# World Music advice (female vocalists) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 12, 2007, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920 "2007-02-12T21:15:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/1 "2007-02-12T21:15:54Z")
So, my wife is in charge of a pretty Big Deal event that will have prominent female leaders-of-industry from all over the world in attendance. She has already booked a fairly well-known female act but she has assigned me the task of digging up some additional world music artists (female, solo or group) to have ready as “intermission music” between conference presentations. I know a few (ZapMama, Kitka, Les Nubians) but could use some more recommendations, especially re: specific albums. Emphasis is on Eastern Europe, Central America, and East Africa, but anything really enjoyable and distinctive (and not too “poppy”) would be appreciated. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/2 "2007-02-12T21:55:21Z")
Brazilian Virginia Rodrigues, esp. her album [_Sol Negro_.](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4791FDB47A57020CE873B5DDEB17AF501CA4EFB803E2D595B92B63E45911E7AE84AF095CFAEFB77AB7BAFFF29E85E05D6CBE453FFCC0640&sql=10:zt98b5x4msq4) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2007, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/3 "2007-02-12T23:27:25Z")
Eastern European - [Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Myst%C3%A8re_des_Voix_Bulgares) There are a couple collections out on 4AD, really sublime. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/4 "2007-02-13T00:06:05Z")
Bebel Gilberto (very smooth and relaxing) Juana Molina (you will have to pick and choose the songs, some are too electronica) Lisa Gerrard (intense and exotic) Ofra Haza (also, some cherry picking involved, she has plenty of pop and techno but also some real nice yemenite songs) Anonymous 4 and Medieval Baebes (if you want a bit of early music) ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/5 "2007-02-13T03:29:09Z")
Go here: [http://ectoguide.org/](http://ectoguide.org/) And then page **Equipoise** ; she used to host a radio show of just such music. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/6 "2007-02-13T03:36:07Z")
I’ll make up a podcast with some suggestions and message you AG. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/7 "2007-02-13T03:53:24Z")
A couple others: Vas Azam Ali (a member of Vas) Rosina de Peira Sheila Chandra (very, very dated, though) Natacha Atlas Gjallarhorn Ulla Pittijarvi ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/8 "2007-02-13T11:41:21Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] I’ll make up a podcast with some suggestions and message you AG. [/QUOTE] Any chance you could cc me on that? Please? Pretty please? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/9 "2007-02-13T13:03:49Z")
My favorite Spanish singer is Mexico’s [Rocio Banquells](http://www.alma-latina.net/01actresses/r/rocio_banquells.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/10 "2007-02-13T14:12:24Z")
Cesaria Evora (Cape Verde), Angelique Kidjo (Benin?), Mercedes Sosa (Argentina), Amparo Ochoa (Mexico), Xiomara Fortuna (Dominican Republic) and Susana Baca (Peru). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/11 "2007-02-13T14:25:03Z")
A friend of mine has made a site called [Howling Earth](http://www.howlingearth.com/), which features Latin American musicians. From the website: > [@](#): > > We make live video recordings of authentic traditional, classical, folk and street music for sale and distribution as dvds as well as pre-recorded cds of Latin American groups and indi- vidual artists. At least one video of each group will be available as a free download. > > The musicians represented on our site recieve a fair and equal share of > all sales for their contributions. Sort of ‘Fair Trade music’. These musicians are not well known (which is the point of the site), but they are certainly authentic. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/12 "2007-02-13T18:03:28Z")
Wow, thanks for all the suggestions 🙂 (and especially Equipoise for your help; do you mean message here on the board, or my personal e-mail?) I’ll start going through some of those artists when I get a chance (hopefully today). ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/13 "2007-02-13T18:06:39Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] Ofra Haza (also, some cherry picking involved, she has plenty of pop and techno but also some real nice yemenite songs) [/QUOTE] This will unfortunately work only if the plan is for playback during the intermissions, as she has been dead for several years now ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/14 "2007-02-13T22:33:20Z")
Archive Guy, I meant a PM here at the board. What’s the time frame on this? I’ll be working on this over the next few days. I assume this is just for a background music kind of thing, not that you’re looking for artists to perform since you already have an act lined up. Right? [QUOTE=twickster] Any chance you could cc me on that? Please? Pretty please? [/QUOTE] Sure. I’m not sure what form this will take. I’ll probably put together a few different samplers, put them online, then give AG and you the URLs where you can download them. I’m afraid my music collection is very European-centric, with some Indian. I only have a smattering of African and I’m not sure I have any Central American music. I do have some South American music. I’m lamenting my hard drive crash from a couple of years ago, because I used to have more African but only as mp3s that got munged. I’m ripping some CDs I had, but all I can find is Angelique Kidjo and Sona Diabate. There are tons of artists on MySpace, but unfortunately few of them allow downloads of their music. and I’d have to be a millionaire to buy music from all the artists I like, so I’m working with what I have in my own collection. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/15 "2007-02-13T23:50:52Z")
Thanks again Equipoise. 🙂 My goal is to have a cursory list of prospects (artist & album) by next week. The list will probably have to run a little on the fat side because we’ll need to be able to buy the CDs we plan on using by the first week in March (I live in the Bay Area, so have a ton of music stores at my disposal, and anything that isn’t too obscure or hard to find will probably be available via Amazon, etc.) so have to count on the possibility of not getting everything in time. I’ll keep an eye out for your PM (it’ll be my first!) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![No\_Me\_Ayudes\_Compadre](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/no_me_ayudes_compadre/32/5224_2.png) [@No\_Me\_Ayudes\_Compadre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_Me_Ayudes_Compadre)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/16 "2007-02-14T00:03:28Z")
Let me suggest Manou Gallo, formerly of Zap Mama. Some sample tracks: [http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/album/content.album/dida\_25836](http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/album/content.album/dida_25836) ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/17 "2007-02-16T00:59:31Z")
Bump ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/18 "2007-02-16T23:28:20Z")
OK, in processing the suggestions so far, I came up with this short list of artists & albums that seem to be right up they alley of what my wife’s looking for (hopefully) **Lila Downs** /_Border (La Linea)_ **Lhasa de Sela** /_La Llorina_ **Cesaria Evora** /_Cafe Atlantico_ **Ofra Haza** /_Yemenite Songs_ **Angelique Kidjo** /_Oyaya!_ **Virginia Rodrigues** /_Sol Negro_ I’ve submitted these for my wife’s perusal and hopefully she’ll give me an idea if I’m on the right track with one or more. The main problem I’m running into with the Eastern European business (Hungary/Bulgaria/Yugoslavia) is that so much of it gears more towards dissonance or “wailing” that I think it would be a bit distracting as intermission/“salon” music. The goal is to be diverse but not to the point where it alters the mood or tone of the event. Thanks again everyone and I’ll report back as things progress. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/19 "2007-02-16T23:33:33Z")
I haven’t forgotten you. I’ll be working on it this weekend. I have some non-wailing Bulgarian and Hungarian for you. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920/20 "2007-02-17T00:33:05Z")
Terrific. Thanks again (and mi esposa thanks you as well). 🙂 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-music-advice-female-vocalists/391920.md?page=2)