ROMADAY • Mahala Raï Banda • Mal Élevé & friends

On April 8, we celebrate International Roma* Day with the concert of the year! Because ROMADAY is not just a day of struggle on which Roma* and Sinti* all over the world take a stand against right-wing extremism and misanthropy. Above all, ROMADAY is a day of celebration: Celebrating the strength and diversity of Sinti* and Roma* communities, their resilience and their contributions to democracy and freedom.

At this year's ROMADAY, RomaTrial e.V. together with the Volksbühne invites you to a concert by the legendary brass band from Romania Mahala Raï Banda, which will get the audience going. Rapper and activist Mal Élevé will kick things off with his musical friends, who never miss an opportunity to speak out against Nazis and for a just society.

Mahala Raï Banda is a Roma band from Bucharest, founded in 2004 by the Romanian violinist and composer Aurel Ionita and the Belgian music producer Stéphane Karo. The 11-piece band presents a fusion of traditional music by the Lautari, the Roma violinists and harpsichordists from southern Romania, and brass music by Roma* from eastern Romania, complemented by Balkan beats and pop music. The result is wonderful riffs of trumpet, saxophone, trombone and wild voices, combined with violins, accordion and cymbal.

Since the release of their debut album, Mahala Raï Banda has played over 80 concerts a year in the countries of Western Europe alone. As the band itself describes it: Mahala Raï Banda has quickly made it from weddings in Romania to the stage of the Paris Opera.

Mal Élevé takes his stage name seriously: his music is "badly behaved" - it doesn't follow the rules, it goes against the norm. By openly dealing with his Manouche identity, Mal Élevé inspires young Roma* and Sinti* in particular. His songs - a mixture of reggae, dancehall, ska, rap and punk - are a declaration of war against fascism, capitalism and sexism and at the same time a call for global solidarity. For Mal Élevé, political protest and solidarity are inextricably linked. And this sense of community can be felt not only at his concerts, but also at countless demonstrations and political actions where he repeatedly appears in solidarity.