I’ve seen audiences get riled up about song contests, but rarely seen an orchestra almost run riot. Italy’s San Remo song contest is a prestigious event that celebrates the classic tradition of Italian canzone. What is surprising is that contestants have to face two juries: the orchestra playing behind the singers and the general public. The 2010 edition, which just closed, witnessed some incredible scenes, when the orchestra started throwing music sheets and booing when one of the contestants got through to the final three. TV presenter (and grandson of Italy’s last king) Emanuele Filiberto had given a comparatively poor vocal performance and should have been eliminated. But the popular vote got him through.

At the end of the day, however, the festival’s honour was saved when Valerio Scanu won the 2010 award, singing the ballad “Per tutte le volte che” (for all the times) written by Pierdavide Carone. The best man won this time at least.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t embed the scene of the musicians letting rip. But you can find a report on Euronews.

Eminem will be back in the UK for a show in 2010, the first in over 5 years. However, organisers were worried that the shows would be boycotted by the powerful Outrage gay rights group, who protested at previous shows and have been very effective in obstructing shows by Jamaican artists with overtly homophobic lyrics. So an agreement has been reached with the body, in which Eminem agreed not to perform lyrics that promote hate or homophobia and Outrage will not picket the shows or his hotel.

This inevitably raises the issue of censorship and free speech. But not that many poeple seem to be jumping to defend the right to be offensive.

Mercedes Sosa, the Argentinian singer who became the voice of the nueva cancion movement of the 60s and 70s, has died at the age of 74. Sosa was an outspoken singer, who used her voice and art to champion the causes of the poor in South America, even though she tried to distance herself from specific political movements. She was harassed in her native Argentina (once even receiving a body search by a policeman on stage), but remained steadfast. After a period of exile in Europe, she returned to a hero’s welcome just before the fall of the Argentinian dictatorship.

Sosa did not write herself, but worked closely with people such as Chilean writer Violeta Parra, who composed her signature tune, “Gracias a la Vida” (Thanks to Life).

Although I mostly cover pop music on A-Lyric, I deeply regret that there is not more room for protest or politically-committed performers. Where have their audiences gone?

In a pretty radical move, Sony Entertainment has decided to pull a track by the Malian harp player Toumani Diabete from the upcoming Little Big Planet game. The track “Tapha Niang” contains two lines quoted from the Quran. After a poster on a Sony message board started complaining, the company decided to withdraw the track and recall all games that were already in the shops.

Toumani Diabete is an award-winning player of the kora, an acoustic African harp. His gentle, dexterous music has been enjoyed by World music audiences for many years. The track “Tapha Niang” features on the album “Boulevard de l’indépendance”. In the online message, the poster claimed that using words from the Quran was offensive to Muslims. Given the nature of Diabete’s soulful music – and the fact that he himself is Muslim – this seems highly unlikely. However Sony were taking no chances and pulled the track.

The two lines basically say the equivalent of “All things must pass”, or “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust”.

Needless to say, the usual suspects waded in with conflicting opinions about whether it is offensive or not, although I’m not sure how many Imams play video games. My own sentiment was put best in a BBC interview with a British moderate.

“The number of stakeholders in the offence industry has just grown and grown and grown. Everybody gets offended about everything,” Yasmin Alibhai-Brown of British Muslims for Secular Democracy.

In a BBC interview, Diabaté claimed:

“It’s quite normal to play music and be inspired by the words of the prophet Mohammed. It’s my way to attract and inspire people towards Islam.”

It’s a shame that one of Africa’s most spiritual composers has fallen into this trap. If people find his music offensive, what must they think of the massacres that they are encouraged to carry out in games such as “Call of Duty” and the like or the witchcraft invoked in “World of Warcraft”. I can’t help feeling there’s a very selective offence button is being pushed in this case.

Diabaté is currently touring in France and the UK.

The issue of homophobic reggae lyrics is back in the news yet again, with an announcement that the German government is considering blacklisting homophobic lyrics from Jamaican performers. Artists such as Elephant Man and TOK are under scrutiny.

Censorship is always a touchy issue – but no less touchy than the protection of minorities. So why do I think the idea will fail?

The blacklist is intended to include media that glorify war and violence and incite hate. I can already see the resistance being put up by the games industries, some of whose titles are very borderline in terms of violence. Is it very PC, for example, to be revelling in the realism of blowing a soldier’s brains out in the WWII game “Call of Duty” when Europe is littered with graveyards of poor slobs that suffered just that fate?

Concerning the homophobic lyrics, Volker Beck, the leader of the Green Party parliamentary group, called on large Internet music sellers to already begin removing the CDs in question from their sales inventory. “Those in Jamaica who invoke hatred should not earn money with their music in Germany,” he said on Thursday in Berlin according to a report on DW-World.

