From religious worship to battle songs, singing has always been at the heart of human tradition. It is a form of expression, solidarity, memory and resistance. Songs tell the story of societies across the world.
"If we consider that singing is vocalising with breath, then humans have always sung," said Nathalie Henrich Bernardoni of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), who specialises in vocal sciences.
"I think that they even started before they spoke, because ultimately it's easier to vocalise before structuring syllables and words – that's what babies do."
The first songs are impossible to date, but the earliest traces appear in Antiquity once writing developed to record them. Egyptian civilisation used song in rituals.
The oldest known piece comes from Mesopotamia: The hymn to Nikkal, dedicated to the deity of the same name. It is written almost in its entirety in cuneiform script, a writing system that developed in Mesopotamia around 3000 BC, on tablets dating from 1400 BC.
From this period onwards, singing had a religious dimension – in Mesopotamia, then Greece and the Roman Empire – a tradition seen today in church hymns, Hindu bhajans and Islamic nasheeds.
"In all forms of spiritual practice, the singing voice is omnipresent. It is also a characteristic that shows that singing has powerful virtues and accompanies the development of the self, by seeking what is deepest within," said Bernardoni.
How France's songs keep world dreaming of French freedom and glamour
More generally, vocal expression plays a crucial role in the cohesion of human groups – and therefore also plays a part on a political level.
Pierre Loiret, an author and expert in Gregorian chanting, gives this example: "For Charlemagne, who spread Gregorian chant throughout his empire, it was a way of unifying through song."
Bernardoni adds: "Singing is both an intimate discovery of oneself and a source of identity. It allows you to explore the possibilities of your own instrument, but also to connect with a community."
Transmission of traditions
Many regimes have feared this unifying and mobilising effect, and have sought to censor voices raised in song.
In 1985, American singer Stevie Wonder had his music banned in South Africa after he criticised the apartheid regime in his song It's Wrong (Apartheid) and dedicated the Oscar he won the same year (for I Just Called to Say I Love You) to Nelson Mandela, who was a political prisoner at the time.
In Canada’s residential schools, which removed indigenous children from their families for nearly a century, traditional songs were banned. Authorities saw them as an obstacle to “civilising” First Nations children and breaking their ties with ancestral culture.
Cameroon's indigenous Baka sing to save their vanishing forest home
Canadian influencer Shinanova, who is of Inuk descent, is among those reclaiming this part of her heritage. She shares traditional Inuit vocal practices on TikTok.
"For many of us Indigenous people, throat singing was forbidden. Christian priests considered it a sin. We almost lost this tradition, but today we are stronger and we sing for those who couldn't," she says.
Singing is an essential vehicle for cultural transmission between generations, particularly in oral societies. In West Africa, this is embodied by the figure of the griot.
As storytellers, historians, poets and musicians, they are local authority figures and play a central role in preserving traditions, particularly through song.
Interpretation of song is also an important marker of local culture.
"We specialise in the sung use of our [voice] according to the aesthetics we are immersed in, according to the culture in which we evolve," points out Bernardoni.
Yodelling in the Alps or among Central African Pygmies, beatboxing, Mediterranean polyphony – all show the range of what the voice can do. Some traditions demand years of training.
Some of these vocal traditions require rigorous training and expertise that is passed down from generation to generation.
"What's fascinating is that in traditions that are geographically very distant, such as Mongolian overtone singing and the deep voices of Sardinian singing, we find the same fundamental vocal gestures," added Bernardoni.
With singing bringing together people who share the same culture and creating cohesion, it can also play an important role in the face of adversity, as with war songs.
They serve as much to galvanise troops as to impress and intimidate, such as Lakota war songs – traditional songs sung by the Lakota people to accompany various stages of warfare, from recruiting and departure to battle and victory. In this sense, singing becomes a weapon in the arsenal.
Celtic Connections festival experiments with tradition
Connecting with nature
This idea of a song imbued with power is also found in many shamanic traditions. Power songs are used in rituals to invoke various forces. In the Amazon, shamans use icaros, songs sung during ayahuasca ceremonies.
They are also found in Inuit, Siberian and Aboriginal practices, where the vocal organ becomes a medium of communication between humans and the invisible world, or the natural world.
This link between vocal expression and nature is fundamental in many traditional societies. For many indigenous peoples, singing is a way of connecting with the earth, ancestors and animals.
Many indigenous songs follow natural cycles, from the seasons to animal migrations. They mark rain, harvests, births and hunts. Some imitate birds or other creatures to connect with the natural world.
Beyond its cultural, spiritual and identity-related dimensions, singing also has profound physiological and psychological benefits.
"Singing activates a different type of breathing than speech, one that is fuller and more dynamic, which may explain the feeling of wellbeing it provides," explains Bernardoni. This deeper breathing has a calming, meditative effect. Singing can also help to limit cognitive and physical decline in people with neurodegenerative diseases.
All the more reason, she concludes, to "fight for a world where people dare to sing more".
This article was adapted from the original version in French.
