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Gilberto Gil
Looking back on a career that began in the mid-’60s, Gilberto Gil is still very much at the top of his game. Once a prime mover of Brazil's Tropicalia movement, today Gil not only continues to make music, but plays an active role in government.
Style: Brazilian
By Don Heckman

Cheikha Remitti
If Algerian raï has a mother, her name is Cheikha Remitti. Now in her 80s (and still performing) she’s been a part of the music since it took on its colors, a guiding and frequently outrageous force who’s helped shape raï into what it is today.
Style: Rai
By Chris Nickson

Chavela Vargas
Chavela Vargas was one of the greatest female ranchera singers ever to emerge from Mexico—even if she isn’t actually Mexican. She sold out Carnegie Hall in a special appearance and her incredible story is one that's truly epic in scope.
Style: Ranchera
By Chris Nickson

Caetano Veloso
Brazil’s Caetano Veloso endured prison, then exile, and then rebounded to become a cultural hero. He’s gone on to become one of the most revered songwriters and performers in a nation known for its music.
Style: Brazilian
By Chris Nickson

Burning Spear
After Bob Marley, Burning Spear has done more than anyone to keep both authentic roots reggae and Marcus Garvey’s teachings alive in the 21st century. At 56, Winston Rodney shows no signs of slowing down.
Style: Reggae
By Tom Pryor

Buena Vista Social Club
No one ever expected a tidal wave of mainstream interest in a musical idiom that doesn’t get much airplay on Spanish- or English-language radio. But that was before Buena Vista Social Club broke through to the pop chart.
Style: Latin
By Chiori Santiago

Bob Marley
There’s no denying that Bob Marley remains the best-known name in reggae, even more than 20 years after his death. His revolutionary stance and spirit is what helped make him such an icon.
Style: Reggae
By Chris Nickson

Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar
With more than 20,000 songs recorded in over a dozen languages, Asha Bhosle is the world’s most recorded artist—and Mangeshkar follows close behind. But these two singers’ careers are far more intertwined than their comparable artistic and commercial successes would suggest: they are sisters.
Style: Bollywood
By Anastasia Tsioulcas

Alan Lomax
When Alan Lomax died at age 87, he left behind a musical legacy most people can only dream about, even if he made none of the music himself. A musicologist, he let us hear America and the globe, capturing traditions in a world that was changing as rapidly as the eye could blink.
Style: Folk
By Chris Nickson

Fats Domino
Fats Domino defined the sound of nascent New Orleans R&B and in the process helped usher in the era of rock 'n' roll during the 1950s.
Style: R&B
By Steve Roeser

Seán Ó Riada
It was the late Seán Ó Riada who took traditional Irish music, largely inaccessible outside of the isles, and turned it into something new. His innovative approach to folk music in the 1950s paved the way for modern interpreters such as the Chieftains.
Style: Celtic
By Chris Nickson

Celia Cruz
Everyone has a story to tell about Celia Cruz, the Cuban singer whose contagious voice and larger-than-life persona helped turn Afro-Cuban music into an international phenomenon.
Style: Latin
By Eliseo Cardona

Césaria Evora
Cesaria Evora's art is a personal distillation of a wealth of elements, and the highest expression of the sensibility of the Cape Verdean people. In her voice we hear blues, Brazilian pop, Portuguese fado, French chanson and Cuban habanera.
Style: Morna
By Morton Marks

Franco
Franco has been likened to Shakespeare, Mozart and Pelé, and described as a human god. Yet this truly legendary bandleader, who was beloved by millions and respected by heads of state, remains little-known outside Africa.
Style: Rumba
By Al Angeloro

Ravi Shankar
Although the word guru is often attached to Shankar, ambassador is an equally valid descriptive. For more than four decades, Shankar and his sitar have represented the sound of India to the world.
Style: Raga
By Jeff Tamarkin

Umm Kulthum
Umm Kulthum was the greatest Arabic singer of the 20th Century. When she died in 1975, four million people lined the streets of Cairo for her funeral.
Style: Arabic
By Chris Nickson

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