FolkWorld #79 11/2022
© Womex

FolkWorld 25th Anniversary 1997-2022

Hitting All The Right Notes

Womex

Lisbon, Portugal
19 - 23 Oct 2022


Womex @ FROG

www.womex.com

Júlio Resende Group

Artist Video
www.julioresende.com

The 28th edition of WOMEX – the Worldwide Music Expo kicked off hitting all the right notes loud and clear in Lisbon, Portugal, with an official Opening ceremony: Lisbon Sounds, in one of Lisbon's most historic and beautiful 1920s concert hall Teatro Tivoli. With more than 1,000 guests in attendance, the concert hall was filled with rich sounds of this exciting city spread around in all directions, confirming the position of Portugal as an exemplar of the interaction of cultures, music and traditions.

Lisbon Sounds offered a showcase of music made in Portugal and its intersection with different artistic languages, reinventing and uniting the voices, styles, imagination and instruments from Portuguese popular culture. The Opening evening featured mesmerising live performances from four Portuguese artists: Beatriz Felicio, Club Makumba, Expresso Transatlântico and Júlio Resende.

This year's local partner António Miguel Guimarães from AMG Music opened the speeches and thanked and acknowledged everyone involved in bringing WOMEX to Portugal for the second time. He shared: "Initiatives like WOMEX, we are pleased and proud to represent and promote in Portugal: to establish links and to share and communicate experiences from around the world through music. We create dialogues; we create culture; we create hope. WOMEX Lisbon starts here and now!"

Kalàscima

Artist Video Kalàscima @ FROG

www.kalascima.it

Diogo Moura, councillor for Culture, Lisbon City Council, shared: "Culture is always a space of dialogue, mutual knowledge and mutual recognition, and we have a chance to start this dialogue...culture is a shared responsibility and it gives the context for people to be together. The triangle between local authorities, national government and private entities is a virtuous one and it gives oxygen to creation and culture."


And, It's A Wrap!

After five intense and packed days of networking, meetings, conferences, showcases, films and re-connecting with the global music community, the 28th edition of WOMEX — organised by Piranha Arts and the local Portuguese partner, AMG Music — came to a grand finish on Sunday with the Awards ceremony taking place in one of Lisbon's most historic and important landmark theatres built in the 19th century, São Luiz Teatro Municipal.

We are overwhelmed with the amount of positive feedback we have received and thank everyone for a successful WOMEX 22 Lisbon edition! Over the five days of WOMEX in Lisbon, together, we experienced music from around the world, inspiring talks and sessions, watched incredible films, networked, shared, connected, made new friends, caught up with old ones and celebrated the worldwide music community.

WOMEX took place in Lisbon for the first time, and for the second consecutive time in Portugal. This year's culturally and musically diverse event concluded with more than 3,100 music professionals (including 280 performing artists) from 113 countries, hosted more than 60 showcase artists representing 280 musicians spread across eight stages, 21 music-based documentaries, 111 speakers and mentors participated in the conference sessions and a bustling trade fair with 676 exhibiting companies with more than 260 stands and two radio studios on-site.


Catch-up With WOMEX 22 Lisbon in Photos, Videos and Spotify Playlists

A big thanks to our official media partners for WOMEX 22 in Lisbon, RTP Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, who supported us with the Radio Studio on-site and recording some of the stages. Stream the Live showcases on the RTP Palco website. With the help of our longtime friends and partners, WIMM Productions, we managed to catch some artists live on stage from WOMEX 22 in Lisbon. Catch the playlist on WOMEX's YouTube channel. WOMEX by MOON is a collection of four short films made artistically by Vincent Moon during the 28th edition of the WOMEX in Lisbon, Portugal. Starting 19 December onwards, find them on our YouTube channel. Listen to the WOMEX 22 Showcases Artists playlist and a compilation of 20 Top Labels of this year's playlist along with many others. Check out the photos on Flickr from our amazing photographers capturing all the action from WOMEX 22 in Lisbon.



Revealing The WOMEX 22 Award Recipients

WOMEX 22 came to a grand finish last Sunday, 23 October with the Awards ceremony taking place in one of Lisbon's most historic and important landmark theatres built in the 19th century, São Luiz Teatro Municipal.

Startijenn

Artist Video Startijenn @ FROG

www.startijenn.bzh

The Awards ceremony honoured the achievements of the two award recipients: Francis Gay, COSMO Head of Music, who received the WOMEX 22 Professional Excellence Award and Ivo Papasov (Bulgaria), who received the WOMEX 22 Artist Award. Along with the Award Recipients, the closing celebrated the independent recording industry with the 20 Top Labels of the Year presentation followed by an exhilarating performance from Ivo Papasov and his band.

