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Nobuko Otowa as the mother in The Naked Island (1960)
Song of the Day: Following Joe Hisaichi, another distinguished Japanese composer who among his many works wrote the beautiful theme from a 1960 film without dialogue directed by Kaneto Shindo
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Lest we forget …
Song of the Day: Simply a song, a piece of music and a poem to mark 100 years since Armistice Day 11 November 1918, the end of the First World War, in which there were 40 million casualties
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A scene from the New York section of Night On Earth (1991)
Song of the Day: From Bernard Herrmann’s music from Taxi Driver, let’s catch a ride with another cab film, Jim Jarmusch’s 1991 five-vignettes plot, connected by a soundtrack by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan
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Lead Belly
Song of the Day: Also known as In The Pines, and Black Girl, today we move onto another traditional song variously interpreted, dark and brooding, haunting in its melody, and simmering with suspicion and jealousy
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The Animals may have done the best-known cover version, but there are arguably others than better it
To some it’s a masterpiece, to others a dirge, but from 17th century England to 20th century New Orleans, with artists that include Woody Guthrie, Nina Simone, The Animals and alt-J it’s a song that keeps evolving
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Marion Williams 1927-1994
Song of the Day: There are great voices, and then there's Marion Williams. Continuing our series of gospel greats, for sheer raw passion and power, few can match the soaring sensation from Miami
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Cesária Evora
Song of the Day: Moving now to and artist from Cape Verde and one of the most beautiful songs, from the singer's her 1992 album Miss Perfumado
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Sona Jarbarteh
Song of the Day: Moving from Ivory Coast and Mali to The Gambia, and the singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer who hails from a long line of Griot kora players with a song to mark her country's 50th independence anniversary in 2015
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Oum El Ghaït Benessahraoui
Song of the Day: From the deserts of Mali with Tuareg band Tinariwen to the Sahara further north, and the sublime singer Oum El Ghaït Benessahraoui from her 2013 album, Soul of Morocco
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Tinariwen
Song of the Day: After Ali Farka Touré's African-origin-blues crossover, another fork the musical track, from those Tuareg musicians from the Sahara Desert in northern Mali, from their 2014 album Emmaar
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Who is Joan of Arc?
Song of the Day: After recent songs about the famous who died at a prematurely young age, four very contrasting numbers about the legendary French military heroine who was burned at the stake age 19 in 1431
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Japanese dress up to parade and celebrate Hina Matsuri
Song of the Day: One of our regular readers, Hoshino Sakura, who lives in Japan, takes a turn on SOTD to choose a special song to mark a festival that highlights the rights and importance of women
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