Censoring Music in a Conservative Country

Khartoum has two radio stations that sometimes play Western pop music, although neither does so exclusively. One of them usually plays acoustic covers in the mornings on my drive to work, and on the way home I listen to the other station and hear one Western song followed by two songs in Arabic. A few weeks ago I was shocked when I turned on the radio and heard Drake speak-singing "You used to call me on my cell phone." I was intrigued to find out how a song like Hotline Bling would be received in Sudan's conservative culture, especially since the lyrics are suggestive but never explicit.

I can't tell if the government requires music to be censored or if the radio stations do it because they know their listeners. Even in the US, Alessia Cara's Here is often censored surrounding the line "I'll be here/Somewhere in the corner/Under clouds of [marijuana]" not because people can't say marijuana on the radio but because a lot of radio stations apparently decided that their listeners didn't want to hear that word, at least not in the song's context. So in the US, when a word or phrase is censored, the music continues in the background but no word is sung or spoken. However, that's not how music censorship is done in Sudan. Instead, it sounds like the record is skipping, which makes Hotline Bling such an interesting song. It barely goes for more than a few seconds before jumping over the next "questionable" lyric.

For example, take this censored lyric:

'Cause ever since I left the city

You started wearing [less] and going out more

Glasses [of champagne] out on the dance floor

Hangin' with some girls I've never seen before

Or this one, which was painful to listen to because of the intense skipping:

These days all I do is

Wonder if you're [bendin' over backwards] for someone else

Wonder if you're [rollin' up] a backwoods for someone else

Doing things I taught you, [getting nasty for someone else]

You don't need no one else

It took me aback the first time I heard it, and then I realized what was happening, and it became entertaining to try to figure out why some of the lines were considered questionable and whether other lines coming up would be just as problematic (answer: in Hotline Bling, the station clearly went overboard...on other songs, they were a little less intense). I haven't heard any profanity-laced songs yet in Sudan, and I'd like to think that Sudanese radio knows to stay away from those lest a 3-minute song be reduced to 1-minute of hearing every other word!

While on the subject of music popular in Sudan, it feels like Dami Im's Sound of Silence is played on repeat sometimes. I recently discovered that it was Australia's entry into the Eurovision 2016 contest, which makes me enjoy it even more.

Europe, according to Eurovision

Sadly it placed second, although for the health of Eurovision that is probably a good thing. It'd be weird to host the 2017 edition in that lovely European country known as Australia....?