JeSoul:

Na wa oh  . . . everyday some controversy about the world cup lol.

Anyways, both sides have good points . . .
-a SAcan should be singing it - first worldcup in africa = monumnetal moment for the continent etc
-it's okay to have a foreigner collaborating, it shows its a global event

Personally, I think FIFA shoulda asked a SAcan to do it, just to avoid drama and to allow Southafricans to showcase their talent. Shakira doesn't need the publicity, it would've been better served giving it to a local artist.

And going by the two videos you posted Morpheus, Shakira's song is very nice and well done (including the accent and pronounciation of the local tongue), however, Knaan's/Bisbal's song is simply riveting, fantastic! definitely more deserving to be the official anthem.

morpheus24:

I agree, knaan's song has a more inspirtional feel to it.

SA's too dey complain, though I get their point. What if the song was sang by K'naan, would they object as well cause it wasn't a South African singing it. Shakira's song is actually a sample off an old Camerounian group Golden sounds which was popular in her home country columbia. I remember the group from my early days. see them below


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmC_YHGweLs

JeSoul:

Absolutely. If enough people complain maybe Fifa will reconsider.
Lol, probably, but maybe not as strongly. It's hard to imagine all the brains at Fifa would not have imagined how this wouldn't be a problem. And it makes it even worse the song is not original, but infact a biting off an old song from another country being sung by someone from another continent. How them no go vex? lol

JeSoul:

Although another angle. Do you know the history of fifa anthems and who sung them? ie was it always an American when it was held in America? or sung by a german when it was held in Germany etc?

morpheus24:

They are looking at it from a commerical angle. Shakira will draw more people cause she is an international artist.

Ricky Martin sang for World cup 1998 in France

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8c4KNZ1Sb4&feature=related

The rest of 2002 and 2006 was a compilation of several artists so not sure which one was official.

Funny the "waka waka" Shakira's song is actually pidgeon for " walk walk". He hehehe!. How broken take enter world cup. Truly African !!!

JeSoul:

Hmm . . . if this is the case, that historically it hasn't always been a native of the host country doing the official anthem, then I don't think south africans can complain too much. Although the significance of this being the first WC on african soil is certainly not lost on me. America/europe hosting is not the same as Africa hosting.

morpheus24:

Believe the SA's would complain if it were even an African artist who sang it nor do they realize this is a sampling of a classic African hit song. Imagine the girl in the video asking Zuma to do somethin about it. Wetin Concern Zuma for this matter.

Most of them are yet to think globally and believe the WC is theirs not understanding that they have been bestowed a great honor to host a WORLD(not a South African) EVENT

RSA:

I am dissapointed by your comments,but then there is a saying that says 'people who generalise,they are generallly liars'.Shakira is horrible as a singer,she sings as if she's got something on her throat.What we are saying is we have talented musicians who are capable of doing this song.We have world renown groups like Black Mambaso and Soweto Gospel Choir that have won the grammys and other very talented musicians.


Believe me when I say this is our world cup,I am sure in the past it use to be FIFA but in South Africa it is ours,it is African world cup.And I think it is OK to believe in yourself as an African,Shakira did a bad job and we believe one of our own can do a better job,what is wrong with that?

Kaanan song is very popular in South Africa and people thought it was a FIFA official song and where OK with it,so please don't make us more xenophobic than we're already are.Personally I would have loved a song that have Femi Kuti,Vusi Matlhasela,Oliver Mtukizi,Yousou Ndour,Angelidjo Kidjo,Yvonne Chakachaka,Baaba Maal,Isamel lo and Tuface,Lira

chic2pimp:

Was about to say what does Jesoul know about footy until. . . . . . .

P:S Anastacia sang the 2002(held in Korea and Japan) worldcup theme song

morpheus24:
The sentiments of the WC is bigger than One countires PRIDE,

Mpele:

@eldee

It shows how silly and ill informed U are! It is the musicians who complained! Why are U now insulting us. Pls refrain from insulting us. What does Swaziland have to do with us. Why do Nigerians like to insult us whenever they get a chance. It is not our fault that Nigeria is a third world slum. I'm starting to believe that U're resentful because U do not have the capabilities to host such events.

Mpele:

@ eldee

What makes U think that Nigerians are intelligent. If U are intelligent as Nigerians, then sadly your intelligence has brought U nothing but poverty. U can't even clean your streets. U are busy butchering the hell oot of each other in the name of religion, if that's intelligence then I rest my case.

U're nothing but a bunch of resentful people who're just bitter that South Africa is now the giant of Africa hosting world cups, while your country with more than 100 million useless people is now even seen as less important than GHANA

eldee:

You're not even ashamed to say it outside that your musicians are daft??
Mass Media is one of the agents of socialization . . . now I understand why an intelligent South African is harder to find than reptilian hair.

