witness/To your broken promises/What was the vow you made when we were last together?/That you would be faithful to me/I see now that your words were fleeting/Like a wind long since blown away

Jaromír Nohavica: Ostravo
Lyrics & music: Jaromír Nohavica
Czechia, Czech, 2003

In the 1980’s, before he had released a single record, Jaromír Nohavica was named one of the top 10 Czech artists in a national poll, but the Communist regime prevented him from performing. He ultimately became one of his country’s most celebrated musicians, a folksinger-lyricist-composer who, aside from his own songs, translated works by Russian and Polish artists, plus two Mozart operas, into Czech. One of his best-known songs, Ostravo is a tribute to his home town, a coal mining center turned cultural hub.
Ostrava, Ostrava/City among cities/My bittersweet felicity/Ostrava, Ostrava/Black star overhead/God distributed/All the beauty to other cities/Steamboats on rivers/Picture perfect ladies in satin/Ostrava, Ostrava/A deep red heart/A fate sealed from the start/Ostrava, Ostrava/I turn my eyes to you/I rushed toward your light/Ostrava, Ostrava/Black star overhead/Let my rambling legs/Carry me where they will/The birds in the sky/Point me to a single road/Ostrava, Ostrava/A deep red heart/A fate sealed from the start

Sia released her debut solo album in her native Australia in 1997 and had a series of successful albums as she moved, first to England and then to the United States. But, uncomfortable with growing fame, she took a break from performing, writing for other artists, including Rihanna and Flo Rida. Her career was turbocharged in 2014 with the release of her album 1000 Forms of Fear. In addition to 10 albums to date she has also written or performed on 29 film soundtracks. Unstoppable, an empowerment ballad, was on her 2016 album This Is Acting and—after considerable play—was released as a single in 2022.
I’ll smile, I know what it takes to fool this town/I’ll do it ’til the sun goes down and all through the night/Oh, yeah, I’ll tell you what you wanna hear/Keep my sunglasses on while I shed a tear/It’s never the right time, yeah-yeah/I put my armor on, show you how strong I am/I’ll show you that I am/I’m unstoppable, I’m a Porsche with no brakes/I’m invincible, yeah, I win every game/I’m so powerful, I don’t need batteries to play/I’m so confident, yeah, I’m unstoppable today/Breakdown, only alone will I cry out loud/You’ll never see what’s hiding out…/I know, I’ve heard that to let your feelings show/Is the only way to make friendships grow/But I’m too afraid now, yeah

In the estimation of The Rough Guide to World Music, Shajarian was “the nightingale supreme of Iranian music, a living legend whose superb technical skill, warm vocal style and vast knowledge of classical Persian poetry made him the most successful classical singer in the country.” He initially supported the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which ushered in a renaissance of Persian classical music. In 2009, he supported Iran’s Green Revolution and criticized the government, resulting in a ban from public performances or releasing new albums. Shajarian died in 2020. Ashke Mahtab was one of his most acclaimed songs.
You told me to make my heart as big as an ocean/My heart became an ocean and I gave it to you/Take care of it and don’t make the ocean run with blood/In the dream, we were near a fountain/You took the moon from the water with a cup/When we drank that wholesome drink/You became a water lily and I became a teardrop of the moon/The grove’s body is covered with moonlight tonight/The tiger of the mountains is asleep/On each hill, a heart has settled/My heart is impatient in my body tonight/You told me to make my heart as big as an ocean/My heart became an ocean and I gave it to you

Jara was a singer-songwriter, poet, theater director and political activist. He played a central role in the Nueva canción chilena (New Chilean Song) movement, embracing political and social themes, that swept Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s. After the 1973 overthrow of President Salvador Allende, Chile’s military regime had Jara arrested, tortured and executed. He sang the romantic-political ballad Te Recuerdo Amanda at his last concert before his arrest; the names of the song’s characters—Amanda and Manuel—were those of his parents. The song has been covered by more than two dozen artists from around the world, including Joan Baez, Joaquín Sabina, Mercedes Sosa and Ivan Lins.
I remember you, Amanda/The wet street/Running to the factory where Manuel worked/The wide smile, the rain in your hair, nothing mattered/You were going to meet with him, with him, with him, with him/It was five minutes/Life is eternal/In five minutes/The whistle blew to return to work/And you walking, you lit up everything/Those five minutes made you blossom/And he took to the mountains to fight/He had never hurt a fly/And in five minutes/It was all erased/The whistle blew to return to work/Many didn’t come back/Neither did Manuel/I remember you, Amanda/The wet street/Running to the factory where Manuel worked