The danger with these schemes is the difficulty of fixing the line between valid artistic expression and incitement to hate or violence. Who is going to draw that line? Something tells me this initiative will not get very far.

The New York Times ran a short piece about the then 16 year-old Gail Renard who snuck into the bed-in organised John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Montreal in 1969. At one stage, she witnessed some 50 people sing “Give Peace a Chance”. Choirboys included Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg as well as Petula Clark. Lennon handed Renard a lyric sheet of the song when leaving, saying “one day they will be worth something”. At an upcoming auction, Sotheby’s has estimated the something to be in the region of $400-600,000. This is a hefty chunk. But it must be pointed out that at most auctions of this kind, lyrics only rarely meet the estimates. It’s the actual authors’ rights that bring in the money.

I sometimes wonder if there’s a large book with complaints one can make about Eurovision entries that people pull out every year. French MP Jacques Myard is complaining that France’s Eurovision is partly in English. Post-modern dandy Sebastien Tellier’s “Divine” is in English (of sorts). Almost predictably, a number of politicians have taken it upon themselves to chastise the television company and label for choosing it.
The complaint is an old one: why is France representing itself in English? It’s a good enough question, as Edith Piaf’s biopic continues to generate huge interest in chanson around the world. But it’s also a pointless question. Lots of artists perform in English these days.

It’s just a shame Tellier couldn’t find a lyricist, and resorted to stream-of-consciousness drivel such as:

Oh oh oh
I’m alone in life to say
I love the Chivers anyway
‘Cause Chivers look divine

…
Oh oh oh I’m
Looking for a band today
I see the Chivers anyway
I ‘ll be a Chivers guy some day
In my mind

Yegads. Here’s a good candidate for misunderstood lyrics! As one of the posters on the YouTube page said, “At least if we’re going to win, we’ll do it in style.” Amandine de le Richardière is credited as co-lyricist.

I’ve always been a little uncomfortable with the campaign against dancehall, as it has echoes of the thought police in action. But I’ve always been very uncomfortable with some of the extremely violent anti-gay lyrics as well. Now the British resort Brighton has become the first UK town to officially ban licensed venues from playing anti-gay or hate lyrics. Is this a good or a bad thing?

Should Buju Banton and other dancehall artists be filed alongside the neo-Nazi groups that have their lyrics and shows banned? This is the thought that struck me when I heard about Brighton’s decision. It’s interesting as the decision comes in the same week as the BBC decided not to censor the Pogues’ “Fairytale in New York” (check the link below for a snippet) which features an exchange of insults that includes the line, “You scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot, happy Christmas your arse, I pray God it’s our last.â€?

After trying to “beep” the word “faggot”, the BBC eventually back-tracked. “While we would never condone prejudice of any kind, we know our audiences are smart enough to distinguish between maliciousness and creative freedom,” the BBC’s Andy Parfitt said.

If “maliciousness” is the criteria, then some of the anti-gay lyrics do indeed qualify. How should the media react? Is it OK for public authorities to weigh in? Who will decide which tracks qualify as “hate” lyrics? What do you think?

Irish band Republic of Loose have found themselves on the wrong side of the fence in South Africa, where their single “Break” was picking up good airplay. According to a report in the Irish Independent, a DJ came to the conclusion that the song was about unprotected anal sex. I don’t think I’d come to the same conclusion. However, in a continent ravaged by Aids, this is no joking matter. “Aaagh” and “Break” will be available in the UK as a single. Check the band at Republic of Loose.

Remember all the fuss about the anti-gay songs coming from Jamaica? A step forward has been taken, with three of the best-known performers – Beenie Man, Sizzla and Capleton – actually signing a charter to renounce homophobia and condemn violence against gays. The “Reggae Compassion Act” now hopes to get the support of the other main “offenders”, such as Bounty Killa, Elephant Man and Buju Banton, to come on board. But what the smurf is a the Reggae Compassion Act?

The Reggae Compassion Act is an initiative brokered by a series of promoters in Europe following the very vocal and effective campaign called Stop Murder Music. This body, spearheaded by Peter Tatchell, of the British gay human rights group OutRage, had been causing a large number of concerts to be cancelled across Europe and the US. They argued that by promoting homophobic lyrics, Dancehall was encouraging anti-gay violence – notably in Jamaica itself. It has been estimated that some $5 million dollars in lost revenue was created for the singers in question.

