Celebrating Music Day!

 

Today is a special day for everyone on earth: today is Music Day. And we did not make this up: France did. Making for one of its best (recent) exports, one might argue… The story goes like this: in the early 1980’s, newly elected socialist President François Mitterrand picked Jack Lang as his Minister of Culture. Side note: France has had a Ministry of Culture since the late 1950’s at the behest of General De Gaulle, the man who fought Nazi Germany — and lack of music in the streets, it turns out. Back to our main story: Minister Lang started Music Day in 1982 on the first day of summer as a way to promote musical practitioners, who turn to represent a significant chunk of the population. And it went well.

So well, in fact, that Music Day (“Fête de la Musique” in French) has become a mainstay in the Country of Human Rights: for nearly 40 years, the event has only grown in size, reaching all cities across the nation — and abroad. In Europe, several countries have picked up the tradition, as it turns out there are music lovers — and practitioners — everywhere. Including in Germany: Berlin fittingly started celebrating Music Day in 1995. Meanwhile, the first stateside Music Day took place in New York in 2006. And China followed suit, having its first such event in 2007… in Wuhan. Connection? We very much think not…

For this year’s Music Day obviously has a bit of a different taste than previous iterations, for the very reason last year was devoid of outdoor musical celebrations (except maybe in Brazil, but that may not have been the finest example). Indeed, the after-effect of the pandemic is a need for people to rejoin, rejoice and celebrate with music all around. Hopefully while remaining cautious. The point is, people have already been gathering in the streets in Europe as we speak/write, enjoying their first bits of live music and gearing up for a night of fun. Finally.

At Sondz, we decided this would be the perfect day to introduce our very first video presentation. If you’ve already been using the site, you’ll probably know what we are about but you can still watch the video: it’s sleek (and we’re obviously unbiased). If you haven’t been using the site, this will show you what you’re missing…

And happy Music Day, everybody!