Not a babelian yet?
Not a babelian yet?
Swathed in wacky colours, the Berlin-based Romanian singer, aka 27-year-old Ruth Maria Renner, raps about forced marriages and staying down to earth. Plus, why you should give her food
The 43-year-old started singing in 1999, after ten years as a hairdresser. Inspired by America's Tom Waits, he says that Balkan gypsy music does not belong to the flamenco family
Lykke means 'happy' in Norwegian. Li's debut album has led to a European tour, and she’s hyped as one of 2008’s biggest new stars. But chart positions don’t make the 22-year-old singer happy
Piano rock from the UK, Balkans from Belgium and Blue Monday in Norway – October’s best music picks kick off a European autumn
Regulating internet music sales and multimedia content on the web, counterfeit medicine and parliament television – the latest news from Brussels. Weekly edition
The Sonic Youth etc.: Sensational Fix exhibition has been in France since 18 June. The European museum tour brings with it the chance to experience the non conformist experimental rock group's multidisciplinary pursuits first-hand
Plus: the Budapest beats of Gelka, Mañana - Switzerland’s answer to the Verve and Istanbul electronic rhythms with Zi Punt - monthly music picks
The death of Europe's talents like John Lennon and Rino Gaetano have left behind a gaping hole in society. Plus: the French Frank Sinatra and the Swedish prime minister's murder suspect
French First Ladies, Dutch idealists, Italian poets-cum-abrasive rockers and Finnish 'Rock Idols' – it's Europe's monthly music picks
The Spanish DJ, musician and composer from Malaga teaches in a music academy in Fuengirola. A successful remix has helped him hit the top of the world house music charts, in a genre becoming ever-popular in Europe
As various legends take to the stage from 10-13 July, a local fan on how the ancient city of Novi Sad plays host to the most remarkable musical event in Europe
Emancipated Brits, Austrian indie-pop and a band from Cologne make a splash on the London music scene – the music to look out for this month
Whether connected to a computer or a piano, Balázs Zságer, 36, has the tired look of a nocturnal bird. With one foot in Hungary’s electro rock scene and another abroad, he speaks about the melancholy that underpins eastern European pop music, as well as his difficulties to get his album sold outside of his native land
German-Czech festivals, strangers filming in Amsterdam and pure dance in London and Luxembourg - our pick of this month's best happenings
A party is nowt without music, so Euro2008 shouldn’t go without! The creation of music is a powerful tool to encourage teams and ensure a good time is had all year round
A freakshow from Germany, Scottish guitar rockers, an Italian in California and the return of the Woking Modfather – the best music to catch this month
Since its first broadcast on 24 May 1956, the Eurovision Song Contest has seen hundreds of songs battle it out for the titles of the worst, the funniest and above all the best
Modest budgets, amateur singers, no dance troupes: the song contest is open to people living in Finland with non-Finnish origins
The Grammy-nominated British RnB artist, 26, helped make garage music mainstream in the UK in 2000. Eight years wiser, he talks his fourth album, grime music and bulking up
Where do these bands get their names from? We sweep the UK, Belgium, Switzerland and France for our monthly music pick this April
Putin pouts, schnip schnap Schröder, Blair sings and Sarkozy and opposition leader Ségolène snuggle
Why the British rapper, hip hop singer and producer, 28, swapped London, its boys and the UK music industry for Brooklyn's cabbies, leading to ‘an unexpected duet’ with American rapper Kanye West
Young, extremely successful - and extremely annoying for some. Why are teen bands like Estonia's 'The Bedwetters' and Denmark's 'Dúné' storming the charts across Europe?
At 28, the prodigious composer and late-night jam-session organiser is the only Russian alto-sax player active on the London scene. We catch him at the launch of his new fusion set ‘Findamorale’ at the London jazz festival
Ten years since the release of Air's first album 'Moon Safari', one half of the French duo, 38, talks Czech audiences, being a vanguard of the European electronic scene and why Air are not like Radiohead
Plus charming French-Finnish duo 'The Duo', a tasty Swedish morsel of Jens Lekman, chic Danes 'The Fashion' and slightly unusual Italians Avvolte Kristheda - the best bands in March
The Dutch compared her to Tori Amos. In fact, the 33-year-old Belgian connoisseur of ‘kitsch’ French songs and pop is a theatrical musician who plays the piano sat on a big transparent ball, jumping about whilst tightly clutching her accordion
San Francisco feelings, Danish bands with French names and a rap collective named after a freedom movement: Europe's best music crop this month
Portuguese no to reform treaty referendum, the pan-EU music marketplace and Sarkozy’s press conference
New Year kicks off with Mexican aspirations, Norwegian mix up of styles, a French princess of the turntables and a surprise coup from Hungary. This is the European music agenda for 2008!
