Mauri Yambo: Popular

Showing posts with label Popular. Show all posts

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Thursday, March 02, 2017

Waka Waka, Shakira and the Art of the Blockbuster Song

Year 2010 was a watershed for Africa on several levels. South Africa hosted FIFA World Cup, bringing that global event to Africa for the very first time. That truly festive tournament was of course made more memorable by the ever-present Vuvuzela, which showed just how the 'blow' of an inconspicuous thing could cause an ear-shattering storm of chatter across the globe.

But here's the thing. The official song, Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) didn't just 'kick off' the finals. In hindsight, I think, it also tagged, in a serendipitous but lasting way, the symbolic beginning of the African renaissance in popular music. [There were clearly earlier intimations of a rebirth, as amply demonstrated by the British Museum (2017) -- and birthing can be labored -- but I think that these were at best sneak views of the still to come renaissance]. Indeed, we're increasingly getting to see and feel the song's afterglow as the 2010s move along. If Waka Waka could make it big in that way, so could the artistic creations of Africa's millennials. After all, Waka Waka was an old, familiar song -- originally written in the time of their grandparents.

In 2010, Waka Waka was once again an undeniable communal fest -- but on a global scale. It was a great revival. The seamless tapestry of performers and colors and voices and sounds was a work of art in itself -- offered to an admiring world. Remember: the irrepressible Colombian Diva, Shakira, the impassioned and bubbly South African girl (whose name most of us still don't know), Southern Africa's very own Freshly Ground band, and the colorful and fairy-like dance troupe! They sang and played and danced as one with so much sparkle, there in Johannesburg.

A few other components of the watershed that we can quickly mention as illustrations include:

1. Year 2010 marked the fortieth anniversary of The Year of Africa (1960). Events for which 1960 is remembered -- vaguely by baby-boomers and more vividly by history and, alas, an ever diminishing number of their living parents -- include a spate of independence celebrations across the continent: Fifteen countries gained their independence; Ghana became a republic (having been declared independent, with the Queen of England as its titular head, in 1957); and armed struggle against apartheid began in South Africa. At forty, you're a grown-up, and should show evidence of it:

a) Out of the 17 "Class of 1960" countries, five were represented at the 2010 FIFA World Cup: Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria and South Africa. Algeria, which became independent in July 1962, was the only other African country at the World Cup.

b) The successful preparations for, and hosting of, the soccer extravaganza were in themselves testimony, in the eyes of the world, that Africa's capacity for large-scale infrastructural development had turned a hugely consequential corner.

c) The image of Mandela hosting the world in that way was a moving symbolic culmination of the journey for freedom and equity which he and his comrades had begun in 1960.

2. By 2010, cumulative developments in resource-rich African countries and elsewhere, though often 'under the radar' and too slow even for locals, were progressively eroding the world's perception of a poverty-stricken, helpless and hopeless continent with a begging bowl in hand.

3. There was also perceptibly expanding space for competitive politics and institutions free at last of the worst excesses of unchallenged executive power. The light at the end of the tunnel was certainly getting brighter.

4. There was massive expansion of educational opportunities across much of the continent, and growing space for private enterprise.

5. Perhaps even ahead of Africa itself, world institutions were beginning to routinely point to an emerging African middle class likely in the long run, perhaps, to turn the usual 'pyramid' of economic power and hierarchy into a 'diamond'.

Enough of that for now.

WATCH: Video of Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) [Hear the sounds, see the colors -- and 'read' the accompanying flow of moveable/moving body texts]

And here's the video of BB DJ -- inspired perhaps, as Dibussi Tande (2010) implies, by the spirits of his grandparents -- singing and dancing Waka Waka in 2009, the year before FIFA World Cup.

Shakira's and her co-singer's rendition (remix) of the already famous song was dogged with controversy from the start. First, there was spirited but far from unanimous objection to her choice, a non-South African, as the lead singer. Then there were accusations that she was claiming authorship of a song which wasn't hers.

Indeed, Tande has noted that Cameroonian soldiers sang this song during World War II -- long before Shakira, or even her mother, was born. Allusions to that history appear in a series of interesting videos (click here to view one such). Even the original title that she had chosen for the World Cup anthem, Zaminamina, tied her back, inextricably, to those Cameroonian roots and the successors of the artistes concerned. Eventually, as Tande reports, a deal, belatedly urged by FIFA as well, was struck between the claimants on the one hand and Shakira and SONY on the other.