Smokey Robinson and Ronald White originally wrote My Girl for their own group, the Miracles. At the same time, Robinson—one of the main songwriters for the Motown label—wanted to write “the perfect song” for David Ruffin, something, Robinson said, “he could belt out, but yet make it melodic and sweet.” He wound up giving the song to the Temptations, for whom Ruffin was a lead singer. My Girl became a soul classic, the first number one song for both the Temptations and for Motown. The inspiration for the song was Robinson’s wife (and Miracles member) Claudette Rogers Robinson.
I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day/When it’s cold outside/I’ve got the month of May/I guess you’d say/What can make me feel this way/My girl, my girl, my girl/Talkin’ ’bout my girl/My girl/I’ve got so much honey/The bees envy me/I’ve got a sweeter song/Than the birds in the trees/Well, I guess you’d say/What can make me feel this way/My girl, my girl, my girl/Talkin’ ’bout my girl/My girl/I don’t need no money, fortune, or fame/I’ve got all the riches, baby, one man can claim/Well I guess you’d say/What can make me feel this way/My girl, my girl, my girl/Talkin’ ’bout my girl, my girl, talkin’ ’bout my girl…

Kaya was a folk singer who played guitar and saz and sang melancholy and political songs. Despite his Kurdish roots he sang in Turkish, as public singing in his mother language was forbidden in Turkey during his lifetime. In 1999, at a televised awards ceremony where he was to be named Musician of the Year, he announced that he had recorded a song in Kurdish and intended to produce a video for it; he was physically attacked by members of the audience and later indicted on the charge of “spreading separatist propaganda.” He fled to France and was later sentenced in absentia to a prison term. Shortly after he learned of the sentence, he died of a heart attack, at age 43. He released 17 albums between 1985 and 1998; four more were released posthumously. In Front of Metris Prison evokes the experience of family members who wait in nearby cafés for the chance to visit loved ones, and the villages that wait for the prisoners to return.
I stand in front of the Metris/Throwing my longing to the ground/I am a bird flying over the mountains/I am a flying bird/For years I have been exhausted/I am addicted to the sky/I am stagnant in prison/I am stagnant/In front of Metris the street is full of cafes/My dear mother passes life waiting there/Mountains and villages sing folk songs in solidarity/Mountains and villages keep an eye on my path/I’ve grown tired wandering around/I am addicted to the sky

Pavarthy Baul (born Mousumi Parial) is a Baul folk singer, musician and storyteller from India’s West Bengal state. On a train at age 16, she encountered a blind musician performing the traditional folk music of the mystic Baul minstrels. Mesmerized by the music’s spiritual intensity, she decided that Baul music would be her path in life. In addition to performing, in 2017 she founded an ashram with the aim of teaching Baul tradition. Kichudin Mone Mone is a love song that counsels allowing passion to simmer inside for a few days before revealing it.
Keep your love deep within your heart for Shyam/Secretly in the core of your body for a few days/Just speak in hints of the pastures of love/Let no one guess, hear, or know for a few days/Look at the dark clouds passing by when you miss Shyam/Put a soggy log on the stove in the kitchen and cry his name/Dive in the love of Shyam but don’t let your clothes get wet/Be madly in love but don’t let the people know for a few days/Tell the people you’re heading south when secretly going north/Enjoy the madness of secret love, don’t let them know its worth/Keep your love for Shyam deep within your heart

When Mary Hopkin recorded the song in 1968 (produced by Paul McCartney) it was called Those Were the Days and it became an international hit. But by then the song was more than 40 years old and had traveled a long way. The original Russian version, Dorogoï Dlinnoyou, had lyrics by Konstantin Podrevsky and was sung by Georgian artist Tamara Tsereteli in 1926 and the Ukrainian/Russian poet-singer-composer-actor Alexander Vertinsky in 1927. Born in Kyiv, Vertinsky moved to Moscow as an adult and—according to his obituary in The New York Times—exerted a seminal influence on the Russian tradition of artistic singing.” In every version and every language (there were also covers in French, Italian, Spanish and German) the song has conveyed a romantic, nostalgic memory of lost youth.
You were riding a troika with bells/And lights twinkled in the distance/How I wish I could follow you, my darling/And dispel sadness in my soul/On that long road/On a moonlit night/With that song that flies away with a melody/And that old one with the seven-string/That torments me so much at night!/So, with no joy, no pain/I recall the years gone by/And your silvery hands/In the troika, gone forever/Days go by, more sorrowfully/It’s hard to forget the past/Yet somehow, my darling/You’ll carry me on my last journey/On that long road/On a moonlit night/With that song that flies away with a melody…

On tour in Canada in 1997, Tarika met the Malagasy guitarist Ben Randriamananjara, who played blues under the name Madagascar Slim. Slim told Tarika lead singer Hanitra Rasoanaivo that he loved the group’s work and it made him want to return to Madagascar to re-learn traditional guitar playing. Hanitra said she would like him to write something for her band and he sent her a tape. When the lyrics for Tsy kivy came to her she thought immediately of Slim’s composition and put them together. Slim did go back to Madagascar and learned to play the valiha, a tube zither made of bamboo.
Look very well, we are just happy/Look carefully, everything you look at is magic/Look again, we are playing with our heart/Look very well, would you like to be like us?/Mister sun, if you are setting, lots of other lights will come out for me/The moon, millions of stars, they will all brighten my life/There is plenty to do yet…/Base your life on happiness/One, two, three four/I would like to reincarnate