ARTIST AWARD: IVO PAPASOV

A large man grasps a fragile-looking stick of a clarinet and raises it to his mouth: a rapid-fire of wild runs, tricky turnarounds, leaps, squeaks and lightning-fast trills bursts forth. Ivo Papasov has been at the top of his field for the best part of 50 years – it’s just that people haven’t always realised it.

Born at the border of Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, in the city of Kurdzali in the East Rhodope mountains (“where I have found my music roots” he says), Papasov plays Bulgarian wedding music, which he has evolved into a unique personal style with international influence from Turkish, Greek, Balkan and Roma music, as well as from jazz and off-kilter rock. His extreme virtuosity and expert command of his instrument quickly secured Papasov and his Trakija Band as the most-wanted wedding entertainers in 1970s Bulgaria. By taking an unorthodox approach to the tradition, he revolutionised it.

It wasn’t always easy: at times his contradiction of traditions brought clashes with the old musical guard; and wedding audiences later abandoned his style for Westernised pop. But genius is hard to dampen, and a resurgence in the last 20 years has seen Papasov and his band once again touring internationally, releasing critically-acclaimed albums and gathering awards as they explode their way through mind-bending time signatures at breakneck speed. It’s a wonder his clarinet doesn’t burst into flames.

Ivo Papasov

Artist Video Ivo Papasov @ FROG

www.ivo-papasov.com

It is for his dedication to the advancement of Bulgarian wedding music both in- and outside the country; for his resilience in remaining the epitome of his style through thick and thin; and for his sheer, passion-filled mastery of the clarinet, that Ivo Papasov is the recipient of the WOMEX 22 Artist Award.

On receiving the Artist Award, Ivo Papasov stated: "I am very honoured to receive this award. It is a vocation for our work, mine and that of my musicians. This high recognition fills me with pride for my work. I have been playing Bulgarian wedding music for more than 50 years. There are no boundaries between rich and poor, nor between colour and nationalities. Our music is the music that brings joy to people, makes them happy, and makes them free."

PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE AWARD: FRANCIS GAY, COSMO HEAD OF MUSIC

At the very core of music are the musicians. Every other aspect of our industry is about lifting up those musicians, and Francis Gay has achieved this more than most. Over the past 40 years, Gay has been involved in basically every part of the European world music industry and beyond.

He’s probably best known for his work in radio, revolutionising Germany’s Cosmo Radio (formerly Funkhaus Europa) as its head of music while hosting his own internationally-renowned shows Selektor and 5Planeten. He’s also a journalist and writer, a DJ, a promoter of concerts and clubs, a festival director and curator, a record producer, a finder of elusive musicians and an all-around expert on the musical here-and-now. He raises artists up every step of the way, bringing attention to special sounds that would otherwise remain unheard. He doesn’t guard his expertise jealously, either: he’s a familiar face at industry events all over the world, spreading his knowledge far and wide and always mentoring the younger generation of professionals.

It is undeniable that without him, the presence of music’s great, global, diversity in Europe would look – and sound – very different. It is for his passionate and tireless commitment to the worldwide musical community; for introducing the world’s best music to many, many ears; and for keeping musicians at the core, that Francis Gay is the recipient of the WOMEX 22 Award for Professional Excellence.

On receiving the Professional Excellence Award, Francis Gay shared with the audience: "WOMEX is a global village but also a place where we have obligations. Obligations to build bridges, obligations to address global inequalities such as the struggle for democracy, corruption, climate change, misinformation, gender issues, and migration. The obligation to keep our community alive. Each of us has something to contribute. It's up to each and every one of you to find a role in this community and use your privilege to really make a difference.



Mark your diaries — 25 to 29 October 2023 — we are looking forward to seeing you all in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain! Keep your creative ideas for sessions, films, artist suggestions etcetera ready for WOMEX 23. The Call for Proposals for the next edition will start end of January 2023.



Photo Credits: (1) Womex, (5) Ivo Papasov (unknown/website); (2) Kalàscima, (6) Tęgie Chłopy (by Yannis Psathas); (3) Júlio Resende Group, (4) Startijenn (by Eric van Nieuwland); (7) Windborne, (8) Sara Correia, (9) Oratnitza (by Jacob Crawfurd).


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