As a teenager I learned international folk dance and then spent more than fifteen years performing and teaching what I knew to universities and finally in my own dance troupe. This included music and dance from America, Israel, Arabic countries, the Balkans, Russia, Scandinavia, Italy, Greece, Mexico, So. America, Polynesia, Japan, China, United Kingdom, Persia, Armenia, Turkey, and so on. My life evolved around international music. I loved it and still do.

My biggest gripe with American radio is that it doesn't play international music on regular programs. It's very narrow and ethnocentric in its vision of what music is - preferring to drive the same crap into your head hour after hour to sell music. The only time you get to hear international music is on a public radio station during certain hours. Even something dubbed "world music" isn't really that.

The way we get to know other cultures is by meeting people, sampling their food, language, and music - their culture. Most Americans can't deal with hearing music or watching a movie if it's in another language. Reading subtitles is just too tedious. And few will go out of their way to seek out international music. They're missing SO much by avoiding it.

Some American singers pick up on some international musical elements and incorporate them into their songs - like this new piece by Britney Spears. Listening to this offensive attempt to include Arabic elements in her song is the equivalent to taking a power drill and boring a hole in my head with it. The entire world isn't rap music, either. Americans just don't get it because they're not exposed to enough of it and they can't tell the good from the bad. Why settle for the second-rate, or fake and lousy, when you can get the real and good thing?

The European community has it's annual awards program called Eurovision (which will take place the second week in May - but chances are we won't even get the pleasure of viewing it in the U.S.). American music is often a hit there, and Americans walk away with awards. In America we have the American Music Awards, Grammy Awards, MTV Awards and so forth. But rarely do American programs give such exposure to international music, let alone allow a European musician to win awards. I think it's pathetic and reeks of shallow thinking, a miopic world view.

If you go to that Eurovision web site, you can click on Multimedia Lounge and listen to all the songs from the many countries that will be vying for the top award. Listen and watch the videos - there are some great songs. I particularly love Ukrainian's Ruslana Lyzhicko's song "Wild Dances," Estonia's song "Tii," and Norway, France, Romania and Monaco have some beautiful songs, too. You can go to some sites on the Internet and vote for your choice.

The Internet gives us the ability to choose what we listen to. We can go to great stations such as those from the BBC and listen to music stations from Scotland that play contemporary music from all over the world. We can find music from just about everywhere on the Internet and don't have to put up with those hideous commericals.

I wish somebody in the radio broadcast industry would finally wise up and start a positive change and stop holding the world at arm's length when it comes to music - and play some good and international popular/contemporary music for a change! I believe that if we spent more time making music and listening to it, there would be no time for war.

Congratulations to Ruslana for winning the Eurvision Song Contest.