Valley Entertainment Listen To The Banned

MUSIC THAT MAKES DICTATORS
TREMBLE & FUNDAMENTALISTS ANGRY

This is a collection of songs from artists around the world who have faced censorship or had their music banned. These artists and other like them in the different corners of the world must have the right to exist and freely express their feelings and opinions through their art. We can not allow our freedom of expression to be compromised. Music must not be silenced”

- Deeyah

Listen to the Banned is a unique collection of contemporary songs by artists who have been censored, persecuted, taken to court, imprisoned and even tortured for a very simple reason – their music.

Music brings joy and gives a voice to the “voiceless” - a power that earns the condemnation of intolerant religious leaders and dictators alike.

Presented by Freemuse and Deeyah the compilation is a unique musical statement by artists who are united in one single, important issue – the protection of the freedom of musical expression, a freedom many take for granted.

		After Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, severe restrictions were imposed on artists. Following, female singers were banned from singing in public. Today women in Iran can practice musical forms but cannot sing in public for mixed audiences. Mahsa Vahdat refuses to be forced into for-women-only concerts in his home country and instead chooses to hold concerts only outside of Iran. Lapiro De Mbanga is currently being detained in a Cameroonian jail. His song “Constitution Constipée” became the unofficial anthem of protests in 2008 spurred by a constitutional change that would allow the president to stay in power indefinitely. He has served 2 of his 3 year sentence for allegedly taking part in the anti-government riots by "inciting youth unrest". He was also ordered to pay a fine equivalent to US $640,000 for damage caused during the riots. Lapiro believes that music can be used as a strong tool against corruption and power abuse. He has become a symbol of peaceful resistance to the erosion of democracy in Cameroon. Forced to flee to the USA in August 2008, Haroon Bacha had to leave behind his wife and two children. His songs of “peace, tolerance and resistance to war” were not accepted by the Taliban in Pakistan - “They used to come very frequently back home, just telling me to stop music, or else I would be killed and my family would be. ...”
During the Taliban’s rule of his native Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, all music - including that of Farhad Darya, films and television were banned. Aziza Brahim was born in exile in a refugee camp in Algeria, her mother having carried her across the border from Western Sahara in her womb as she fled the advance of Moroccan occupying armies in 1976. In one moving song, Hijo de les Nubes (Song of the Clouds), she sings about the 1500 mile fortified barrier that divides Western Sahara. Known as “the Wall” it was built by the Moroccans to keep the Saharawi’s from returning to their native land and it has meant that families have been kept separate for generations. The authorities in Morocco have censored her music because it celebrates those Sahrawi people who were tortured, killed or reported missing during the conflict. Following a political crisis in his home of Côte d'Ivoire during which a number of close friends were brutally killed, Tiken Jah Fakoly went into exile in Mali and was granted political asylum in 2003. He was declared “persona non grata” in Senegal after joining the young democratic movement and criticizing the country’s president. As a member of the Palestinian minority in Israel, Amal Murkus is seen as an “enemy within” - Israel based music companies refuse to work with her. Her feminist views and refusal to cancel concerts during Ramadan have received backlash from the Islamic movement within Israel.
		Fadal Dey's songs advocating for more democracy in Africa have been banned by national radio and television. In a 2007 he was part of a group of musicians from Côte d'Ivoire who had decided to confront hawkers selling counterfeit cassettes and CDs in the city’s business quarter. Witnesses say that police stood by idly as the artists were set upon by a large group of bootleggers and men armed with rocks and sticks. Dey and fellow-musician Gbazza Figaro were knocked unconscious by bricks. Abazar Hamid quit his job in Sudan as an architect in 2005 to devote himself full time to music. He is forced to submit his songs to a governmental run music monitoring committee who has censored and rejected the majority of his songs. He traveled to rural areas in 2008 in hopes to convince Janjaweed women to sing about peace instead of their traditional role – “compose and sing songs to stir up men's baser instincts and launch them to war.” He recently cut a pragmatic deal with the censors to let him record and produce "New Sudan" and "Peace Darfur" in exchange for never singing a song he wrote titled "Enough." Chiwoniso Maraire spoke out against police brutality, increasing corruption and lack of free speech. She left Zimbabwe in 2007 after several uncivil interrogations by local police.
Marcel Khalife was accused of blasphemy and forced to stand before the Beirut Court of First Instance in 1999 because he cited verses from the Qur’an in a song – Lebanon’s highest Sunni authority ruled that singing verses from the Qur’an was “absolutely banned”. In 2007, a dance performance that included his music and Bahraini Qassim Haddad’s poems was attacked by fundamentalist members of the Parliament in Bahrain because it was accused of “arousing sexual instincts”. Ferhat Tunç is an Alevit belonging to the Kurdish minority in Turkey - he is not allowed to practice his religion, speak his language in public or listen to Kurdish music. He is currently in the middle of a legal battle for singing a Kurdish song and faces imprisonment of up to 15 years regarding charges of "spreading propaganda for the PKK organisation", the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, and "acting on behalf of an illegal organisation" at the Nature, Culture and Arts Festival held in the eastern city of Siirt on 15 August 2009. Kurash Sultan was a symbol for the Uighur (an indigenous people of East Turkistan in north-western China) resistance movement protesting Chinese dominance and cultural oppression: "I wrote many freedom songs against the government pressure and the Chinese communist regime. Then I was imprisoned in China for three years. After that I released four albums in Kyrgyzstan. One album is called "Wake Up". Then I was put in prison for nine months in Kyrgyzstan and finally through the help of UN I came to Sweden. " As an artist born in Israel to Palestinian parents, Kamilya Jubran has had to deal with a personal sense of distress and loss caused by the travel restrictions her Israeli passport imposes on her. (The only Arab countries in the region that have signed a peace agreement with Israel are Jordan and Egypt). "I can't perform in any other Arab country in the area and this is of course my direct public," said Jubran. The distribution of her music has also been restricted because of the political situation.		Click here to Buy the Album on CD or MP3!
Contact Eric Mace Valley Entertainment eric@valley-entertainment.com 1-212-580-9200 ext. 11		For more info visit: Freemuse Deeyah Official Listen to the Banned Home Page Listen To The Banned Facebook Listen To The Banned Twitter