The Act is an attempt to put a positive side to the issue. “The singers’ rejection of homophobia and sexism is an important milestone. We rejoice at their new commitment to music without prejudice,� said Tatchell. “This deal will have a huge, positive impact in Jamaica and the Caribbean. The media coverage will generate public awareness and debate, breaking down ignorance and undermining homophobia. Having these major reggae stars renounce homophobia will influence their fans and the wider public to rethink bigoted attitudes. The beneficial effect on young black straight men will be immense,� he said.

It’s interesting to compare this issue with the current furore engulfing American rap and Hip-Hop. Would boycotts have a greater impact on artists? Is that something desirable or would it be a witch hunt? Your thoughts are welcome.

Check Beenie Man on iTunes.

Who can and cannot call black women “whores”? Who can or cannot call coloured people “niggaz” (as if the z makes any real difference)? It’s funny that it took an aging loudmouth radio presenter to finally bring the issue of bling lyrics into the public arena. And since then, a lot of the debate has been shuffling around what could be called cultural relativism – the idea that Snoop Dog can call black women whores, but Don Imus can’t. But there’s a glaring problem with that.

There has been a strong demand for years already for the American rap community notably to stop treating women as whores. Countless people – including Salt’n'Pepa, who probably know just a little about the issue of urban culture – have stood up and complained. The issue is also relevant in many African countries. The lyrical treatment of homosexuals was also a major issue in Jamaica.

Why? Shouldn’t we just shrug it off? It’s only a song, after all, or the fantasising of young male teenagers with a microphone and no real idea what to say into it. The trouble is that if you repeat a word often enough, it becomes de-sensitised.

So to the question, “Can Snoop call a black woman a whore, while Dom Imus can’t?”, the answer is, no. Both are wrong, but you can’t fire Snoop. He doesn’t have prime-time radio shows with presumably black listeners. So exit Don Imus stage right.

“Old-ass white men”

But am I the only one who was intrigued by Snoop Dog’s defence of the word “ho” to MTV recently. Snoop Dogg said that rappers “are not talking about no collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports. We’re talking about ho’s that’s in the ‘hood that ain’t doing sh–, that’s trying to get a n—a for his money. These are two separate things.”

Do I read that it’s OK to slap a girl down if she’s poor and uneducated? Surely not. “First of all, we ain’t no old-ass white men that sit up on MSNBC going hard on black girls,” Snoop Dogg told MTV. “We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel. I will not let them mutha—-as say we in the same league as him.” Skipping over the racist slur, I’d say this to Snoop Dog: ask women what league they think you are in. They’re the ones who are being stepped on for cheap laughs.

“Don’t call me Nigger, Whitey”

Meanwhile, I can’t help missing Sly Stone – Prince’s clearest influence – whose album “Stand” featured a track called “Don’t Call me Nigger, Whitey”. In terms of lyrics, that’s about all you get. Except for the bit that goes, “Don’t call me Whitey, Nigger”. Stone was an inspired producer, whose mixed bands re-wrote the history of music by spot-welding rock and funk. Check “Don’t Call…” here.

No, of course it’s not true. It wasn’t really Tony Blair. It’s a well-known fact that the British Prime Minister was in a band briefly in university. Ugly Rumours never went very far. But a British pressure group decided to record a version of “War” with a Blair lookalike and try and get in the charts. They did, briefly…

The hookline of “War” is, of course, “War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing”. The anti-war coalition behind the project are trying to shame Blair for having gone to war in Iraq against the will of the majority. Ugly Rumours reached number 6 in the UK charts and then spiralled downwards. To be honest, it’s a cheeky idea but this is not exactly the definitive version of “War”, and the lookalike is not really all that much of a lookalike.

Psychedelic soul

The song “War” was written by the incredible Norman Whitfield (The Temptations and “Car Wash”) and Barrett Strong and was a hit first for Edwin Starr. Strong and Whitfield also wrote “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” sung by both Gladys Knight & the Pips and Marvin Gaye, “Smiling Faces Sometimes” by The Undisputed Truth, and the long line of “psychedelic soul” records by The Temptations, including “Cloud Nine”, “I Can’t Get Next to You”, “Psychedelic Shack”, “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World is Today)”, and the all-time classic “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”. I haven’t got the full list, but “War” has also been a hit for Bruce Springsteen and Frankie Goes to Hollywood amongst many others.

There have been a number of political lampoons in the charts. “God Save the Queen” from the Sex Pistols springs to mind. “Two Tribes” from Frankie Goes to Hollywood featuring a video in which Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev wrestle in a ring. “Qui” featured the voice of the former Belgian Prime Minister Paul Van Den Boeynants. If I’m missing any, leave a comment here – it could be a fun thread.
Visit the official site of Ugly Rumours to see their videos. Download “War” on iTunes UK. Here’s the original by way of comparison: