Buffy Sainte-Marie In Conversation

Part of Antony's Meltdown Festival, August 2012.

Canadian born singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie has been performing since the early 1960s at the peak of the hippie and beatnik era, touring concert halls across the country and the Native American reservations from which she descends.

This talk sees Sainte-Marie discusses her life, career and the inspiration behind the song 'Universal Soldier'.

Ever since, she has been prolific, both in the studio and on the live circuit, consistently releasing new records and embarking on tours around the world. Her last album in 2008 - Running for The Drum - went to Number 1 on the Canadian Album Charts, won a prestigious Juno Award in Canada and prompted Sainte-Marie to be inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.

She is perhaps best-known for her Academy Award and Golden Globe winning song 'Up Where We Belong' (performed by Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes) from the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman, and 'Universal Soldier', a song she wrote in protest to the Vietnam war. Sainte-Marie also scored an international hit with 'Until It's Time for You To Go' which was subsequently covered by a who's who of famous artists including Elvis Presley, Shirley Bassey, Neil Diamond, Glen Campbell Barbara Streisand and Cher, to name but a few.