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Outlook Arts: Musical Odysseys and Mexican Comedy

Asif Quraishi, Statue of Chesperito, David Guetta

12/12/2014

Musical Odysseys and Mexican Comedy

BBC World Service - Outlook Arts, Musical Odysseys and Mexican Comedy

Muslim drag queen Asif Quraishi, French DJ David Guetta, remembering Mexico’s Chesperito

French DJ David Guetta, British Muslim drag queen Asif Quraishi and Chilean artist Oscar Raby.

From a Durban township to the stage of London's Royal Opera House, the soaring career of South African baritone Njabulo Madlala.
  
Wet is an 85-year-old artist who is one of the tribal elders of the Palikur tribe. He makes wooden sculptures inspired by his tribe's beliefs about the stars and their constellations. Gibby Zobel travelled to Wet's remote Amazonian village to meet him. 

Chilean artist Oscar Raby has based his latest virtual reality work on a violent incident from his family's past. In 1973 his father's army regiment came into contact with a military death squad known as the Caravan of Death. Diana Steenbergen put on a pair of virtual reality glasses to experience it.

Drag queen Asifa Lahore has long curly black hair and wears flamboyant dresses. She is hoping to be Britain's entry in next year's Eurovision Song Contest. But the man behind the glam persona Asif Quraishi grew up in a conservative Muslim family in a large South Asian community in west London. 

Roberto Gómez Bolaños, one of Mexico's most famous and well-loved comedians died recently. David Amanor shares memories of him with BBC Mundo's María Elena Navas and Juan Carlos Pérez who grew up watching his performances.

French music producer David Guetta is one of the biggest names in pop, with the jet set lifestyle of an international dance DJ. He tells Samira Ahmed about his influences and his latest album Listen.

Photo: From left to right, Asif Quraishi as drag queen Asifa Lahore, a statue of Mexico's Chesperito, DJ David Guetta. Credits: Asif Quraishi, Getty Images)

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