Recording a Somali Lullaby

Last week I visited a group at 'Love to learn' an organisation working with refugee communities in London http://www.rhssp.org.uk/

A group of Somali women at the centre very kindly sang the lullaby 'Hoobeey Hoobeey' (or 'Huwaya Huwaya'.) This lullaby had been suggested by 2 people, firstly Khadija who I met here in the UK and also by someone working at the BBC World Service in Africa. It's the first lullaby I've come across that is designed to be sung by someone other than the mother.

Psychology and Lullabies plus recording lullabies at The Royal London Hospital

On Friday I recorded an interview with Sally Goddard Blythe,  http://www.sallygoddardblythe.co.uk/index.php  author of 'The Genius of Natural Childhood'. Sally talked about how singing lullabies help child development amongst other fascinating insights into the subject. Yesterday Laura and I went to record some very very young babies at the Royal London Hospital where musicians from Spitafields Music http://www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk/ , working with Vital Arts http://www.vitalarts.org.uk/ were performing lullabies in the wards.

More about the project here:

http://www.vitalarts.org.uk/spitalfields-music-in-residence

Iraqi lullaby

Today I recorded a beautiful sad Iraqi lullaby, suggest by the BBC Arabic service. We've received many emails, tweets and calls, we continue to collect lullabies, so please keep sending them in. The name of the lullaby recorded today is 'Delilol' it's a real treat..