From Bach to Beyoncé, music remains a universal language. Puccini plays well in Shanghai’s opera house. Tokyo has dozens of jazz clubs. Paul Simon tapped in South African rhythms for his album “Graceland.” Yet it has taken a century for America’s country music to reach this magical milestone: For the first time, a Grand Ole Opry show has left the United States, relocating from Nashville, Tennessee, for a one-night performance Sept. 26 at London’s famed Royal Albert Hall.
Country, twang and all, has finally hit a high note in another country, Queen’s English and all.
The official reason for this temporary musical transplant across the pond is that the world’s longest-running live radio show – first called “WSM Barn Dance” – has been celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
Another is a cowboy hat-tip to one of the genre’s origins: the Scottish and Irish settlers to America who, from the 17th century on, blended their folk singing with the blues and lyrical narration of Black people. The fiddle and the banjo found a common home in Appalachia and the South.
Yet another reason is a recent burst of interest in country music in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia. In Britain, it is now the fastest-growing genre. “I just think country music is a place that everybody can go and enjoy,” Grammy-nominated singer Luke Combs told BBC News.
Or, as writer Kristen Amiet explains in The Australian, the universal appeal of this music from America helps explain “how a nation that can’t agree on healthcare or gun control or immigration or law enforcement or education can come together at a Dolly Parton concert and get along.”
About 15% of visitors to the Grand Ole Opry stage in Nashville are from abroad. This iconic institution – as iconic as Albert Hall – has helped musicians blend new sounds, such as rap. Yet the music still keeps a bass note of community and comfort. The genre is “so expansive in terms of the spectrum of music and fan base that it can address today, and I think that’s why it’s a movement, not a moment,” Patrick Moore, CEO of Opry Entertainment Group, told the Nashville Business Journal.
The Opry’s first-ever overseas broadcast reflects a confidence that it, as well as country music, will exist for another 100 years. This unique universal language is not only eternal; it hits a chord with a harmony that builds bridges, even across oceans.
