This month👇
Editorial
Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects
Open calls and professional events:
🔸Afro Pepites
🔸Radar Madrid
🔸Open Calls page on Indie Balkans
Meet me at ✈️
Hello, how are you? I hope you’re doing well. Today, I greet you on the last day of the blessed month of May, that has 31 days. The beautiful photo accompanying these words today was taken in Istanbul with Vigüela, by Ali Doğan Gönültaş, on the occasion of the Toledo band’s visit for their first concert in Turkey.
We had time to see the Galata Tower, do some shopping, walk around and also, of course, play music. Vigüela performed on two days at the Etnosports Culture Festival. On the first day, after a heavy downpour, the stage was set up in just fifteen minutes. In the photo, you can see them during the soundcheck, together with Ali, who came to accompany us.
I will soon be flying again with them: we will be at Ethno Port, Poznań, Poland, between 11 and 13 June.
Like the previous edition, this one will be brief. For June I have an interview that I still have to edit, with Ola Kovalevska, director of Urban Lys and manager of Aly Keïta, whom I mentioned in the previous edition of this newsletter, in relation to the interview with him that I did for the European Folk Network newsletter.
Some people responded to my call in the previous edition. Ian Brennan informed me about one of his recent productions: HIMBA HYMN, Ghosts of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast. It has been released by Sublime Frequencies. You can listen to it and buy it here. It is very particular, as Ian’s productions usually are. Very far removed from easy listening. In fact, at times the album is very hard to listen to, although at other moments it is gentler and always surprising. Ian says of it that: “As a counterbalance to ethnocentric cliches, we’d come to record with possibly the most photographed people on earth, the Himba— to listen rather than gaze at them as if on display. To share their voices as a counter to their visual objectification, particularly the inappropriate eroticization of the women who customarily go topless throughout daily life.”
I will speak with Ian properly and at length in a few days. I have a lot of things I would like to ask him, and we have already set a date for our conversation. If you don’t know Ian Brennan yet, this is his website.
And this other picture is a screenshot from my interview with Ola. In July I am going to meet her in person. It will be in Sofia, during A To Jazz. Aly Keïta will perform on the 3rd. The festival found him a slot outside the showcase day, which will be on 2 July, and for whose selection I had the pleasure of being a member of the jury.
I have to say that the quality of the proposals submitted for the showcase was surprisingly high. On 2 July, the A To Jazz programme consists of this showcase, which includes 12 concerts that are extremely diverse and of great interest. Check the programme here.
I cannot help wondering how it is that such good artists, some of them very experienced and with well-developed careers, apply to perform at showcases. I feel I am repeating ideas that I have already shared. There are very few professional spaces in which to present oneself compared to the amount of artistic projects that exists. Competition is extreme and artists take advantage of every opening that may give them visibility and open doors for them.
Perhaps this is one of the defining characteristics of our sector today: an extraordinary abundance of creativity competing for a very limited number of spaces. It is a fascinating situation, but also a challenging one. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.
In the next edition, once again, other people’s voices will take centre stage. As always, if you are a professional working in any area of this sector, one of those who are not on stage, and you have something to share, or if you think your professional journey may be inspiring to others, please get in touch with me.
If your work is artistic, visit www.mundofonias.com. If you produce records, visit www.transglobalwmc.com.
Remember: if you have any news of interest for our community, let me know. Thank you very much for your attention.
Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música | +34 676 30 28 82
BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS
🔸#1 for Transglobal World Music Chart in May of 2026 has been: Tinariwen’s Hoggar (Wedge / Warp)
🔸Mundofonías: the favourites of May have been Claire Vine’s We carve our path (Cuculi Records), Aman aman: Greek-Anatolian laments [V.A.] (Mississippi Records) and Hamraaz’s Abar kuh (AudioMaze)
Do you have a call of interest for our community that you want to share? Let me know asap
OPEN CALLS & PROFESSIONAL EVENTS
This section is open for news. It is free of charge. You can let me know if you have any open call of relevance to the community.
🔸Afro Pepites Show #16
Open to artists from Africa, the Caribbean, South America or any other artists inspired by Africa. Free for artists & labels from Africa and Southern America. A membership fee of €20 for other cases.