Rimi Natsukawa is a folk singer who performs in Japanese and Okinawan. She was born in the Yaeyama Islands, closer to Taiwan than they are to the main Japanese islands. Her career accelerated with the release of her third single, Nada Sōsō (Tears Are Falling) in 2001. In 2002 she began a five-year run of appearing on Kohaku Uta Gassen, the New Year’s Eve TV special that features Japan’s most popular musicians. Tinsagu nu Hana counsels respect for the teachings of our parents.
Like the balsam flower dye coating your fingernails/Have the teachings of your parents coat your heart/In the heavens, stars in the Pleiades cluster are countable if you try/But the teachings of your parents are not/Ships sailing at night plot their course with the North Star/My parents who gave birth to me plot their course with me in mind/Even if you have jewelry, it will tarnish if you don’t polish it/Polish your heart every day and live life well

A folk singer who has helped popularize the traditional songs of Vietnam’s central region, Vân Khánh began performing in a family troupe at age 12, then studied at the Hue Academy of Music and ultimately at the Hanoi Conservatory. She has released more than a dozen albums. 
Oh, the sound of the Tranh/The melody reminds me of Huế/Whoever brought the flute across the river, let the flute escape and fly to a distant land/Listening to the story of going through the pass, I thought I was going back to that place/Remember the sounds of birds chirping and hearing gibbons howling/The Mekong River harbors evocative melodies/It sounds like my hometown/Love the mountains, miss the forests, love Huế/At night in the plain, I miss Hue/The bright moon of the South echoes the melody of the Central region/Majestic mountains, flowing Perfume River/Around Van Lau, the sound of the moon harp echoed

Philly Bongoley Lutaaya: Alone
Lyrics & music: Philly Bongoley Lutaaya
Uganda, English, 1989

Lutaaya began his career in his native Uganda in the late 1960s and in the 1970s followed a Congolese band to Kinshasa. In the 1980s he was one of the pioneers in forging what was considered the Ugandan sound. He moved to Sweden where he and a band of Ugandan exiles recorded Born in Africa, an album that remains popular in his homeland to this day. In 1986 Lutaaya released his Christmas Album, with songs written in Luganda, featuring holiday songs that became a staple of Uganda’s Christmas celebrations. In 1988, he became the first prominent Ugandan to announce that he had AIDS; he gained widespread admiration and spent the last year of his life campaigning for AIDS awareness and compassion. His final album was Alone and Frightened, which included the hit single Alone. The Nairobi-based Daily Nation, the leading newspaper in East Africa, ranked the song at number 2 on its list of the 100 Greatest African Songs of All Time.
Out there somewhere/Alone and frightened/Of the darkness/The days are long/Life is hiding/No more making new contacts/No more loving arms/Thrown around my neck/Take my hand now/I’m tired and lonely/Give me love/Give me hope/Don’t desert me/Don’t reject me/All I need is love and understanding/Today it’s me/Tomorrow someone else/It’s me and you/We’ve got to stand up and fight/We’ll shed light in the fight against AIDS/Let’s stand together and fight AIDS/In times of joy/In times of sorrow/Let’s take a stand and fight to the end/With open hearts/Let’s stand up and speak out to the world

Ana Moura: Os Búzios / Seashells
Lyrics & music: Jorge Fernando
Portugal, Portuguese, 2007

One of the leading artists to walk in the footsteps of Amália Rodrigues, Ana Moura has a pure contralto voice ideally suited to the melancholy of fado, yet it also serves her in the genre’s joyous and dance variations. Os Búzios, which paints an intensely lyrical scene of fortune telling, was the song that anchored her breakthrough album Para Além de Saudade (Beyond Longing).
There was the solitude of a prayer in her sad look/As if her eyes were the windows to her tears/A sign of the cross lingers, fingers against the evil eye/And the seashells the old woman threw onto an old cloak/Lurking is a great love that keeps a secret/Your heart is empty at the edge of fear/See how the shells fall facing north/Because I will stir destiny, I will change your luck/There was intense despair in her voice/The room smelled of incense and powders/The old woman waved the scarf, folded it, gave it two knots/And your holy priest spoke

Adele: Set Fire to the Rain
Lyrics & music: Adele Adkins, Fraser T. Smith
U.K., English, 2011

Among Adele’s 200+ honors worldwide are 15 Grammys, 12 Brit Awards, an Oscar and an Emmy. From the album 21, Set Fire to the Rain is a power ballad about the conflicting stages of a tumultuous relationship and the difficulty of letting go.
I let it fall, my heart/And as it fell, you rose to claim it/It was dark and I was over/Until you kissed my lips and you saved me/My hands, they’re strong/But my knees were far too weak/To stand in your arms/Without falling to your feet/But there’s a side to you/That I never knew, never knew/All the things you’d say/They were never true, never true/And the games you play/You would always win, always win/But I set fire to the rain/Watched it pour as I touched your face/Well, it burned while I cried/’Cause I heard it screaming out your name/Your name

Malicorne: La complainte du coureur de bois / The Trapper’s Lament
Lyrics & music: Gabriel Yacoub, Hugues De Courson, Laurent Vercambre, Marie Sauvet, Traditional
France, French, 1978

