The beloved “Queen of Salsa," Celia Cruz, was one of 14 siblings born in a small village near Havana, Cuba. In her childhood she sang for tourists, in school and community productions, and for her younger siblings to help them go to sleep….

Let’s meet Rhoma Irama, the controversial “King of Dangdut….”

Pilita Corrales was “Asia’s Queen of Songs….”

“Bula Maleya” may well be Fiji’s favorite song….

Sai Htee Saing, leader of the band The Wild Ones, was one of Myanmar’s most iconic, and ultimately controversial, rock musicians….

Phleng pheua chiwit — Thai “Songs for Life” — is a Thai form of protest music that started in the ’70s to address the issues of the working class and blended Thai traditional instruments with Western folk, rock and reggae….

Japanese kabuki theater takes us back several centuries….

Korean Nongak is a whole load of fun. Nongak is a public form of percussion performed by twenty to thirty performers, most often in a rural setting….

Naamyam is a traditional Cantonese form of improvised, performed poetry, which you may find in Hong Kong….

According to legend, the founder of music in China was Ling Lun, who made bamboo pipes that sounded like the songs of birds….

Bon odori is a public, participatory dance that is meant to attract young and old, both trained dancers and those who just want to celebrate….

We can surely all get along, at least if we’re making music! In this exuberant clip from “Zug des Lebens” (“Train of Life,”) Jewish and non-Jewish, presumably Roma musicians find common ground in song….

“Mysterious” Bulgarian singing is one of the great cultural wonders of the world….

Our favorite band of Romanian Roma musicians is Taraf de Haidouks (Band of Brigands!) is based in Clejani, a village outside of Bucharest, in Romania’s southeast.

Quick, don’t think, just answer — what’s more incredible: the boisterous Balkan Brass of the Boban and Marko Markovic Orkestar, or the amazing Mexican brass ensemble Banda Estrellas de Sinaloa de German Lizarraga…?

“Little Rabbit” (in Hungarian, ‘Hová mégy te kisnyulacska’”) is a Hungarian children’s song about a little bunny who goes into the forest, collects sticks and builds a garden so he can grow flowers for his mom. Probably not a true story…..

Nowadays you can find a place to dance the Czech/Polish dance known as Polka in most large cities around the Western world, and not just in traditional Polish beer halls….

In 2004 Ruslana, a singer from Ukraine’s Hutsul ethno-cultural group, won the continent’s Eurovision Song Contest while representing the nation — a really big deal….