Sevilla, November 2nd 2008

On Sunday morning after an intense three days of meetings, business conversations, friendship celebration, concerts, raindrop showers and cerveza drinking, the long awards ceremony speeches may not be the perfect awakening for the exhausted delegates. But the ritual must take place and, everybody agreed on the day, it was a very distinguished affair.

Folk Music Department of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki have done an incomparable job preserving, teaching and promoting Finnish music and it was right to throw the spotlight on their important work.

The label Cumbancha has introduced us to the late Andy Palacio, the sadly missed winner of the 2007 Womex Award. We remembered him with an extract of his extraordinary talk at last year’s ceremony. The American label has also given us amazing records by Zimbabwe diva Chiwoniso, Malian troubadour Habib Koité, Ivorian rising star Dobet Gnahoré, festive Anglo-Cuban troop Ska Cubano and the American world music sensation Rupa and the April Fishes. The label really deserves this distinguished attention.

But the unforgettable moment of the morning is the exquisite performance by Hungarian winner of the Womex Award 2008 - the amazing Muzsikás. They not only saved from obscurity a vast range of their country’s folk traditions, but also transmit them with virtuosity and incomparable sensitivity. Their concert mixed amazing instrumental music, breathtaking singing and perfect dances, and demonstrated to everyone that the Award choice had been an intelligent decision.

Afterwards everybody heads for home, promising to reunite next year in Copenhagen.

Benjamin MiNiMuM