World music from the Commonwealth countries for BBC Radio 3’s World on 3, Fridays. Musicians, sportspeople and cultural figures introduce music recorded on location.
Latest episodes
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6 min ↗
Heritage Track: Belize
The Hon. Dolores Balderamos Garcia is a politician, lawyer and broadcaster. The only woman of the 31 members of Belize's House of Representatives, she is particularly interested in…
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19 min ↗
Trinidad and Tobago
Within these small Islands, steelpan orchestras are an integral part of daily life. The Pamberi pan yard on the outskirts of Port of Spain is a meeting place for the whole communit…
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8 min ↗
Heritage Track: Nauru
Measuring eight square miles with a total coastline of eighteen and a half miles and a population of just over nine thousand, the Pacific island of Nauru is arguably the least popu…
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20 min ↗
India
Kala Ramnath is one of the leading Hindustani musicians of her generation. Born into a dynasty of violin players who championed the instrument in Indian classical music in the 20th…
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5 min ↗
Heritage Track: Cameroon
Saxophonist Manu Dibango brought the sound of Cameroon to the world but also brought a bit of the world back into Cameroon, creating a glorious fusion of African Funk and Jazz. Wei…
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17 min ↗
Zambia
Seven kilometres from the world heritage site of Victoria Falls, in the Southern Province lies the rural Mukuni village, the main village of the Mukuni Chiefdom. It was founded in…
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4 min ↗
Heritage Track: Kiribati
Kiribati is an archipelago of 33 islands in the central Pacific, with a population of just one hundred thousand people across more than a million square miles of Ocean. Formerly th…
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17 min ↗
Bangladesh
On a rooftop beside Gulshan lake, above the bells of tuk tuks and sounds of the call to prayer, a group of musicians have gathered in the late afternoon in Dhaka. Baby Dewan sings…
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4 min ↗
Heritage Track: St Vincent and the Grenadines
Writer and poet Philip Nanton chooses Credentials by Shake Keane, the well-known Vincentian jazz musician and poet, and explains how the story Shake tells encapsulates for him cert…
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17 min ↗
Seychelles
In the midst of the Seychelles Carnival, Latroupe Nasyonal Sesel, a ceilidh-style band of seven players and several young dancers are preparing their traditional music and dances f…
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4 min ↗
Heritage Track: Tuvalu
Formerly known as the Ellice Islands, Tuvalu is a Pacific island nation situated between Hawaii and Australia. Its population of just 11,200 means it the third-least populous sover…
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17 min ↗
Singapore
Singapore is home to a very senior group of 'waijiang' musicians originating from Chaozhou in southern China. Their waijiang style of playing was popular in pre-cultural revolution…
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19 min ↗
Malaysia
In the capital of Malaysia's southernmost state of Johor, traditional Malay Ghazal and Zapin dance music is popular despite the country's race to modernity. We hear from On Jaafar…
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4 min ↗
Heritage Track: Mozambique
Mozambique is something of an anomaly in terms of Commonwealth membership. It only became a member in 1995 and was never under British control. Instead the country was ruled by Por…
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6 min ↗
Heritgae Track: St. Kitts & Nevis
Athlete Jason Rogers (100m), living and training in Canada, chooses an example of the soca music so popular back home in the Caribbean islands of St Kitts and Nevis. Unstoppable Fo…
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18 min ↗
Uganda
Across the source of the Nile at Jinja and eastwards towards the Kenyan border lies the remote and rural Bigwala Village. The last surviving musicians of the Royal courts are the A…
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17 min ↗
Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, Vesak celebrations are underway for the birth and enlightenment of Lord Buddha. The streets are thronged with families and traffic all heading to th…
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5 min ↗
Heritage Track: Papua New Guinea
Jeffry Feeger, Papua New Guinea's leading visual artist, chooses the song West Papua by George Telek to express the deep-rooted Melanesian heritage his people share with those acro…
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17 min ↗
New Zealand
Whiri Tu Aka are a 5-piece all-female Maori a capella group founded by producer/vocalist Mina Ripa. Best known for her work in the field of electronica and dance music, this projec…
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4 min ↗
Heritage track: Guyana
Writer and academic David Dabydeen is currently Guyana's ambassador to China. His Heritage Track is 'Not a Blade of Grass' by Dave Martins and the Tradewinds. For David the song pr…