If the rest of the world is still foreign to your ears, here are 50 places from which to start a journey of discovery: 50 key albums, both ancient and modern, from around the globe, assembled by our all-star panel

AFRICA

1 The Legend

Oum Kalsoum

Manteca, 2007

‘She’s great. She really is. Really great.’ So said Bob Dylan, for once lost for words. But he wasn’t wrong. Start here with the extraordinary Egyptian singer who died in 1975, mourned by a global audience.

2 Miss Perfumado

Cesaria Evora

Lusafrica/BMG, 1992

She learnt to sing in her orphanage choir, but gave up to support her family and didn’t perform for 10 years, battled alcoholism - and at the age of 47, Cape Verde’s ‘barefoot diva’ became an international star. And this is the mesmeric record which made that happen.

3 Pirates Choice

Orchestra Baobab

World Circuit, 2001

The liquid sound of the West African night courtesy of the seminal Senegalese band (re-formed and now touring again) who magically adapted the local craze for Cuban sounds to the traditions of Wolof griot culture. This is their peak.

4 Immigres

Youssou N’Dour

Earthworks, 1988

Which Youssou record to pick? The West African superstar has brought many disparate elements to his music but with this magical collection he introduced the world to the mbalax sound. And no it doesn’t feature ‘7 Seconds’, his hit with Neneh Cherry.

5 Sahra

Khaled

Wrasse, 1996

The key album from the King of Rai (an uproarious updating of Algerian folk sounds) including his ‘Aicha’, covered by a Francophone zouk act, a salsa group and (with an almost certain inevitability) a Danish rap outfit.

6 Moffou

Salif Keita

Universal, 2002

For some - including Youssou N’Dour - the best album from ‘the Golden Voice of Africa’ (and descendant of Mali’s kings) remains Soro but surely this most captivating set of acoustic arrangements just pips it.

7 Star Choice - Robert Plant selects:

Festival in the Desert

Various

IRL, 2003

I played this show with my band - it’s a three-day festival in the sands, miles from anywhere. Great bands - Tartit, Tinariwen - plus all-time legend Ali Farka Toure. Fantastic, and the DVD is mind-altering. There was a Navajo speed metal group from Arizona and they hooked up with the guys from the desert - both their people had been shafted by imperial powers. It was the strangest thing seeing these sub-machine gun-carrying Tuareg hanging out with speed metallers from Scottsdale.

8 Dimanche a Bamako

Amadou and Mariam

Nonesuch, 2005

The blind Malian couple’s irresistibly sunny album was produced by Manu Chao and became a summer soundtrack across Europe.

9 Boulevard de l’Independance

Toumani Diabate’s Symmetric Orchestra

World Circuit, 2006

Suddenly it wasn’t just the likes of Ali Farka Toure or even Taj Mahal who wanted to work with the Malian kora virtuoso but Damon Albarn and Björk, too. This spectacular recording is just one of the reasons why.

10 Zombie

Fela Kuti

Wrasse, 1976

Women, politics, magic, controversy ... and a long series of albums that captured an epic funked-up militancy. ‘Zombie’ was Kuti’s name for Nigeria’s soldiers - 1,000 of whom attacked his commune after this came out.

11 The best of the Ethiopiques

Various

Manteca, 2007

Who knew? Through the sterling work of a French fan (see OMM52), the sounds of swinging Addis Ababa in the 1960s and 1970s have been newly made available to - and lapped up in large numbers by - a curious global audience.

12 1972/73/74

Franco and TPOK Jazz

Sonodisc, 2000

The big guitarist from Congo (Zaire as it then was) gave James Brown a run for his money at the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle, when both performed before the Ali-Foreman fight. This set shows his slinky soukous sound at its best (Franco’s, that is, not Ali’s).

13 Congotronics

Konono No.1

Cramworld, 2005

Not the most likely pop stars, given they had to fashion their instruments from junkyard scrap. But the Kinshasa outfit - big Franco fans - now find themselves feted as being at the bleeding-edge of contemporary post-rock dance.

14 Star Choice - Vampire Weekend’s Rostam selects:

The Queen of African Pop

Brenda Fassie

CCP/EMI, 2004

Fassie was a South African pop star who died four years ago. I love this compilation. It’s clearly African but it also sounds really inspired by house music. The way it uses synthesizers and electronic drums inspired me when we were making our first album.

15 Hondo

Thomas Mapfumo

Zimbob, 1993

The architect of Zimbabwe’s shuffling and hypnotic chimurenga style was the guerrillas’ favourite in the independence wars and now aims his sorrowfully melodic attacks on Mugabe’s corruption from his new home in Oregon.

16 Kwaito: South African Urban Beats

Various

EMI, 2004

Hip hop - like jazz and reggae (which produced indigenous stars such as the late Lucky Dube) - has always been huge in South Africa. Here’s a raucous selection of the local version of the genre, called kwaito, including the likes of the best-selling Zola.

