1964. In the midst of the Cold War, ten young promising musicians from Mali are sent to Cuba to study music and strengthen cultural links between the two socialist regimes. They invent a whole new genre: Afro- Cuban Music and become the iconic group 'Las Maravillas de Mali'. New Year's Eve 2000. Richard Minier, a French music producer meets a former member of the band in Bamako and decides to bring the band back together.
Despite its Afro-American origins, the history of disco music, the soundtrack of the seventies, would be inconceivable without a handful of legendary European music producers who conjured up some of the biggest world-wide hits in the anonymity of their studios.
When, in the seventies, British folk singer Cat Stevens, later known as Yusuf Islam, achieved worldwide fame, he immediately became the spokesman for a disillusioned hippie generation.
By the end of the seventies, disco music, considered too mainstream, was dead. But DJs and dance floors still needed new records and faster rhythms. Built on synthesizer sounds, the hi-nrg (high energy) style swept the gay clubs before hitting the charts during the eighties.
Musical Christmas Special hosted by Benjamin Biolay.
Legendary Paris rock venue, the Bataclan, has reopened with an emotional gig by the British singer Sting, a year after jihadi gunmen burst in and killed 90 people during a series of terrorist attacks in the French capital. The former Police frontman, 65, appeared on stage to cheers as hundreds of concert-goers including families of the victims and survivors, crowded together struggling to comprehend how gunmen could have burst into the venue – now completely refurbished to cover up its lasting scars, including a new stage and red velvet curtains – and opened fire on music fans in one of the most brutal attacks on French soil since the second world war.
A 3 volume DVD set issued by Barclay Records to mark the 25th anniversary of Jacques Brel's death. This amazing collection contains performances filmed in European television plateaux, rarities, interviews and reports, carefully restored from original sources to allow the viewer rediscover the amazing work of this extraordinary performer in its original splendor. It also includes five previously unpublished songs that Brel wrote in 1977: La Cathédrale, L'Amour est mort, Mai 40, Avec Élégance, and Sans Exigences .