A pioneering French folk and folk-rock band, Malicorne flourished in the 1970s; during the 1980s and again in the 2010s, they reformed and broke up numerous times. Based on French-Canadian sources, La complainte du coureur de bois portrays the hardship of fur trappers toiling and living in isolated winter camps in the seventeenth century in a way that parallels the plight of urban workers in the twentieth.
Listen up, my good friends/You who live well, in comfort/I will sing you the story/Of all the great miseries/That we can have in campsites/The work, the boredom/In a forest so harsh/Especially in winter/When we leave for the forest/We all have to leave our wives/We must leave/Those we hold most dear/Our wives and our children/To live huddled like wolves/In the harsh forest/Especially in winter…/Here they make us work/Every day of the week/New Year’s Day is the same/And every other holiday/Whether it’s windy, raining or snowing/In all four seasons/Our salary is misery/Especially in winter

Anup Jalota: Kabhi Kabhi Bhagwan ko bhi / कभी कभी भगवान को भी / Sometimes Even God Has to Work Through His Devotees
Lyrics: Pandit Ramchandra Bagora/Music: Chandra Kamal
India, Hindi, 2005

Anup Jalopa is an Indian singer and musician known for bhajan (devotional) songs and ghazals. Kabhi Kabhi Bhagvan ko bhi retells the story from the Ramayana of Kevat the Boatman washing the feet of Lord Rama before ferrying him across the Ganges.
Sometimes even God needs the help of his devotees to carry out his work/Lord Rama needed to cross the River Ganges/He boarded the boat of the fisherman Kevat/Sita, Rama and Lakshmana reached the banks of the Ganges/Kevat felt ecstatic…/He folded his hands before Lord Rama, engrossed in devotion/Lord Rama asked him to ferry the boat/Take us safely to the other side/Kevat said, “The weight of the dirt on my feet is heavy/I am just a poor boatman/I don’t want disgrace to fall on my boat”/Kevat brought water to cleanse the Lord’s feet/He who is praised in the Vedas/Kevat had Lord Rama board/Flowers showered from the sky/The boat sailed across the Ganges/Lord Rama offered to pay the boatman for his service/Kevat refused payment/I have helped you cross the river/Now, Lord Rama, please help me cross this ocean of life

Kari Bremnes: Berg og Båre / Rocks and Boulders
Lyrics: Kari Bremnes, Ola Bremnes/Music: Lars Bremnes
Norway, Norwegian, 1991

A singer-songwriter who performs traditional style Norwegian songs, jazz and folk, Kari Bremnes often collaborates with her two brothers. She grew up in an archipelago north of the Arctic Circle, amid fjords, and mountains rising straight out of the ocean, where years were divided between long summers and the mythical dark season. Though she chose to live in cities (studying at the University of Oslo and working as a journalist), the nature and contrasts of her childhood inform her vision. Few songwriters could make what she does out of Rocks and Boulders, explaining that it’s possible to live in a harsh environment if we remember that no one can win a battle with nature and that music manages to find its place in in the most unforgiving environments.
Where rocks and boulders are broken, there melody is made/Anything from cheerful summer tunes to painful symphonies/Sharp rocks are crushed and crumble away into sand/But there are also stones that are good to have in hand/Where rocks and boulders are broken, there will always be erosion/On the fragile, narrow strip between high and low tide/But it’s possible to live here/If we remember that there are endless battles no one can win/Where rocks and boulders are broken, there also comes a song/From far away with sails of silver hoisted by the sunset/Where the old battle stands

Moh! Kouyaté: Fankila / Gossip
Lyrics & music: Moh! Kouyaté
Guinea, Diakhanké, 2017

Some artists manage to travel two paths at the same time. On his geographic journey, Moh! Kouyaté retraced the course of the blues from the Niger River, in his native Guinea, to the Mississippi Delta. On his concurrent artistic voyage he followed the sound waves to the confluence of blues, jazz and classic rock, where he found the energy source for his music. Born into a family of griots, Kouyaté foreswore the traditional balafon, preferring the electric guitar to propel his stories and songs. On his engaging and provocative second album, he applied ancient African wisdom to modern conditions. Fankila is an exuberant warning against idle chatter that can apply equally to conversations in the local market and to geopolitical Tweets.
Today, everybody speaks whenever they want and says whatever they like/As a result, many lies and much dirt are spread

Michael Jackson: Billie Jean
Lyrics & music: Michael Jackson
U.S., English, 1983

Billie Jean, the second single released from Jackson’s album Thriller, was a landmark in music history. The lyrics describe a woman who claims that the song’s narrator is the father of her child, which he denies. Jackson said the concept was based on numerous similar assertions made by groupies about him and his older brothers, beginning when they toured as the Jackson 5. Billie Jean reached number one on charts in the U.S., Canada and much of Europe and Thriller became the best-selling album of all time. When Jackson sang the song on the TV special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, he introduced his trademark moonwalk. He repeated the moonwalk in the song’s official video, helping to make videos an indispensable part of music marketing.
She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene/I said, “Don’t mind, but what do you mean I am the one/Who will dance on the floor in the round?”/She said I am the one/Who will dance on the floor in the round/She told me her name was Billie Jean as she caused a scene/Then every head turned with eyes that dreamed of being the one/Who will dance on the floor in the round/People always told me, “Be careful of what you do/Don’t go around breaking young girls’ hearts”/And mother always told me, “Be careful of who you love/And be careful of what you do/’Cause the lie becomes the truth”/Billie Jean is not my lover/She’s just a girl who claims that I am the one/But the kid is not my son

