[FA Worldmusic] Angelique's Grammy

Tue Feb 12 22:29:06 AST 2008

Your reporting does little good to what is important.  Angelique is a great
artist.

I'm not hoping to hear very much more from this thread.

Angelique is a winner.

Evangeline

  1..
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Steve Hochman
  To: Evangeline Kim
  Cc: fa-worldmusic at folk.org
  Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 8:51 PM
  Subject: Re: [FA Worldmusic] Angelique's Grammy

  Evangeline, I get what you're saying, but remember the context. I'm a
journalist who was covering the Grammy Awards in the backstage print press
room, and Angelique came back to address us and made those comments....
without even being asked a question. She just started talking and after saying
it was great to win a Grammy questioned the category. How is reporting that
mean and/or insensitive?

   I made no statement as to whether she did or did not deserve the award,
which is as already demonstrated in this email group open for debate. There's
no question that her recognition has a lot to do with her crossover strides
and the fact that this album is full of relatively high-profile non-African
performers. I'll admit I'm not a huge fan of this record, which is a matter of
taste and taste alone. Many people love it and rightfully so.

  But the reason I thought her comments were worth printing was that I admired
her forthrightness and willingness to question the very process that brought
her honors that night. Ignoring what she said, not giving her heartfelt
statements exposure, would hardly be a way to celebrate her spirit.

  Around the World
  http://www.spinner.com/category/around-the-world/

  On Feb 12, 2008, at 5:29 PM, Evangeline Kim wrote:

    GUYS, I love you all,

    However, I found Hochman's entry about Angelique awful in the way that
    journalists can be very mean and totally insensitive to what is the most
    important:  THE. GREAT AFRICANS. WHO. INSPIRE. THE. WORLD. ARE NEVER
    RECOGNIZED IN THEIR LIFETIME. YETL -- Some journalists are only after
    'sensationalist' issues and skew artistic greatness to puff up their
    so-called 'authority.'

    If you look at Afropop.org and their magnificent  achievements as far as
    honoring Africa's great artists, you'll understand deeper and better - how
    Angelique has long deserved this Grammy honor...

    Honor Angelique: All of Africa does for her great work for the children
and
    mothers all over Africa as well as the depth and beauty of her great
music--
    Angelique is one of the greatest artists form Africa  today --  that she
    introduces from Benin, her country.  Listen to all of her great, great
    music.

    Best,
    Evangeline

    At 14:12 -0500 12/2/08, Robert Weisberg wrote:

      Ah, the old 'world music' semantic conundrum again.  Guess Angelique is

      not afraid to bite the un-genre that feeds her!

      (Although maybe then it's somehow appropriate that she lives in the US,

      where Grammies aside, 'world music' is somewhat less of a recognized,

      organized, marketed concepted than in Europe.)

    You know, it would be really easy for these world music loathers to
    turn the awards down but they never do, do they?

    In the UK, a musician called Nitin Sawhney is always banging on about
    how he hates the term, that it's a restricting ghetto for musicians
    blah blah blah, but he turned up the collect his BBC Radio 3 Award
    for World Music and - not once, but twice - applied for and got a
    showcase at Womex. I hesitate to use the word "hypocritical", but . .
    .  if they turned it down, then one of the many artists who DO
    appreciate what a boost this concept has given to their own careers
    and often their culture too could receive it instead.

    And just think - no such thing as bad publicity - they could actually
    cash in on gaining column centimetres by the very act of turning the
    thing down. Good result all round!

    --
    Ian Anderson
    Editor: fRoots Magazine

    Local Music From Out There

    email: ian at frootsmag.com
    realmail: fRoots, PO Box 337, London N4 1TW, England
    tel: (Int +44) (0)20 8340 9651
    fax: (Int +44) (0)20 8348 5626
    web: http://www.frootsmag.com
    MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/frootsmag

    The first and foremost world music, roots and folk monthly
    magazine celebrates its 300th issue in June 2008! Now
    also presenting the latest music in fRoots Radio on the net,
    and home to the interactive fRoots Forum, all to be found
    at http://www.frootsmag.com

    From Anglo trad to Zanzibar pop, via the great mixing
    desk in the sky. (Pronounce it "eff-Roots").

    P please consider the environment - do you really need to print this
email?
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: "Robert Weisberg" <robwv at panix.com>
    To: "FA-Worldmusic ((((E-mail))))" <fa-worldmusic at folk.org>
    Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:35 PM
    Subject: Re: [FA Worldmusic] Angelique's Grammy

      Actually I see that she won in the best 'contemporary' world music

      category; 'traditional' world music is a whole other category.  Now

      technically, if you consider pure African genre recordings
'traditional',

      so that any soukous cd, any benga cd, any maskanda cd as belongs to the

      traditional category - then Djin Djin winds up much higher up the list.

      At least for African music.  So allow me to correct myself, kinda.
Sorry

      for emailing without thinking...

      Rob W

      *********

      On Tue, 12 Feb 2008, Robert Weisberg wrote:

        Ah, the old 'world music' semantic conundrum again.  Guess Angelique
is

        not afraid to bite the un-genre that feeds her!

        (Although maybe then it's somehow appropriate that she lives in the
US,

        where Grammies aside, 'world music' is somewhat less of a recognized,

        organized, marketed concepted than in Europe.)

        Of course, if there really is a best 'world music' album, I'm not
sure

        that Djin Djin is it.  Nor would it be even the best African album, in
my

        opinion (and I doubt I'm alone there).  But that's ANOTHER story -
the

        Grammy conundrum...

        Rob W (WFMU)

        ***********

        On Tue, 12 Feb 2008, Steve Hochman wrote:

          Some sharp remarks from Kidjo on her Grammy win in my Around the
World

          column this week, as well as notes on fellow victors the Soweto
Gospel

          Choir and Little Joe y La Familia:

          Around the World

          http://www.spinner.com/category/around-the-world/

          as always, share and enjoy!

          Steve

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