Oft dismissed as the childless 'loser generation’, twenty-somethings have unexpected talents. Our German and French correspondents give them a chance to have their say. Part IV of a series from Paris and Berlin
From his Madrid studio, the Spanish singer-songwriter, 33, justifies how songs contribute to improving the world and his take on what 'canción de autor' music is
A capital in transition has ‘bigger’ priorities than music and fashion. Dynamic young patriots use these elements of renewal to bring their city closer to Europe
That’s how the band are known in their home country, where they are the most popular group around. Despite their success they’re still fighting the CD pirates and are broke at the end of the month
English teens, the Swedish Aimee Mann, pure Italian pop and the latest Polish hopefuls on the music scene this winter
Berlin sparks and pixels, free Splash electro in Paris, European student cinema festival in Manchester and eat yourself to death in Lodz
TCK. Three letters that stand for a phenomenon: tecktonik. Similar in style to electro, it has been a sensation amongst teenagers in France, Belgium and Holland over the last six months - and is also a registered trademark
The self-taught guitarist is coy about his age and anti-internet-overload. The Yugoslav 'ghost' has lived his dream in London since the early nineties, his folk and jazz music celebrating the sun and the Balkans
From Helsinki avant-garde cinema to factory fairs in Switzerland, your guide on where to be a culture vulture this month
The vocalist and drummer for kitsch pop duet 'Stereo Total', 43, evokes Franco-German bilingualism applied to masculinity-femininity, Gainsbourg and modern frustrations
'Whatever happened to people launching into song for no reason?' 'They stopped doing it: it was ridiculous'
Our pick of the best musicals on tour around Europe this autumn
With new stories, new audiences and the latest in technology, the musical is back with a bang in Europe’s big cities
Appears only the name of the six-member US production courted the real controversy in Edinburgh this August
Pink, Faithless, The Chemical Brothers, Nine Inch Nails; alongside more than 1, 000 musical events, young people show their commitment to the festival's 'Civil Village'. But for how much longer?
Despite a slow start to the summer weatherwise, Europe’s festivals – even outdoor festivals – are in full blossom. THE event overwiew for August
The French singer of Dutch origin, 33, was born in Caesarea, Israel. She lived in the Netherlands until the age of 11 and sings in English. Now, she moves between Iceland, France and New York
VJ-ing is a new fast-spreading discipline, which consists of mixing images and sound live
Art is politics. The fourth and last chapter of our portraits of artists who are attempting to resist the ‘cultural Chernobyl’ in a Belarus that is in Alexander Lukashenko’s stranglehold
Between Italian jazz and Nordic tango, Slovenian saxophone and Scottish rock, Spanish bull running and German contemporary art – check out the July issue of our Vultures for Culture calendar
Art is politics: the first part of our series on portraits of artists who attempt to resist the 'cultural Chernobyl' which reigns in Belarus, a country asphyxiated by the authoritarian regime of president Alexander Lukashenko
It's billed as a unique opera project which will occur simultaneously in five EU countries - but during the performance of ‘St Kilda – Island of the Bird People’ in Valenciennes, Europe made itself scarce
Over 200,000 people flooded Independence Square on 16 June to see British singer Elton John's AIDS-awareness free concert - publicising a dark aspect of Ukrainian society, with estimated adult HIV prevalence of 1.4%
The prestigious Queen Elisabeth Music Competition also acts as an international assembly, uniting the best piano soloists in the European capital in May and June 2007
Inaugarated one year before the Treaty of Rome in 1957, the Eurovision Song Contest celebrates European diversity. All eyes are on Helsinki during 5-12 May
One night in Barcelona's famous 'Apolo' club, where the 'international master of turntablism' divides clubgoers with his mellow electronic strains
Can more young people enjoy opera, asks a congress in Paris
The Italian composer for the likes of 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' and 'Bulworth' takes home an Academy Award on February 25
Arabian disco, gypsy rock and house music boom from buses, taxis and radios throughout Bulgaria. But the knives are out
Last year, on January 27, Mozart Year opened with much celebration. Have we learned anything about the musical genius?
The Parc de la Villette in Paris is one of Europe’s leading art centres. Here art, music, science and technology all rub shoulders
Through dedication and perseverance, this 28-year-old Sicilian has risen to the ranks of prima ballerina in the Paris Opera
Former Eurovision participant, singer Vaïko Eplik, 24, explains why he shuns the bright showbusiness lights of the mainstream music industry
The 41-year-old singer and frontman of the harmonic choral group 'A Filetta' talks about his latest album, 'Medea', which compares Seneca's heroine to Corsica and Jason to France.
Our ‘Homo Sovieticus’ feature - to mark the fifteen year anniversary of the fall of the former USSR - continues this week with Evangeline Masson's tale of Tajikistan today
Guillemots, a new Brit pop band from London, hit the continent with some new pop tunes
Riding on the web 2.0 wave, music labels on the Internet attract more and more enthusiasts
As the owner of one of the most beautiful modern-day Romany voices, Mónika Miczura, 37, affirms her musical freedom, reclaims her own traditional instincts and modernity, and turns her back on the standard clichés of gypsy folklore.
Amsterdam, Holland, summer 2006
The breeze is warm, school is over and festivals mushroom all over Europe. But the traditional joys of warm beer, rock get-togethers and muddy camping sites are making way for some more exotic fayres. Discover some of the strange and unheard of festivals that will rock Europe during the coming month. Get ready to pack your bags!