Palmy is a singer-songwriter performing mostly Thai pop, R&B and pop-rock. Popular throughout East and Southeast Asia, as well as Australia, she also performs with the Thai reggae band T-bone. Stay is from her second studio album.
There might be rain that falls for a while/And white clouds that pass at night/When they meet the wind, they blow away/No one can bring them back/They can’t last forever/But you who passed by temporarily/And the story that changed overnight/I haven’t forgotten/It’s like it’s a part of my heart/We never loved each other, we only had days we were weak/They’ve passed and will never return/It’s just an lasting impression/There’s only the rain, only the sky that understands/Under a tree without shade/However tall its branches are/But the roots go deep into the earth, penetrating deep in my heart

Rasha: Azara Alhai / عذارى الحي / Girls of the Quarter
Lyrics: Rasha Sheik Al-Deen/Music: Eliseo Parra García
Sudan, Arabic, 1997

Rasha Sheikh Eldin, one of the most prominent singers to emerge from Sudan in recent times, comes from a large family (19 siblings) of artists. But owing to the difficulty of making a living in music in her homeland, she moved to Spain. She combines the traditions of Sudan and South Sudan and has ventured into Afro-pop, flamenco and reggae. Azara Alhai is from her debut album, released in 1997.
Girls of the quarter, oh girls of the quarter/Be merciful with the bewildered/Have you seen my missing lover?/My heart is in pain/Oh, my heart!/Long are my nights, oh girls of the quarter/He has gone, not even a farewell/Tell me where he went, oh girls of the quarter/A worshipper of love is my faith and joy, patient in love, of wounds I do not complain/My love, does he recall the time we shared/Or has he forgotten?/Our nights were pure/Without drinking we were drunk/Nights of intimacy, intimacy our banner/Oh girls, be merciful with the bewildered/Have you seen my missing lover?/Oh girls of the quarter

Hariharan Anantha Subramani is an award-winning Indian playback singer who also performs ghazals and devotional songs. He has released more than 30 albums and sings in 10 languages. Rain in My Heart is from the 2008 film Vaaranam Aayiram (A Thousand Elephants).
The rain in my heart/The lotus drowning in water/The climate that is changing suddenly/Girl, it’s all your fault/The waves that never stop/The love swimming in my heart/You shine like beautiful gold/Girl, you are Kanchana/Oh shanti shanti, o shanti/You carry my life/Why did you come after me?/You are my life hereafter…/You are responsible/The dream I had has come true/Something attracted me/Even the tip of your nose added to the mystery/There is no mischief/Your smile is innocent/The worth of any place rises, if you stand there/Come home with me

The Soweto Gospel Choir is a 30-plus-member ensemble that performs African gospel, African-American spirituals, reggae and American popular music. Umbombela, from their 2018 album Freedom, echoes the notorious apartheid restrictions that forced Black South Africans to travel long distances as migrant workers. The 12-track album, which celebrated the centennial of Nelson Mandela’s birth, is a liberation saga evoking struggle, memory and faith. The album also brought the choir its third Grammy.
The train, the train is departing/The train is departing/It is departing at dawn/The train is departing/Oh Lord it is leaving me/Shuku shuku shuku shuku [sound of the train]/Shuku, it is leaving me/Shuku shuku shuku shuku/Oh Lord it’s leaving me/It is leaving, it is leaving/The train is departing/It is leaving, it is leaving/Oh Lord it’s leaving me/Train, do not leave me behind/Do not leave me behind/Oh Lord it’s leaving me

Ayala is known for combining pop music with traditional Filipino instruments. Aside from a singer-songwriter, he also chaired the music committee of the Philippines’ National Commission for Culture and the Arts. The World Has Two Faces explores truth, relativity and perspective in a universe where many concepts can best be understood in the context of their opposite.
Truth has two faces/What’s right for you seems wrong for others/There’s white, there’s black, light and dark/Some race ahead, some fall behind/Water is for fire, earth is for the sky/Day is for the night, and cold is for hot/If ever one disappears, the other would not be understood/The strong and the weak are related

Jocelyne Béroard & Philippe Lavil: Kolé Séré / Hold Me Tight
Lyrics: Jocelyne Béroard/Music. Jean-Claude Namiro
France, Antillean Creole/French, 1986