THE AMERICAS

17 The living road

Lhasa

Tot ou Tard, 2004

Eclectic is too narrow a word for the Montreal-based Lhasa de Sel’s family gene pool and correspondingly rich musical blend of Mexican, gypsy, French and Spanish ingredients - all communicated through a sexy, husky voice.

18 Bachata Rosa

Juan Luis Guerra

Karen, 1990

One of the great innovators in Latin music, a trained jazz guitarist, took sounds native to the Dominican Republic and gave them a surreally poetic, modern twist - and has ended up selling something like 14 million records across the globe.

19 Live at the Cheetah

Fania All-Stars

Fania, 1972

Ray Barretto, Willie Colon and Johnny Pacheco lead the ultimate all-star New York salsa jam on this live album. The definitive Fania hits of the era are here, recorded in front of a breathless audience.

20 La Cantina

Lila Downs

EMI, 2006

She sang at Frida Kahlo’s bedside in the 2002 biopic of her fellow Mexican artist and looked quite the part. An anthropologist, she mixes Mesoamerican traditions into her sound - with hints of a Mexican yodel in her arresting voice.

21 Barrio Fino

Daddy Yankee

Interscope, 2005

Puerto Rico’s biggest reggaeton star with the album that brought this local twist on hip hop to the world - spiced up further by sprinklings of salsa, Mexican and even Arabic styles in the mix.

22 A lo Cubano

Orishas

Chrysalis, 2000

The Cuban hip hip outfit’s debut proved that the Yankee imperialists across the Florida strait didn’t have a monopoly on the genre. Plus there was plenty of invention here, like the incorporation of Cuban timba.

23 Buena Vista Social Club

Buena Vista Social Club

World Circuit, 1997

The record that put Cuban son on the map and relaunched the careers of a generation of stellar musicians such as Ibrahim Ferrer. And kudos to producer Ry Cooder (sometimes sparring partner of Ali Farka Toure, too).

24 Watina

Andy Palacio

Cumbancha, 2007

Suddenly a whole lot of people know about the plight of the Garifuna community in Belize - some because of the recent success of this mellifluous gem, put together by the extraordinary Palacio, who sadly died earlier this year.

25 Ola Latina: Grandes Exitos Discos Fuentes

Bonnier Amigo, 2006

A killer Colombian compilation, culled from the Discos Fuentes vaults in Medellin. Mambo-style hotel bands, cumbia rock combos and accordion-led cowboys - they’re all here.

26 Star Choice - Gilles Peterson selects:

Cru

Seu Jorge

Wrasse, 2007

Seu Jorge is the perfect embodiment of all things Brazilian. He manages to marry MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) - the classic bossa sound of people like Elis Regina - with a contemporary edge. People here know him as an actor - he was in City of God and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, singing David Bowie songs. But in Brazil you hear him being played everywhere, in taxis and on the expensive beaches. I really think he’ll be a significant artist for years to come. He’s a real spokesman.

27 Brazil Classics Vol. 1

Various

Luaka Bop, 1989

David Byrne ‘discovers’ Brazilian music - and plumps for the obvious Seventies samba stars: Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Jorge Ben, Milton Nascimento. But they’re obvious for a reason.

28 Tropicalia

Various

Soul Jazz, 2006

Gil and Caetano again, only plus the likes of Os Mutantes: the focus is on the right-on, artistically outlandish ‘tropicalia’ movement. (And you thought British hippies were out there...)

29 Rio Baile Funk Vol 1

Various

Essay, 2004

Forget the musicianship of other Brazilian artistes - these cuts are raw, the true sound of the favelas. Likewise, Brazilian music has always been sexy, but these ‘booty beats’ verge on the pornographic.

30 Tango: Zero Hour

Astor Piazzolla

Nonesuch, 2003

The Argentinian bandoneón player revolutionised tango, introducing jazz and classical elements, and this was his late masterpiece. Just be warned: this isn’t quite the sort of thing you’ve heard on Strictly Come Dancing.

EUROPE

31 Fado em Mim

Mariza

World Connection, 2002

Mariza’s sweeping crinolines added glamour to world music, and her voice, drenched in a sadness that coursed through her audience, gave the fado sound of Lisbon international acclaim.

32 Rumba Argelina

Radio Tarifa

World Circuit, 1996

Radio Tarifa imagined a playlist for a mythic radio station at the meeting point of North Africa and Spain - flamenco guitars and ouds, Arabic drums and Gallician bagpipes - then made it happen, brilliantly.

33 Au Cabaret Sauvage

Lo’ Jo

Emma, 2003

Lo’Jo demolished France’s reputation for bad pop music. Tagged ‘funfair shamans’, their French-African-Gypsy mix holds up a distorting mirror to the country’s population.THE BEST OF

34 Clandestino

Manu Chao

Virgin, 2000

Backpackers of the world unite: you have nothing to lose but your dirty washing. And someone to celebrate in this global citizen. Robbie Williams covered one of these songs, but don’t hold that against Manu.

35 La Revencha del Tango

Gotan Project

Ya Basta!, 2001

Two electronic composers, one French, the other Swiss, and a tango guitarist from Buenos Aires concoct soundtracks for the 21st century complemented by Cristina Vilallonga’s sultry vocals.