Against the backdrop of the accusations, the truth, it turned out, was somewhere in-between. Obviously, Zaminamina, Zangalewa (with a Waka Waka refrain) was, as already noted, an old Cameroonian song. But the song she jointly launched in 2010 was a thing somewhat apart: a fusion of her lyrics (written in English), a dominating chunk of Zangalewa, a lovely twist of South African singing, inspired instrumentation by Freshly Ground, and a dazzling troupe presence. And she tossed into all that her own global brand and star-power. Still, proper attribution was called for.

READ: "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)"

READ/LISTEN: "Cameroon - Zangalewa - Zamina - Waka Waka Time for Africa - Original"

CLICK: Lyrics for Shakira's Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)

Despite the controversy, Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) has over and over since 2010 proven to be a discernible, if back-handed, boost to the stature of African music, both within and outside the continent.

WATCH:
1) Shakira Live from Paris (2016)
2) Shakira - Waka Waka Live China Concerd HD

I'm more interested in the 'within', though. And I think that the song has emerged as an unintended, and largely unanticipated, catalyst (of enormous proportions) for pop-music artistry and appreciation all across Sub-Sahara. African artistes and fans have, since 2010, watched with surprise and been inspired by how the addition of a few lines have turned an old African song, fused with new and thoughtful tunes and creative dance routines, into a music video of global appeal.

Certainly, the World Cup platform gave Waka Waka an unbeatable, world-wide head-start. But keen minds must surely have begun to sense, in this spectacle, continent-wide possibilities for musicians, songwriters, directors and producers -- even after the World Cup. I sense that they indeed have.

But the 2010 FIFA World Cup's gravitational pull could only temporarily wire together the disparate national TV channels dotting the African continent. There was no permanent promise in this; and if there wasn't, there would be no long-term change in the pattern of distribution and consumption of musical products. Artistes on their own didn't have the wherewithal to make a difference here.

So where's the wherewithal? The answer to that will have to await a separate post.

I conclude by saying this: In #TheYamboSelection of Africa's top pop songs of the year, so far covering 2010-2016, Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) was without a doubt the best song in 2010. One is reminded that it is the songs which are ranked in the annual series, not the singers. Of course, each song has a singer, or singers, but it is the song which forms the basis for the ranking. As already amply argued, Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) is undoubtedly an African song, even if the lead singer turns out to be a Colombian Latina, whom we should all embrace with both arms. It goes without saying that Waka Waka was also the year's best song by, or featuring, an African Diva. The song had two Diva's -- Shakira and that unnamed and lovable South African vocalist. I think that singing that heavily African song with the super-talented supporting cast, as Africa hosted the World Cup, made Shakira an African Diva as well, forever, in terms of that song (FIFA's anthem in 2010).

REFERENCES

Tande, Dibussi (May 2010) "Undermining African Intellectual and Artistic Rights: Shakira, Zangalewa and the World Cup Anthem"

The British Museum (March 3, 2017) "Stream 8,000 Vintage Afropop Recordings". London: The British Museum

WFMU...Blog (March 2, 2010) "Around the World...Waka Waka Hey Hey!"

UPDATED: March 3-6, 2017

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

A Chorus Michael Jackson Never Danced To

[Here's a chorus MJ never danced to, a rendition of a popular Swahili ballad from Kenya]

Wani ua ua ki (ki) pezi
Wani ua ua,
Mwendo wako wa ma (ma) ringo
Wani ua ua!

Kiuno chako che (che) mba mba
Wani ua ua,
Wani ua ua ki (ki) penzi
Wani ua ua!

Mauri Yambo

Sunday, June 17, 2018

Top 10 Popular Posts on the Mauri Yambo Blog, Last 30 Days ~ Released June 17, 2018

Saturday, June 09, 2018

Top 10 Popular Posts on the Mauri Yambo Blog, Last 30 Days ~ Released June 9, 2018

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Top 10 Popular Posts on the Mauri Yambo Blog, Last 30 Days ~ Released May 29, 2018

Sunday, May 20, 2018

Top 10 Popular Posts on the Mauri Yambo Blog, Last 30 Days ~ Released May 20, 2018