page_title: Alan Stivell
section_title: Celtic fusions and world music
hierarchical_section_title: Alan Stivell / Musical career / Celtic fusions and world music
caption_attribution_description: Alan Stivell live at the Bardentreffen in Nuremberg, Germany.
context_page_description: Alan Stivell is a Breton and Celtic musician and singer, recording artist, and master of the Celtic harp. From the early 1970s, he revived global interest in the Celtic harp and Celtic music as part of world music. As a bagpiper and bombard player, he modernized traditional Breton music and singing in the Breton language. A precursor of Celtic rock, he is inspired by the union of the Celtic cultures and is a keeper of the Breton culture.
context_section_description: In the 1990s, Stivell recorded with the French singer Laurent Voulzy, Irish traditional performer Shane MacGowan and Senegalese singer Doudou N'Diaye Rose. The album was Again, and it became very popular in France, the beginning of a Celtic new wave. Stivell's records in the late 1990s contained more pronounced rock elements, and he performed at a rock festival called Transmusicales in Rennes. He continued working with a variety of musicians, inviting Paddy Moloney (of The Chieftains), Jim Kerr (of Simple Minds), Khaled and Youssou N'Dour to be in his very international 1 Douar / 1 Earth album.
  The 1998 French-language hit "La Tribu de Dana" by rap trio Manau, one of the best-selling French singles of all time, featured a very similar musical arrangement to Stivell's "Tri Martolod". Although Stivell sued Manau for the unauthorised sampling, the group claimed that they had modified the original sufficiently, through the addition of lyrics and other changes, to avoid any charges of plagiarism. Stivell is now credited for a part of "La Tribu de Dana"'s arrangements.
  Stivell's CD album Again in 1993 was the base for a new wave of his popularity, especially in France and Brittany. Other albums received good critical reviews, such as Brian Boru or 1 Douar ("1 Earth").
  In 2002 Stivell released Au-delà des mots ("Beyond Words"), his twenty-first LP. The album featured him playing six different harps, specially dedicated to the Celtic Harp Revival's 50th anniversary.
  In 2004, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Celtic harp revival in Brittany, he wrote a book in collaboration with Jean-Noël Verdier: Telenn, la harpe bretonne ("Telenn, the Breton harp"). The same year, a DVD, Parcours was published by Fox-Pathé.
  In 2006, a new CD album called Explore came out in France and other countries, distributed through Harmonia Mundi. The album explored fusions of Celtic music with electro-rock, raga and hip-hop with a unique and personal vocal style and an original mix of lyrics in Breton, English and French.
  In 2009, the title of his album Emerald celebrated his emerald anniversary with his fans (i.e. forty years together) and paid homage to the sea and the Celtic lands (color blue-green, Glaz in Breton language). In 2013, a new CD album and DVD called Olympia 40th Anniversary came out in France (Universal) as a result of the concert performed at the Olympia mythical music hall on 16 February 2012.
  On 2 October 2015 Stivell released a new CD album called AMzer: Seasons through WorldVillage in France (and other countries), his first one of the 2010s, coinciding with his career's 50th anniversary. The album is also available as a "Leclerc limited edition" including 3 bonus tracks (2 alternative mixes and a brand new instrumental) and a 60-page booklet.
caption: Alan Stivell at Nuremberg, Germany, 2007
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