World Music Day Theme, History and Significance

By Devraj Bollareddy

World music day was first celebrated in 1982 on the streets of Paris. When it was first celebrated as  Fête de la Musique, it translates to the festival of music and it was started by the French Minister of Culture back then, Jack Lang. In 1997, a charter was signed in Budapest and since then it was recognized as World Music day. Since then, the French festival of music grew to become somewhat of a global phenomenon and a worldwide celebration of music. 

Although World Music day became a thing a whopping 40 years ago, it still holds a lot of significance till this day. It is the day where young, budding artists are encouraged to come out and showcase their musical talent to the world. In fact, World Music day first started out because the French Minister of Art and Culture and Maurice Fleuret, a popular French composer at the time realized that music concerts at that time were not representative of a large section of youth that played instruments at that time. At an era where social media and marketing could not be leveraged to gain recognition, they created World Music day so that people with exceptional musical abilities get the recognition that they deserve. Music lovers seem especially excited for this year’s World Music day since it is the first one since the Covid-19 pandemic brought all global events to a grinding halt. This year, there are events taking place all over the world.

The theme of this year’s World Music Day is ‘music at intersections’. This year, music lovers are encouraged to celebrate their love for music by attending street festivals or simply listening to the music that they love.