Applications are open until 30 September 2026. According to their call: “At a time when many talented creatives struggle to access communication and visibility tools, the Afro Pepites Show reaffirms its mission: to support, promote and give visibility to African, Afro-descendant and Afro-inspired artistic talents, regardless of their country of origin.
✨ Selected projects will benefit from:
1) Free and targeted visibility within our network
2) Exclusive promotion of your project
3) Privileged access to the Motherland Show to expand your network, explore new opportunities and build your skills.
Opened to: Musicians, dancers, humorists, storytellers, poets, writers, painters, sculptors, street artists, stylists, photographers, film directors, and inventors (new).
f you have any questions, please email: Mo.Show@lereveafricain.com”
🔸Radar Madrid
Submission deadline: June 15th at 11:59 PM – Only for artistic projects based in Spain.
It seemed inevitable that something like this would eventually appear in Madrid. After Sol Madrid, which eventually faded away despite taking place a couple of times, the last one in 2019, there has not been anything similar focused on music. There is, however, a similar initiative for the performing arts: Madferia.
As far as I understand after a conversation with someone from their team, the idea of Radar Madrid has come about taking advantage of the fact that WOMEX will be held in the Canary Islands this year, between 21 and 25 October, making it easier for international delegates to stop first in Madrid, then travel to WOMEX and afterwards continue on to BIME Bilbao.
Radar Madrid will take place from 19 to 21 October and is presented as being focused on Spanish and Hispanic talent. According to the organisers, “The call is open to a wide range of musical genres, and we are looking for projects ready to expand into new markets—whether through performances at international stages and festivals, or by developing new audiences and synchronization opportunities beyond the Spanish market.”
What does it offer to selected artists?
- A fee as compensation for their participation. The exact amount will be communicated individually.
- The opportunity to perform in front of accredited international music industry professionals (the showcases will last approximately 30 minutes and will take place at LA SALA and at venues included in the Madrid en Vivo initiative).
- A basic backline provided by the organisation.
- Artist accreditation and access to the conference.
All the details are here: https://radar.madrid/english
Although artists not based in Spain cannot apply, I think it is interesting to talk about this initiative for the other professional profiles this newsletter is aimed at.
I do not think I will be able to attend, because we have taken into account that there are already interesting events taking place on the Tuesday before WOMEX, such as the various delegation presentations, so we will be travelling to the Canary Islands on Monday.
What will happen next year if WOMEX is no longer held in the Canary Islands? Will there still be a Radar Madrid? Will this have been the beginning of a path intended to become an annual event, or just a one-off edition? Or perhaps WOMEX will also be in the Canary Islands next year and they already know something the rest of us don’t? Time will tell.
🔸Open Calls page on Indie Balkans
There are some more general showcase calls that I do not want to go into in greater detail, but which you can find on the Indie Balkans website, within the framework of the Bridging Balkan Borders project, in which they are involved. These include, for example, Reeperbahn, ESNS, MENT Ljubljana or Waves Vienna (although this last call has already closed). I spoke about Indie Balkans in the February edition, which you can find here.
Mila Georgieva and Ruth Koleva, founders of SoAlive Music Conference, are involved in this project. Both are key figures in the internationalisation of Bulgarian music. I know Mila better, because we have met at European Folk Network and European Music Council meetings, and I find it very interesting to follow their activities and their vision.
MEET ME AT
- 11th-14th June: concert and workshop by Vigüela in EthnoPort festival (Poznań, Poland)
- 27th June: concert by Ali Doğan Gönültaş at the Mawazine Festival in Rabat (Morocco)
- 1st-4th July: A to Jazz + MTC (Music Talks Conference) (Sofia, Bulgaria). As I mentioned in the previous edition, I have been a jury for the showcase of A to Jazz and I will gladly attend to the showcase day, 2nd of July, as well as the rest of the activities of the festival and the conference. Juan Antonio Vázquez will also be attending.
- 14th-17th July: Les suds, à Arles, workshop and concert by Ali Doğan Gönültaş.