Réunion Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the isl ...

is located east of

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

and is a province (''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

'') of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Réunion is home to maloya and

sega music Sega () is one of the major music genres of Mauritius and Réunion. It is a complete performance art, involving music, story-telling and traditional dance. Musically, the most modern forms common in Mauritius are its fusion genre Seggae and ...

Genres

Sega

Séga is a popular style that mixes African and European music.

Maloya

Maloya has a strong African element reflected in the use of slave

chant A chant (from French ', from Latin ', "to sing") is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of no ...

s and

work song A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a form of work, either one sung while conducting a task (usually to coordinate timing) or one linked to a task that may be a connected narrative, description, or protest song. An example is " I ...

Non-traditional music

In Réunion there is a very strong

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

community and rock culture is also becoming strong on the island. Rap,

Reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

Zouk Zouk is a musical movement and dance pioneered by the French Antillean band Kassav' in the early 1980s. It was originally characterized by a fast tempo (120–145 bpm), a percussion-driven rhythm, and a loud horn section. Musicians from Mart ...

Ragga Raggamuffin music (or simply ragga) is a subgenre of dancehall and reggae music. The instrumentals primarily consist of electronic music with heavy use of sampling. Wayne Smith's " Under Mi Sleng Teng", produced by King Jammy in 1985 on a ...

and

Dancehall Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots reggae, roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2 ...

are also popular. One popular ragga song recently is Ragga

Chikungunya Chikungunya is an infection caused by the chikungunya virus (CHIKV). The disease was first identified in 1952 in Tanzania and named based on the Kimakonde words for "to become contorted". Chikungunya has become a global health concern due to ...

about the 2005 mosquito disease outbreak.

Popular musicians

The most popular sega musicians include

Baster The Basters (also known as Baasters, Rehobothers, or Rehoboth Basters) are a Southern African ethnic group descended from Cape Coloureds and Nama of Khoisan origin. Since the second half of the 19th century, the Rehoboth Baster community has ...

, Ousanousava, and Ziskakan. The most popular maloya musicians are Danyèl Waro. Meddy Gerville and Firmin Viry. Other popular singers include Maxime Laope, Léon Céleste, Henri Madoré and Mapou, named after a kind of perfumed

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

candy Candy, alternatively called sweets or lollies, is a Confectionery, confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, also called ''sugar confectionery'', encompasses any sweet confection, including chocolate, chewing gum ...

. Musicians from nearby Mauritius are also popular.

Popular songs

Ti Fleur Fanée

The unofficial national anthem of Réunion is a song originally sung by Georges Fourcade called Ti Fleur Fanée

Madina

The song "Madina" was chosen as the theme song by the

Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française The (; ORTF; , or French Radio and Television Broadcasting Office) was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1975, with providing public radio and television in France. All programming, especially news broadcasts, were under strict cont ...

in the 1950s and 1960s. The song was written by Maxime Laope, one of the island's most popular singers, and performed by another renowned singer, Henri Madoré.

Festivals

One of the biggest music festivals in Réunion is the Sakifo music festival.

References

External links

Sakifo Music Festival website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Music Of Reunion Culture of Réunion