Jocelyne Béroard, lead singer of the Guadeloupe-based zouk-compas ensemble Kassav’, wrote Kolé Seré with Jean-Claude Naimro and the band released the song in 1986. The following year Béroard reprised the song in a duet with fellow Martinican singer Philippe Lavil. The song title refers to a way of zouk dancing—holding tight. The video portrays a couple reuniting by phone after a long separation: Lavil, amid Caribbean settings, sings in French; Béroard, surrounded by Paris backdrops, sings in Antillean Creole.
I never imagined/That I would see you again/So many years have passed/I see you haven’t changed/I wouldn’t have guessed/That I would call you back/But I’ve forgotten/Whatever it was I blamed you for/One glance and I cracked/I couldn’t resist the urge/Our love was so sweet/We weren’t playing around/If we took the time to talk/We were so close/We danced holding each other tight/You always made me smile/And that makes me want/To hold you in my arms/So we can start over/Forget the past/Oh come, I want to hold you/We can dance holding each other tight/We could caress each other, come/Take me in your arms/Hold me tight, hold me tight

Nazem Al Ghazali: Fog el-Nakhal / فوق النخل / Above the Palm Trees
Lyrics Muhammad Ali Al-Agha/Music: Saleh Al Kuwaity
Iraq, Arabic, 1948

Al-Ghazali was an Iraqi superstar of the mid-20th century. Starting out as an actor, he was inspired to sing by the great figures of the Golden Age of Arabic classical music, notably Uum Kulthum, Asmahan and Farid al-Atrache. Fog el-Nakhal is a love song about a poor man and a rich woman who lived in the same Baghdad building with an inner courtyard. Rather than speak to a woman above his station, the man would sing in the courtyard facing the woman’s second-story window; hearing the beautiful song day after day, the neighbors began to sing along. He would sing, “Above, I have a friend above,” but in the Baghdadi dialect it sounded like he was singing “Above the palm trees…”
Above the palm trees, my father/Yes, above the palm trees/I don’t know what’s glowing, my father/Whether it’s her cheek or the moon/And I swear I don’t want her/She is getting me into trouble/Your shiny cheeks, oh my love/My eyes, light up the nation, light up the nation/I have no patience for waiting/Oh my eyes, while she is so far away/And I swear I’ve been tortured/By her beautiful eyes/Above the palm trees, my father/Way, way above/I don’t know what’s glowing, my father/Whether it’s her cheek or the moon/Trouble, ahhhh!/The palm tree/I don’t know what that is shining/I don’t know, ahhhh/Ahhhh

Malinky: The Braes o Broo
Lyrics: Traditional, adapted by Steve Byrne/Music: Traditional
U.K./Scotland, Scots, 2004

Malinky is one of the great contemporary Scottish folk bands—and among those specializing in Scots-language song surely the greatest. The Braes o Broo—the song title refers to a sloping riverbank that’s difficult to plow—presents an unusual female perspective on changing times and changing fashion. An alternate title for the song is “The Plowman Laddie.”
The plowman laddie’s my delight/The plowman laddie loves me/They say the plowman lad’s with me/When I’m sure he’s not near me/Get up, get up ye lazy loons/Get up and get the better of the day/The Braes o Broo [sloping riverbanks] are ready for plowing/They’re rough and risky all, man…/What think you of our plowmen now/Their high-cuttin plows and all, man?/It wasn’t so, once upon a time/When the wooden plow plowed all, man…/What think ye of our lasses now/Their parasols and all, man/At church or market when they go/ With all their fine ribbons/I’ve learned to spin with thread so fine/To clothe my plowman lad/I’ll weave the socks to warm his feet/The bonnet for his head, man

Shewandagne Hailu: Ayne / አይኔ / My Eyes
Lyrics: Teddy Afro [Tewodros Kassahun]/Music: Shewandagne Hailu
Ethiopia, Amharic, 2003

Un Sólo Pueblo: Woman del Callao
Lyrics & music: Julio Delgado
Venezuela, Spanish/English, 1989

Un Sólo Pueblo is a group (usually with about 20 members) that formed in Caracas in 1976 and became one of Venezuela’s most celebrated folk ensembles. The bilingual Woman del Callao reflects the story of El Callao, a mining town in eastern Venezuela that attracted a diverse population, enriching the local gastronomy, importing dance/music styles like calypso, and speaking a babel of Spanish, Antillean Creole, Papiamento and English.
Tiene mucho hot [She’s really hot]/Tiene mucho tempo[She’s got plenty of time]/Y tiene mucho down [She really gets down]/Tiene mucho hot/Woman del Callao/Tiene mucho hot/Tiene mucho tempo/Tiene mucho down/Woman del Callao…/E’ta cosa e’[this thing] too lovely/Man down, come to El Callao/All the woman dancing calypso into the blood, blood, blood/When to put up, we like to live-in/Dancing in this paradise/Every time/Ay, ay, ay/Ay, ay, ay/¡Wo!/Tiene mucho hot/Tiene mucho tempo/Tiene mucho down/Woman del Callao, del Callao

Mokoomba: Kumkukanda / Initiation Camp
Lyrics & music: Mokoomba
Zimbabwe, Luvale, 2017

