At Tallinn Music Week yesterday I heard the speech of the Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves. His speak was about freedom. Music is also about freedom, and about freedom of speech. In a free country you don’t have to take much risks to speak out freely. He mentioned PJ Harvey in a TV interview with the English prime minister Cameron, expressing freely her opinion in word and music about the policy of the English government. The risk she takes here, is that her fans don’t agree.
On the other side you have the action of Pussy Riot recently in Moscow. In Russia, church and state are separated. Still the orthodox church was openly advising on voting for Putin. Pussy Riot performed in an orthodox church to protest against this illegal advise of the church. They got arrested 2 month ago without any bail, and are charged for hooliganism, and can get 7 years of prison for that.
Ilves ended his speech with “Music is more than fun”.