Music of Réunion

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Réunion is located east of Madagascar and is a province (département) of France. Its population is mostly a mix of creoles, Indians and French but with some Malagasy, African and Chinese minorities.[1] Réunion is, along with neighbor Mauritius, home to sega music. It also has another traditional genre, maloya.

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[edit] Sega

Séga is a popular style that mixes African and European music.

[edit] Maloya

Maloya has a strong African element reflected in the use of slave chants and work songs.

[edit] Popular musicians

The most popular sega musicians include Baster and Ziskakan. The most popular maloya musicians are Danyel Waro and Firmin Viry. Other popular singers include Maxime Laope, Léon Céleste, Henri Madoré and Mapou, named after a kind of perfumed sugarcane candy. Musicians from nearby Mauritius are also popular.

[edit] Popular songs

[edit] Ti Fleur Fanée

The unofficial national anthem of Réunion is a song originally sung by Georges Fourcade called Ti Fleur Fanée[2]

[edit] Madina

The song "Madina" deserves special mention. It was frequently played on the island's only radio station[which?] in the 1950s and 1960s. The song was written by Maxime Laope, one of the island's most popular singers, and performed by another renowned singer, Henri Madoré.

[edit] Non-traditional music

In Réunion there is a very strong jazz community and rock culture is also becoming strong on the island.

Rap, Reggae, Zouk, Ragga and Dancehallare also popular. One popular ragga song recently is Ragga Chikungunya about the 2005 mosquito disease outbreak.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Clicanoo. "La Réunion Métisse". http://www.clicanoo.com/index.php?id_article=97657&page=article. 
  2. ^ Miller, Alo (2006). Réunion. DuMont. ISBN 3770163222, 9783770163229. http://books.google.de/books?id=R_R7WGOgTQYC&pg=PA53&dq=Ti+Fleur+Fan%C3%A9e&client=firefox-a#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved 2009-07-31. 
  3. ^ Lionnet, Françoise (2006). Disease, demography, and the ‘Debré Solution’: stolen lives and broken promises, 1946 to 2006 and back to 1966. http://www.atypon-link.com/INT/doi/abs/10.1386/ijfs.11.1and2.189_1. Retrieved 2009-07-31. 

[edit] See also


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