JMC festival in Tunisia ended on a high note

Tunisia hosted the Journées Musicales de Carthage, known as JMC, its 7th edition after a blank year in 2020.

The meeting has become a must for musicians from Africa and Arab countries.

About forty groups from 20 countries participated in this hybrid edition between live music and online events.

For example, Nour Project is an Egyptian jazz band that enchanted the audience with its fusion between world and eastern music.

Egyptian saxophonist Nour Ashour brought together musicians from different backgrounds to perform a kind of music that not only entertains its listeners but also touches their hearts.

"This is music that comes out of our hearts, it's a mixture of music from Egypt, Africa, our city Alexandria and Mediterranean music. It is a mixture of melodies and rhythms. These are our ideas that we want to bring to the world", said Egyptian musician, Nouar Ashour.

Khoudia Diop started making music at the age of 10 years old in her home town of Rosso in the south of Mauritania.

Through her songs she showed a strong conviction to fight for the cause of children.

At 14 she became a UNICEF goodwill ambassador for children's rights.

"I always wanted to sing to raise awareness; I always wanted to sing to change things. My goal is to defend women's rights, children's rights, to defend the rights of girls. I have always made music that is committed, because there are too many girls who are raped and there is still no justice for it", lamented Khoudia Diop, musician from Mauritania.

Mohamed Ben Slama's Haoussa project is the result of several months of work on the rhythm of the Marabouts of southern Tunisia and the Gnava of Morocco,

A work that conveys the long history of the Maghrebian people between its past, present and future.

"We are not only African geographically but also in the sense that we are a part of Africa. The heritage on which I work is Hausa and is essentially African, a purely African heritage through the codes on the colours that we have. It is an invitation that automatically throws us into the Africanness of Tunisia, Tunisia is African" defends Tunisian musician Mohamed Ben Slama.

The 7th edition of JMC has kept its promises and Tunisian music lovers are already looking forward to the 8th edition in 2022.