The museum that celebrates the music vibrancy of Salvador da Bahia, Brazil: Cidade Da Música

Have you ever wondered how you can transmit a piece of your city’s identity to visitors in an exciting and long lasting way? Well, Cidade Da Música, might have the right answer for this question.

The Music Cities Awards, presented by “Saxony, State of the Arts”, is a global competition designed to reward the most outstanding applications of music to improve cities and communities all around the world. You can learn all about them here.

In this series, we’ll focus on sharing the stories of those projects and partners that were part of the latest edition of the contest.

On this occasion, we’ll take a closer look at the work of Cidade Da Música da Bahia, an exciting music museum from Salvador da Bahia in Brazil which is the winner of this year’s award for "Best Music Tourism Initiative".

Let’s dive into it!

Have you ever wondered how you can transmit a piece of your city’s identity to visitors in an exciting and long lasting way? Well, Cidade Da Música, might have the right answer for this question.

Salvador da Bahia is one of the most musical places of Brazil. It is known for being the birthplace of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, leaders of the iconic Tropicalia music movement that’s been praised by Beck and David Byrne, and being the epicenter for Samba-Reggae and Axé Music (remember this Michael Jackson’s video?). Every year it hosts the largest street carnival of the world and is the home of more than 60% of the musicians of the state.

Cidade Da Música is a museum that aims to share the music vibrancy of the city to visitors through an exhibit that covers four floors and is full of immersive experiences.

The first floor, themed "The City of Salvador and Its Music", encourages visitors to explore the city beyond the museum’s walls. This space is full of interactive stations displaying the music and stories of local neighborhoods, including a cinema with three large projection screens that present artists' testimonials.

The second floor focuses on the "History of Music in Bahia", with Tropicália as the main theme, it counts with nine booths that display several rhythms and artists that are part of Bahia's music history. It also has two special rooms which are dedicated to the Bahia Symphony Orchestra and to new musical talents and peripheral music groups of the city, the "Novos Baianos".

The third floor is all about educational entertainment. It has three karaoke recording studios, a "Rap and Trap, conscious poetry" room that shows videos of rappers from all over Brazil, and a professional studio that hosts percussion workshops. When it isn’t hosting visitors, the studio is also available to use for the local music community.

Additionally, the museum has a floor dedicated to the museum’s archives, which includes a library and a mediatheque that also hosts community events.

To get the vibe of the museum, we encourage you to take a look at the video below which does a tour throughout the museum.

One of the most exciting things about music tourism is that it has a unique ability to share the identity of a place to visitors. If you ever wondered how you can transmit a piece of your city’s musical identity to visitors through a museum, then Cidade Da Música might be a great template to do it.

Are you interested in music museums and music tourism topics? Then, join us for the 2024 Music Tourism Convention in Cape Breton Island, Canada, on May 29-31. Hosted at one of the most unique music destinations of the world. This will be a conference to experience the best practices related to music tourism, get the tools to turn your city into a music destination and to develop a career in music tourism. Get your tickets at this link.