The Shona name for Victoria Falls, the great cataracts of the Zambezi, is “Mosi-oa-Tunya”—Smoke that Thunders—and the water’s misty roar can be heard as far as 40km (25 mi) away. But there’s a sound from the adjacent city of Victoria Falls, that in recent years has travelled much farther: The music of Mokoomba, which has earned a reputation as Zimbabwe’s leading band. Kumkukanda is inspired by some of the band members’ experience at a masquerade ceremony, held in parts of Zimbabwe and Zambia at the end of the Mukanda. The Mukanda is a camp where young men are initiated into adulthood; under the guidance of elders, they learn life skills, cultural norms and values as well as the spiritual beliefs of the Luvale and Chokwe people. The teaching is done through song, dance and special signs and symbols. The knowledge imparted to the young men is secret and protected, and the song is a warning about the need to respect the privacy of the camp and its initiation rituals.
Mother/Those who are not initiated are not allowed in the camp/Stand up, stand up the leader is here/Stand up, stand up/The day is over, till tomorrow/Stand up, stand up the mother is here/Stand up, stand up the boys are here/Stand up, stand up elder is here/The day is over, till tomorrow

Björk: Hyperballad
Lyrics & music: Björk Gudmundsdottir
Iceland, English, 1995

As an artist, Björk is sui generis, a singer, songwriter and actress known for her three-octave vocal range, her diversity of styles, drawing on electronic, folktronica, pop, jazz, acid house, trip hop, classical and avant-garde music. According to The New Yorker, “No contemporary artist so gracefully bridges the divide between music experimentation and pop celebrity.” Hyperballad is songwriting as catharsis: She describes living at the top of a mountain from which she throws objects off a cliff while she ponders suicide. “I feel that the words can have a mysticism or a hidden meaning…” she has said, “the idea that I’m throwing car parts from a cliff is about getting out my frustrations.”
We live on a mountain/Right at the top/There’s a beautiful view/From the top of the mountain/Every morning I walk towards the edge/And throw little things off/Like: Car parts, bottles and cutlery/Or whatever I find lying around/It’s become a habit/A way to start the day/I go through all this/Before you wake up/So I can feel happier/To be safe up here with you

Alla Pugacheva: Zhenshina, kotoraya poyet / Женщина, которая поет / The Woman Who Sings
Russian lyrics: Naum Grebnev, translated from original Karachay-Balkar lyrics by Qaysin Quli/Music: Alla Pugacheva, Leonid Garin
Russia (Soviet Union), Russian, 1978

Pugacheva is the most popular and successful Russian singer in history, with more than 100 albums to her credit and a wide array of honors and prizes. Parallel to her historic career, she has long been outspoken on political and social issues, supporting democratization in the early 1990s, and among other stances defending gay rights, backing the punk rock group Pussy Riot and criticizing Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Shortly after the invasion her husband, comedian Maxim Galkin, was declared a foreign agent and the couple moved to Israel. The Woman Who Sings was the title song of a 1977 film—a fictionalized biography of the artist—in which Pugacheva starred and for which she wrote much of the soundtrack.
Fate, I beg you, don’t be greedy with your tolerance/Be patient, that means be kind/Keep me and under your arm/Give me happiness, give me peace/Give happiness to the woman who sings…/Keep the warmth of fire and shelter/My love till the fateful hour/To the man who, unfortunately, doesn’t sing/Let me know where friends and enemies are/And save me from wrinkles/Don’t let me be satiated with my best work/Don’t let me become heavy of soul and body/Me, me/The woman who sings/Fate, in the evening of life/Don’t let me live longer than my own children/And if the world’s misfortunes cannot be avoided/Send me them, to me, but not to my children/To me, to me/The woman who sings

Mohammed Abdu: Salaam / ســلّم / Peace
Lyrics: Sari/Music: Majed Al Mohandes
Saudi Arabia, Arabic, 2016

Keali’i Reichel: Ke Aloha
Lyrics: Lei Collins/Music: Maddy K. Lam
U.S., Hawaiian, 2014

Reichel is a pillar of the Hawaiian cultural renaissance. In addition to being a singer, composer, dancer and choreographer, he has taught Hawaiian culture and language, curated museum exhibits, founded a hula school and was a founding director of a Hawaiian-language immersion school. Written in 1949 by the composing team of Lei Collins and Maddy Lam, Ke Aloha is a love song, first presented as a wedding anniversary gift, about a couple finding comfort in one another’s arms.
Come to my bosom/My beloved sweetheart/Your fragrance is alluring/In the evening time/Because of your wish/This body is set apart/Your form is a gentle one/In the labors of love/I am very contented/The breathing of my sweetheart/Wooing here/We relax together

Eskenazi is one of the most renowned figures in the history of Greek music and the details of her life are, if anything, more dramatic than her career as a singer of Greek and Turkish folk songs. Born in Istanbul into a Sefardic Jewish family, her saga includes two world wars, the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, the massive population exchange between Turkey and Greece, surviving the Holocaust, and active resistance to the Nazi occupation of Thessaloniki. My Sweet Canary is one of her most beloved songs and also the title of a documentary film about her life, released in 2011.
My sweet canary/You captivate my mind/Every morning you wake me up/When you chirp sweetly/Come to me, in my arms/Ah, one night in my bedroom/Come to me, in my arms/So I can smother you with my kisses/Ah, you jealous bird/You will drive me crazy/With your sweet speech/You will make me your slave/Come to me, in my arms/Ah one night in my bedroom/Come to me, in my arms/So I can smother you with my kisses

