The 26th edition of world music conference and showcase WOMEX ended on Sunday, October 26, 2020 with the online award ceremony. This was WOMEX’ first ever digital edition, and it featured a virtual program of meetings, conferences, showcases and films.
This edition wrapped up with more than 1130 registered participants from 90 countries, hosted 38 jury-selected showcase artists representing 40 countries, 21 music-based documentaries from 21 countries, 23 conference sessions, mentoring opportunities with 7 experts including 3 roundtable and 4 one-to-one mentoring sessions, 8 network meetings and 147 video stands.
In digital terms, WOMEX 2020 streamed 70 hours of online content consisting of 20 hours of conference sessions, 8 hours of network meetings, 4 hours of mentoring, 18 hours of films, 20 hours of virtual showcases including the artist interviews, and over 20,000 interactions between delegates on the official networking channel on MatterMost. As a part of this year’s registration, all the delegates can re-stream the conference program and the virtual showcases via the new ‘On-demand’ section on the virtualWOMEX platform.
The WOMEX 2020 Award Ceremony
The first-ever digital Award Ceremony took place on Sunday afternoon with speeches from this year’s laudators Birgit Ellinghaus for Mónika Lakatos and journalist Soro Solo for L’Atelier des Artistes en Exil, a tribute to the Top 20 Labels of 2020, presentations about the WOMEX 2020 Award Recipients, a welcome to the WOMEX 2021 Host City from the Mayor of Porto.
Mónika Lakatos was presented with the WOMEX 20 Artist Award for her commitment to the Olah people and their music, for her mission to ensure that female Romani voices can be heard on the world stage and for her highest personal artistry as a performer.
The Award Ceremony concluded with a moving performance by Mónika Lakatos and The Gipsy Voices that was streamed live from Müpa, Budapest.
On receiving the Award, Mónika Lakatos said: “It feels wonderful to be the first Romani to receive this Award. I’d love to thank everyone in the whole wide world, because I believe that our culture And the way we live and the lifestyle we keep the event to this very day is important And I would like to live in our culture for a very long time still, and I would like our children and grandchildren to carry it on, too. I’d like to believe that this Award will help strengthen our culture so that our children too will think that preserving our heritage in this world is important, and so that non-Gypsies see how important it is, too.”
Birgit Ellinghaus, in her laudation for Mónika Lakatos, stated: “Growing up with and in the Roma culture in Hungary, Mónika Lakatos’s development as the voice of the Olah Gypsy Community is driven by her uncompromising reflections of her keen mind, which she expresses with emotionality in every moment of being. She is deeply rooted in the lifestyle of her community, in the poetry and richness of the Lovari Romani language and music. These are the impulses of her artistic work.”
L’Atelier des Artistes en Exil was presented with the WOMEX 20 Professional Excellence Award in honor of their role in giving artists in exile the tools and the space to reaffirm their humanity powerfully in their own way and their own words.
On receiving the Award, Judith Depaule from L’Atelier des Artistes en Exil, said: “We are particularly honored to receive this award as music is of great importance at l´Atelier des Artistes en Exil. It is an artistic form which is very important for the artists working here, a way to express their resistance, especially when some cultures are in danger, to enable to perpetuate them while carrying on with their music-making. That is why we wish to accompany them.”
Journalist Soro Solo in his laudation for L’Atelier des Artistes en Exil shared: “L’Atelier des Artistes en Exil is an association that welcomes asylum seekers and gives them the opportunity to express themselves, to be able to carry on their work as creators, to be able to continue their work as artists. And it gives them the opportunity to exist through their spirits, through their creative works, and shine may be everywhere in the world.”
[headline photo: Mónika Lakatos and the Gipsy Voices – Photo by Andras Farkas]
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central