To underline World Refugee Day, here are 10 people who pursued their musical dream after fleeing persecution or conflict and became world famous, from Freddy Mercury to M.I.A.
Image: Imago/Leemage
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10 musical stars who fled their home country
To underline World Refugee Day on June 20, here are 10 famous musicians who fled their home country and whose life would have been very different if they had not been allowed to live somewhere else.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/APA Publications Arnold Schönberg Center
Freddie Mercury
The lead singer of Queen was born in 1946 in the Sultanate of Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania). While he spent most of his childhood in a boarding school in India, he joined his parents in Zanzibar in 1963. A year later, Mercury and his family fled the country that was undergoing the Zanzibar Revolution; they settled in England.
Image: Imago/Leemage
Gloria Estefan
Born in Cuba, the singer's family was forced to flee after the Cuban Revolution, settling in Miami. Most famous for her breakthrough hit, "Conga," Estefan has not only won three Grammy Awards throughout her career, but was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contributions to American music in 2015.
While political groups were warring in 1976, the legendary reggae singer was wounded by unknown gunmen. He survived the assassination attempt, but he left his home country afterwards to recover, living in self-imposed exiled.
Image: AP
Arnold Schoenberg
The Jewish Austrian composer moved to the US in 1934 to flee Nazi Germany. His modernist and atonal music had been labeled as degenerate by Hitler's party. He is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/APA Publications Arnold Schönberg Center
M.I.A.
British rapper Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam, best known by her stage name M.I.A., was actually born in London in 1975; her family however moved back to Sri Lanka when she was six months old. Her father was a Tamil activist, making it dangerous for the family to stay in the country. M.I.A.'s mother therefore fled with her children.
The famous singer-songwriter was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1983. Mika's family relocated to Paris in 1984 after attacks on the American Embassy during the Lebanese civil war.
Image: AP
K'Naan
His song "Wavin' Flag" was an anthem for the 2010 World Cup. The hip-hop artist known as K'Naan was born as Keinan Abdi Warsame in 1978 in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Fleeing the country's civil war, his family left Somalia in 1991.
Image: Seher Sikandar
Regina Spektor
Born in Moscow, Spektor was nine years old when her Jewish family left the USSR during the Perestroika, in 1989. They were admitted to the US as refugees with the assistance of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. She pursued her classical music training there, later gaining popularity on the indie music scene with her anti-folk songs.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/R. Beck
Wyclef Jean
The Grammy Award-winning rapper, most famous for his group the Fugees, is from Haiti and even tried to become president of his home country in 2010. As a non-resident of the country, he was however found to be ineligible for the position. He was a nine-year-old boy when his family left Haiti in 1979, during the Duvalier regime.
Image: AP
Rita Ora
The British pop singer and actress was born in Pristina, Yugoslavia (present-day Kosovo) to Albanian parents. As Albanians were persecuted amid the disintegration of the country, the family fled, relocating to London in 1991, when Rita was just a year old.
Image: Reuters/S. Mahe
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For too many people, being a refugee or an internally displaced person impacts every single day of their lives, and not only June 20, which has been observed as World Refugee Day since 2001.
Wars, persecution and other violence have driven a record 68.5 million people from their homes in 2017, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' annual global trends study published on Tuesday.
The gallery above features 10 famous musicians who fled their home country. Many of them were children at the time, and their life would have been very different had they not been allowed to stay united with their family and be accepted in a new land.