In 1996, from a village tucked into Romania’s northeastern corner, Fanfare Ciocarlia emerged as one of the primary forces in bringing Romani Balkan brass to the global stage. As the band’s website puts it: “Their music is characterized by breakneck speed, ripping rhythms, and sweet and sour horns.” Iag Bari is the title song of their 19-track third album.
What longing, what longing!/Why did you walk away from me?/What longing, what longing/You won’t ever come back to me/You made me promises/But you broke them all/You left home/For no reason/I already live without you/Don’t live far from me/I already live without you/When will you come back?/You made me promises/But you broke them all/You left home/For no reason/What longing, what longing!/Why did you walk away from me?/What longing, what longing/You won’t ever come back to me!

In a career that lasted more than 50 years, Anne-Marie Nzié earned the titles Queen of Cameroonian Music and Queen Mother of Bikutsi, referring to the dance rhythm to which she sang many of her songs. Her life in music began at age 12 when, recuperating from injuries she suffered by falling out of a mango tree, her musician brother Moise taught her to play a Hawaiian guitar. She went on to appear with him in some of his concerts, and in 1954 they released Ma Ba Nzié, their first single. She reprised it on her solo album Béza Ba Dzo in 1999.
At 67, Anne-Marie’s voice is still incredibly fresh in the stripped-down, bluesy song that humorously details the plight of a suitor who discovers that his betrothed has just married another man.

Comedian Harmonists: Veronika, der Lenz ist da / Veronica, the Spring Is Here
Lyrics & music: Walter Jurmann, Fritz Rotter
Germany, German, 1930

One of the most successful music ensembles in pre-World War II Europe, the Comedian Harmonists were a six-member group—five voices and a pianist—that performed a wide repertoire of folk, classical and humorous popular songs of the day. They started in Berlin in 1928 and over the next six years recorded dozens of songs, played on stages across Europe, did an American tour and appeared in 21 films. Their good fortune ended when the Nazis came to power; three of the six ensemble members were Jewish and increasing restrictions on public performances by Jewish artists brought their career to an end. Most emigrated, and they were never able to re-form as a single group. Veronica, the Spring is Here was one of the ensemble’s best-known songs; in the lyrics, the expression “the asparagus is growing” is a sexual metaphor.
Veronica, spring is here, the girls sing tralala/All the world is bewitched/The asparagus is growing/Veronica, the world is green, let’s go into the woods/Even Grandpapa says to Grandma: Veronica, spring is here/Veronica, spring is here!/The girl is laughing, the lad is talking/Young lady, do you want to or not?/Outside we have spring/The poet Otto Light/Now thinks it’s his duty/He writes this verse/Veronica, rejoice, spring has arrived/All the world is bewitched/O, Veronica, the asparagus is growing/The world is green/So let’s go into the woods

Jose Chameleone: Jamila Analia / Jamila Is Crying
Lyrics & music: Jose Chameleone
Uganda, Swahili, 2004

Jose Chameleone (born Joseph Mayanja) started as a DJ in 1996 and made the transition to Afrobeat artist and musician, releasing more than 20 albums since 2000, and winning more than 20 East African and world music awards. His style pallet embraces Ugandan folk, African rumba, zouk, reggae and R&B. Jamila Analia is one of his classic songs.
Jamila and I haven’t seen each other for a long time/What has brought you to my home?/Welcome, let me give you a chair, tell me what’s going on, mama/That’s when Jamila started to cry, she couldn’t speak/But I could feel her pain, asking myself why was she crying/Jamila is crying, her man has left her, he has thrown her out/When Jamila began to talk, she spoke with a lot of pain/I sympathized with her/They started with love/But some days he didn’t come home/She asked if he had another woman/He told her to pack her bags/I don’t know how I will help her

Omar Souleyman: Wenu Wenu / وينو وينو / Where Is She?
Lyrics & music: Omar Souleyman
Syria, Arabic, 2013

Souleyman is a renowned singer who grew up in a Syrian village near the Turkish border. His music style is a modernized version of traditional dabke (he has sung at thousands of weddings, where dabke is the preferred folk dance) and he is influenced by the Arabic, Kurdish and Assyrian sounds he grew up with. After the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, he relocated to Turkey, where he has continued to produce albums. Wenu Wenu is the title track from his 2013 release.
Where is she? Where is she?/The one I loved, where is she?/And with her delicate mouth/Who kills with her beautiful eyes/Tell me how are you my love?/You, the one with a beautiful good heart/Tell me how are you my love?/You didn’t want me to suffer/You, my precious beloved/You didn’t want me to suffer/How are you doing my treasure?/You are always on my mind/Though you are torturing me/I can never forget you/Where is she? Where is she?/The one I loved, where is she?