36 Miero

Varttina

Real World, 2006

For anyone thinking they don’t need the music and tribal sagas of the Finno-Ugric people of Karelia and Ingria, think again - this is a group who have rocked a 200,000-strong crowd at the Rock In Rio festival.

37 Star Choice - Charlie Gillett selects:

Bari

Ojos de Brujos

Pias, 2002

Bari distilled the inspirations and influences - rumba, rock, rap and flamenco - of a group of Barcelona friends, who made a record that captured their camaraderie and caught the spirit of Spanish music at that moment. Why include this hybrid hotchpotch when there’s no proper flamenco record in the list? Precisely because it is such a remarkable melange.

38 London is the Place for Me Vol. 1

Various Artists

Honest Jon’s, 2002

When the Empire Windrush, docked at Tilbury on 21 June, 1948, calypso star Lord Kitchener was on board: and he still deserves to be welcomed.

39 The Best of Paolo Conte

Paolo Conte

Coalition, 1999

Somewhere it will always be Paolo Conte time: no one else is left in the bar, the rain is pouring outside, and hell, you can even smoke. The Italian jazzer conjures shades of Tom Waits, the ghost of Jacques Brel and plenty more.

40 Band of Gypsies

Taraf De Haidouks

Cramworld, 2001

Put them up against any rock’n’roll band and they’ll likely drink them under the table, and then out-play them. The Romanian Roma band never sounded quite so fiery as they do here.

41 Deliveren

Sezen Aksu

Post, 2001

Turkey’s fearless pop icon has had scores of hits and several husbands. A rule-flouter and a quietly political force and with a heart-stopping voice, she’s the sexy face of modern Turkey.

MIDDLE EAST AND ASIA

42 Star Choice - Nitin Sawnhey selects:

Musst Musst

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Real World, 1990

It’s hard to overestimate the influence this record had on me. I was familiar with Qawwali singers, but Nusrat’s collaboration with the Canadian Michael Brook blew me away, in particular the remix of the title track by Massive Attack. It opened a whole range of possibilities at a time when I was listening to a lot of dub. And of course there’s Nusrat’s overwhelming voice - he brings an almost erotic charge to these spiritual lyrics.

43 Dalai Beldiri

Yat Kha

Wicklow, 1999

One of the most inhuman sounds in music, Tuvan throat-singing from the Mongolian-Siberian borders, is an ancient tradition - but young rock guitarist Albert Kuvez effected a revolution with this post-Soviet collision of rawk and traditional instrumentation.

44 Mano Suave

Yasmin Levy

World Village, 2007

You might think a set of songs charting the Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492, sung in the Ladino language, would sound dry and dusty. But this Israeli singer’s rich voice brings a fiery passion to her musical fusion.

45 Hightway to Hassake: Folk and Pop of Syria

Omar Souleyman

Sublime Frequencies, 2007

The berserk sound of the Middle East: Souleyman crashes Arabic, Turkish and Kurdish styles together in a rough and thrilling mix. Much of this was recorded live and it’s gritty in a good way. Syrian music doesn’t get heard a lot - surely it can’t all be this raw.

46 Call of the Valley

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma

Hemisphere, 1968

The ragas represent a shepherd’s journey from morning to evening, the santoor, flute and guitar combining to beatific effect. This recording remains the bestselling Indian classical album ever.

47 The Legend

Lata Manngeshkar

Manteca, 2006

The Bollywood playback singer and sister of Asha Bhosle can be heard on 980-plus movies. This collection tries to distil the best.

48 Making Music

Zakir Hussain

ECM, 1986

On which the extraordinary tabla player was joined by flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia, guitarist John McLaughlin, and saxophonist Jan Garbarek to mesmeric effect.

49 Beauty

Ryuichi Sakamoto

Virgin, 1989

Once of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, the Japanese composer (and actor) has gone on to myriad fascinating projects, not least this disc including a sublime Youssou N’Dour collaboration.

50 Jin-Jin/Firefly

Takashi Hirayasu and Bob Brozman

Riverboat, 2000

The sounds of the islands of Okinawa meet those of Hawaii: and this fabulously relaxed recording shows that means nothing but good times.

· How we did it

Thanks in putting this list together to Ian Anderson (editor, fRoots magazine), Simon Broughton (editor, Songlines magazine), Paul Fisher (Far Side Music and broadcaster), Gilles Peterson (Radio 1 DJ), Susheela Raman (musician), Nitin Sawhney (musician), Jason Walsh (Musicians Incorporated promoter) and OMM contributors Peter Culshaw, Charlie Gillett, Mark Hudson, Neil Spencer and Sue Steward. Final placings by the OMM team.

· Win the 50

For your chance to win all 50 albums courtesy of Play.com visit observermusicmonthly.co.uk. Closing date is 10 July 2008.

· Save up to 40 per cent on these and other world music classics at www.play.com/ommworld

• This article was amended on 1 June 2020. An earlier version misnamed Mariza’s 2012 album Fado em Mim as Fado e Mim. This has been corrected.