The problem begins when 'local' stops describing an artist's origin and starts defining their level.
“Local artist” can too easily become an unconscious category somewhere below artist, suggesting amateur, developing, niche or worthy of support primarily because they come from nearby, rather than because the music deserves to be heard.
There is now, and always has been, such a wealth of talent in the Grand Duchy.
Yes, there is support for development. Showcase festivals (domestic and cross border), and there's substantial financial grants / international marketing for a select few acts.
Traditionally, though, radio in Luxembourg has been...how shall we say, reluctant to place Luxembourg talent alongside the more established and infintiely more polished commercial success stories from around the world.
As recently as a few years back you'd be hard pressed to hear a lot of Luxembourg produced music in key broadcast slots. True, smaller stations did air up and coming acts (usually around big shows or release promo gigs) but these were few and far between.
There's Screaming Fields, Battle Of The Bands and, of course, The Luxembourg Song Contest, itself feeling a bit like Wonka's Magical Mystery Tour.
But why do we still have to call Luxembourg made music, local?
SACEM certainly do their best to ensure artists and acts are paid for their efforts, in regards to radio play and commerical ties. Music: LX and Rocklab have become more prominent and we now see many more voices producing excellent music.
The critiscm aimed at music produced in Luxembourg two decades hence, was that it was poor in quality and lacked polish.
This is no longer than the case and taste makers should take note.
Perhaps it is a generational thing, music producers operating in Luxembourg have come out of the malnourished and under supported shadows of yesteryear and now find themselves able to assist those wanting to make their mark.
Also, it must be said, there are far more readily available (and cheaper) production tools that allow would be musicians to produce a standard of music far higher than the cassette tape demos of the 80s and 90s, without needing to bring in a team of producers or hire a studio.
That distinction matters particularly in Luxembourg.
An artist from Manchester isn't routinely introduced on British radio as a “local Manchester artist” once their music is competing nationally; nor is every Belgian record framed primarily through its Belgian origin. It does form part of their narrative identity but does not diminish their supposed quality.
Yet Luxembourg musicians can find themselves permanently carrying their nationality as a qualifier: “Here's some local music…” The listener is effectively being told that what follows belongs to a different category from the international records surrounding it.
However well-intentioned, we may inadvertently lower expectations before the first note has even played.
Maybe we can find the issue here. Is it geopolitical? Or simply geographical? Dudelange (or Dudetown) is the creative hotbed of the GD, though some would say Esch-sur-Alzette has a bit about it. But no locale in Luxembourg has started a movement like, Manchester, Liverpool, London, Paris, Berlin, Seattle, Bristol, Detroit, Vancouver, Melbourne, Memphis etc...
Luxembourg's size makes that especially problematic because international ambition isn't an optional extra for many of its musicians, it's fundamental to having a sustainable career.
Research into the country's music sector has repeatedly identified export as crucial because the domestic market is simply too small for many artists to develop indefinitely within it. This why showcases in other territories remains vital in the establishing of new acts, new voices, new talents.
Luxembourg's cultural infrastructure has consequently spent years building mechanisms specifically designed to help artists cross borders and develop international recognition.
True, there's more opportunity to play to a reasonable crowd at any one of the dozens of fetes, fairs and communes put on each weekend, but we need to think both bigger and more broadly.
Radio and media should therefore reinforce that ambition rather than accidentally create another border.
If a Luxembourg artist produces a brilliant alternative record, it should be capable of sitting between Fontaines D.C. and Wet Leg because that's where it belongs musically, not removed from the normal playlist and placed into a designated Luxembourg segment.
Contextualising its origin can be valuable; making origin the principal reason for playing it is something quite different.
The ultimate endorsement is surely: we're playing this because it's good enough.
There is also an important psychological difference in how audiences discover music. Calling something “local music” invites the listener to judge it within a local framework. Playing the same record naturally alongside international releases invites comparison with international peers.
Radio and, further speaking, the press (us included) will fall over themselves to offer up wibble on Nosi playing Tomorrowland and Francis of Delirium securing a needle drop on a high profile Netflix drama. But these are exceptions to rather than proof of any rule.
For emerging artists, that is a far more powerful proposition - scope outside of restrictive borders.
Luxembourg's own music-sector analysis has recognised that artists here encounter international competition unusually early precisely because of the country's limited territory and comparatively restricted domestic infrastructure.Give emerging artists airtime, interviews, stages and visibility, but then give them the greatest compliment possible: judge them by exactly the same standards as everybody else.
Quite the opposite.
Luxembourg should celebrate producing artists capable of competing internationally.
Tell listeners the artist is from Esch, Differdange, Luxembourg City or wherever else when that adds something to the story. Interview them. Tell people where they're playing.
Explain that this extraordinary record they're hearing was made ten kilometres away. But that's editorial context, not a musical genre. “Luxembourgish” tells us where somebody comes from; it tells us nothing about what they sound like or how good they are.
There is a wider reputational consequence too.
If media, venues and institutions consistently present Luxembourg musicians in a protected local category, international industry can begin to perceive them the same way: interesting for Luxembourg, rather than simply interesting.
Yet the stated objective of Luxembourg's export structures has long been precisely the opposite, building recognition, international partners, media attention and careers beyond the country's borders.
Even Luxembourg's cultural-development criteria have treated foreign performances, territories, streams, press and international partnerships as measures of artist development.
So perhaps the ambition should be to move from “supporting local music” to “supporting great music from Luxembourg.”
It sounds like a tiny semantic distinction, but culturally it's enormous. We shouldn't remove Luxembourg artists from the international conversation in order to celebrate them; we should put them directly into it.
Give emerging artists airtime, interviews, stages and visibility, but then give them the greatest compliment possible: judge them by exactly the same standards as everybody else.
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