Mpele:

@ eldee
U're nothing but a bunch of resentful people who're just bitter that South Africa is now the giant of Africa hosting world cups, while your country with more than 100 million useless people is now even seen as less important than GHANA

AjanleKoko:

Bro, easy o! SA musicians are not daft. Don't say that about the nation that produced Miriam Makeba, Hugu Masakela, Phineas Mkhize, LadySmith Black Mambazo, Lucky Dube, the Soweto String Quartet, etc.
Music-wise, IMHO they have the deepest and coolest tradition in contemporary music. Mind you I'm referring to contemporary jazz, classical, and world music, not Naeto C and MI.

RSA:

First let me say South Africans are not silly and illiterate.And I think Mpele's mistake was to try to reason with you,since I think you've got other issues that you have to deal with.

Regarding the world cup,it is in South Africa,hosted by South Africans and as host we have a right to demand certain things.To be honest you should be happy as an African that we don't let Europeans control us or send us around like headless chickens because we're Africans.
The sad things it is only in Africa where a visitor takes control of the host house and run things,and in South Africa our pride it too big to let anyone to do that in our backyard.
Maybe it was allowed inthe other world cups but in South Afruca we won't let it happens,if we do it will be because we want it to happen and it's not forced on us.
This world cup is sponsored by me,a taxpayer and a proud South African who want his country to move forward,

Around the World, Waka Waka Hey Hey!


Last summer my friend Lamin, who works on WFMU's Mudd Up Show with DJ Rupture and writes for the Dutty Artz music blog posted a video there to highlight a dance called the Whop from Liberia.

[flash=450,350]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD6lDEoElHc[/flash]


The video drew my attention because I recognized the melody that the kids were singing from a Senegalese Hip Hop song that every so often would get played at San Francisco's Little Baobab. I liked the song, but didn't know the artist, the origins of the melody, or the language, which prompted some interesting comments from Lamin and crew. Luckily a week later I was in Dakar and was able to track the song down from DJ Coco Jean at a local radio station.

Here is Didier Awadi with Zamouna.

[flash=450,350]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ilxu2I68Jg[/flash]

For me the mystery was solved after I found Awadi's version,

, that is until I got this tweet a couple of weeks ago:



I answered, a little confused, and all of a sudden a flood of versions started popping up as Dave and I traded versions of the song.

We eventually found the original of that song which is Los Chicas del Can's El Negro No Puede. What I eventually realized is that the Los Chicas del Can version was written for them by Wilfrido Vargas, who like Juan Luis Guerra, has played with several African diasporic styles in creating his high energy version of 80's synth Merengue. It makes sense that he would adapt this tune from somewhere like West Africa. What's also interesting to note is that in some of the comments on the Youtube page people speculate to the meaning of the words saying that they were meaningless phrases made up by Wilfrido to sound African, but didn't actually reference anything.

The problem we had now was that Los Chicas del Can's version predates Awadi's Zamouna, the Liberian Whop video, and the Bubbling remix, and I'm convinced that the words mean more than nothing. Eventually Dave found a cover from Suriname that helped us connect the Bubbling remix to the Merengue original:

[flash=450,350]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgAPIWAU4zA[/flash]


In the meantime while me and Dave were going back and forth, my friend Sonja re-tweeted the Zamouna video, which led to this exchange:






So now we have global proliferation and a potential origin. All I had to do was connect the dots to end up here:

[flash=450,350]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY053xz90jw[/flash]

The song is apparently a Cameroonian military song (click the link to watch the whole video) popularized in the 80's by the group Golden Sounds. A roughly translated French Wikipedia page explains a little more:

This song was apparently sung very often without understanding its meaning. The language is Fang since Za engalomwa word for a "Who did you sent?": The question of a Cameroonian military to another foreign-born, according to Guy Dooh Zangalewa group.

This song is interpreted in Fang. This language is widespread in Gabon, southern Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, and a little east of Central.

So that's my story of an Internet musical mystery presented and resolved. We've found versions or mentions of the song in places far from each other in distance and language, places like France, The Netherlands, Rwanda, Suriname, The Dominican Republic, Senegal, Liberia, and Cameroon. The meaning of the words may escape most people who sing it, even some from the nation of origin, and I'm sure there are versions in other countries around the world, but with the help of Twitter and some tricky Youtube searching, we were able to track down the origin and proliferation of a truly global song that proves language is no barrier to a great melody:

[flash=450,350]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd-mQ_eCijw[/flash]