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Legend of Selda

09/06/2016Turkish Folk Icon Selda Bağcan Details Her Politically-Fueled Artistic Past
 

Last weekend at Barcelona's Primavera Festival Turkish folk icon Selda Bağcan took to the stage with Tel Aviv psych-rock outfit Boom Pam to present their latest collab project, alias SELDA feat. BOOM PAM.

Back in 2014, in light of an upcoming performance at the Dutch independent music festival Le Guess Who?, Selda gave a 5-minute interview, detailing her outspoken artistic approach and past political involvement, which led to a 20-year ban and subsequent incarceration; messages that continue to resonate as we speak:

"I've always sung protest songs. I call upon the people to put up resistance. For me, lyrics are very important. What I usually do is set famous poems to music. They express everything that needs to be said. There is no need to add anything. The authorities didn't like my songs, so they banned them. Songs are more dangerous than weapons, you know."

Watch the entire interview below.

AUTHOR: Lev Nordstrom