Paris-Londres – Music Migrations, the musical exhibition at Paris Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration

From March 12, 2019 to January 5, 2020 Paris Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration displays the Paris-Londre – Music Migrations exhibition, a wonderful exhibition returning on 30 years of the history of music carried by migrants, in Paris and in London. From Salif Keïta, Doul II Soul, Kassav’ to Khaled, let’s relive the golden age of migration music from 1962 to 1989.

The Paris-Londres – Music Migrations exhibition at Paris Musée de l’Histoire de l’Immigration (set within the Palais de la Porte Dorée) is set like a beautiful chronological tour filled with music to make us relive the main years of music story in Paris and London, when music and cities opened up to cultural mixing.

The aim of this exhibition? “Showing how several generations of migrations in these two former colonial great powers took over music to make their rights to equality heard, claim their spot in the public area and take part in the urban, economic and cultural transformations in both countries”.

For this exhibition, over 600 documents related to music (pictures, concert posters, video clips, album sleeves, fanzines, instruments, costumes) are here to remind us the creation and the spread of multiple music genres related to migration flows.

The exhibition starts in 1962, at the time of the decolonization and the 30-year-post-war boom when Paris and London welcome migrated workers who came after being asked by the cities to build metropoles. At that time, the first generation of migrants sing in Barbès cafés and clubs in Soho or Camden in London, young migrant worker shelters, MJC and community centers. Singers are not really heard by a large part of the population, but their rhythmics will change everything…

Then, the exhibit takes us to the 1970’s when Paris and London will become anti-racist capitals promoting life together. The exhibition reminds us about the militant festivals such as the first popular theater festival by migrant workers in Suresnes, 1985; Africa Fête or the big SOS Racisme concert on June 15, 1985, Place de la Concorde and the Rock Against Racism concerts in London and Paris.

We also (re)discover that artists go more and more to Paris and London (Rachid Taha, Feta Kuti, Salif Keita, Youssou N’Dour, Mick Jones from The Clash). In the 1980’s, clubs end destroying the boarders of identity and genre.

The exhibition symbolically ends on 1989, the year of all changes, with a gallery of portraits, videos with unique records provided by music celebrities embodying multiple connections between Paris and London.

And since an exhibition about music would be nothing without music, it’s paced with reagge-punk, R&B, Mandika music, reggae, modern rai and rock…