INTRODUCTION
This is the third annual edition of #TheYamboSelection, presenting the list of Africa's Top 5 Happiest Songs of 2016. The same criteria are used this year (January to December 2016) as were used last year to select and rank, out of the songs released or published during the year, those that project and/or elicit the highest quotient of happiness in the listener/audience.
With all the talent that keeps popping up all across Africa, it has been no less daunting a task this year to put together this list. Having more to pick from does not necessarily mean a greater leeway in doing so, one finds, as there's even more, regrettably, to let go that should be in. But all lists of quality do have a 'genetic' limit of sorts, one hazards to add, in the sense of how long, how elongated, they can possibly be -- and still remain optimal and (common)sensible. So, as we look ahead, one senses that this list is fast approaching a certain limit one cannot breach.
As before, the focus in this series of lists is the song, not the singer, with the added requirement that only songs in video form qualify. In addition, the song must broadly fit the standard definition of popular (or pop) music; that is, music in any of these distinct genres, or any combination of them: Hip Hop, RnB, rap, reggae or rock. We are not dealing here with gospel, classical or traditional music; although borderline cases or creative partial 'fusions' with them will always be considered.
CLICK HERE to read the whole Introduction to the criteria used to make the list below.
HERE, THEN, THE LISTING AND RANKING OF AFRICA's TOP 5 HAPPIEST SONGS OF 2016:
[Click on a Song's title to watch the video]
5. Salome by Diamond Platnumz ft. Rayvanny (2016):
Click here to read a review of the song
4. Elengi by Innoss'B ft. Koffi Olomide (2016):
Click here to read a review of the song
3. Jinja by Fuse ODG (2016):
Click here to read a review of the song
2. Tere Tere by Toofan (2016):
Click here to read a review of the song
1. Count Ur Blessings by Mixzy (2016):
Click here to read a review of the song
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READ: Africa's 40 Happiest Songs of The Year, 2015
READ: Africa's 25 Happiest Songs of The Year, 2014
READ: World Happiness Report 2015
DO ALSO READ: "The Happiness Contagion", which I posted on December 9, 2008
In a number of respects, 2016 will be remembered as the year of the crowd-dance. There was even a dance fever of sorts among African artistes and their fandoms, each crowd seemingly bent on outdoing the others and wowing the rest of the world. Not a bad thing either.
Fuse ODG has deliberately chosen for his song, published in late October 2016, a title with two fertile and tantalizing connotations, as one can see at the beginning of the video. First, certainly for his team and for East Africans in general, Jinja readily brings to mind a town by that name in Uganda. It is located at that 'magical' point where the great River Nile pours out of Lake Victoria, headed north through the two Sudans, and then all of Egypt, and into the Mediterranean. This river's epic and never-finished journey is part of Fuse ODG's roots. It is at the core of his conception of T.I.N.A. (This Is New Africa) -- which is also the title of his album -- regardless of where ever he may physically be at any moment.
Secondly, the word is used in the video itself to mean: (a) "to give excessive energy to a person or situation, especially through dance", or (b) to "make someone or something more lively." The song, as you will see, clearly lives up to this promise; and, I think, only this. But this use of 'jinja' is not as idiosyncratic as it might seem. It is indeed a pun on a fairly common 'slang'. To "ginger up", Merriam-Webster tells us, means exactly what it's said to mean in (b) above; that is, "to make (someone or something) more exciting or lively" -- or, indeed, excited. A perfect concept for a crowd-dance.
It turns out that Fuse ODG's Jinja, which is produced by KillBeatz and runs for 3:51 minutes, is one of the most outstanding dance-oriented songs to dominate the African music space this year. It goes without saying, of course, that song and dance are twins, more (much more) often than not -- certainly in Africa. But some songs, like this one, are more dance-denominated than usual. Still, one must see and hear the singer(s) for the dancing to be well-anchored. That's a crucial distinguishing criterion -- certainly for me.
Here's the thing: we shouldn't include in our ratings of music videos any production in which the lead singer(s) remain(s) unseen throughout the song and dance, or in which the dance scenes are shot years after the song which inspires them is done. Dancing to music so 'canned' is not, shouldn't be, anyone's idea of pop music video -- no matter how good the dancing turns out to be. Art is not well-served by fracturing time -- that is, distanciating song and dance -- in that way.
So Jinja is a great piece of visually-populated music. We see and hear the singer. And the singer is there with the dancers, and the dancers with him. It's all intended to get millennials, and p'raps boomers still young at heart, up and dancing in no time. It is overflowing with the energy and creative body-and-soul moves, plus one or two nextgen dabs, of a self-assured cast. The irrepressible ODG's rapid-fire rap has catchy phrases and a relentless wordplay. "Jinja, maninja, majinja" -- is a refrain we keep hearing, as the Afrobeat goes on and on. And so it goes. Even the girls' 'cat'-walking becomes dance -- and inseparable from the groovy beat. So does a sweet half-baked dab by a little girl under, it seems, seven still to finish, uh, coordination. Everything, well- choreographed, moves as one; and it gets hotter and hotter on that charmed rooftop with all that constant and even acrobatic motion, but ends too soon. "Someone call police O!" Get that ODG!
Watch the Jinja video here
