Music

Unique (Hungary): "Hiszed vagy sem (Unhappy Ending Dream)"

Meet Gabrielle, Adám, and Zsolt, three thirtysomethings from Budapest who formed the electro-pop group Unique in 1997 -- and who've been music-obsessed ever since they were mini-Madyars. Blonde Gabi, for example, made a splash way back in '92 when she won best solo singer on the Hungarian TV show Teenage Star Search. With her on vocals and her pair of wingmen on keyboards, the trio persevered finally hitting the big time in 2001, when a Unique tune was picked as the theme for the country's first reality show and they released their first recorded single. Now five albums and various singles and remixes later, they're a fixture in the top tier of Hungary's pop music scene, and here's their latest hit single, Hiszed vagy sem. Its music eminently danceable (as usual), in this video Gabi dons racoon makeup and a shimmery dress and swans around a dark, glistening pool of water while crooning about a girl dreaming of her departed significant other. We're told there's an English-language version of this, with the ungrammatical, slightly garbled title "Unhappy Ending Dream," but the actual translation of the Hungarian title is "believe it or not." Confusing? Well, whatever -- it's the most kick-butt boo-hoo we've seen in a while, that's for sure...

Saïd Mouskir (Morocco): "Mamma Mamma"

Morocco's one of those Arab countries where a lot of back-and-forth with Europe -- particularly France and Spain -- has helped foster a boom in pop music, both on Moroccan and European labels. One of its more prominent figures, Saïd Mouskir (usually spelled Mosker), is a 37-year-old of Berber origin from Casablanca's Derb Sultan neighborhood, who packs more than ten albums under his belt since his first in 1988 -- with a group he formed at the tender age of 15. Like many Moroccans, he lived in France for a while, and now commutes back and forth, doing much of his actual recording in Paris. Musically, Saïd is rooted in traditional Moroccan forms like chaabi, raï, and gnaoua, but his style also borrows from Western pop rock, reggae, funk, and Latin salsa, while his lyrics promote peace and tolerance as well as the spunk and determination necessary for working-class Moroccans to better their lives. Last we heard, Saïd was planning a European tour this year.

Brother J (New Zealand): "Awhi I"

Hailing from the remote Hokianga coast of New Zealand's North Island, Maori lad Jason Leslie Hall (aka Brother J) moved to Auckland a few years ago and ended up in an acclaimed but unrecorded and short-lived band called Mesh. When in 2002 he came out with his first solo album, Be Bop a Nui, J decided to include a political statement. And so you might call this award-winning song and video, Awhi I, a little bit of Maori protest soul from Down Under. Sung in English and Maori and in a minor key, it provides a hypnotic soundtrack to a powerful, poignant video which uses historical protest footage reminiscent of the black civil rights movement in the U.S.A. In today's changed New Zealand, many of the wrongs against the Maori have fortunately been righted, and as for Brother J, his latest album is set for release later this year.

Celia Cruz (Cuba/USA): "La Negra Tiene Tumbao (The Black Chic's Really Got It)"

Our tribute to the late, amazingly great Celia Cruz (1925-2003) focuses on her last big hit, released in 2001, its video filmed in Paris and New York, among other places. The main image -- both in the lyrics and on this sometimes slightly risqué video (ahem, partial female nudity) -- is that of a young mulata who stops traffic and attracts hordes of drooling males wherever she walks. But in a larger sense it's about plowing straight ahead through life and enjoying it, even while "keeping your eyes open." And the Queen of Salsa -- and one of the all-time greats of Cuban music -- practiced as she preached, even in exile from her beloved island. When Fidel Castro took over during one of her overseas tours, Celia and husband Pedro Knight settled in the U.S., and while remaining popular among regular Cubans, she was all but ignored by the regime, even when she passed away. She recorded dozens of albums, played Carnegie Hall, appeared in Hollywood movies, won multiple Grammy awards and nominations, even was the subject of a Smithsonian exhibition. La negra tenía tumbao (the black chic really had it), indeed.

M, aka Lee Minwoo (South Korea): "Minnovation"

Korea is one of Asia's pop-music powerhouses, and we've noticed over the years that most "K-pop" has tended toward the bubble-gummy, though lately hip-hop and techno have had their impact here as everywhere. This tune is an example of the latter with a touch of the former, and was one of last summer's heftiest Han-gook hits. Thirty-year-old Lee Min Woo is a former member of the boy band Shinhwa who buffed up and has hit it big in a solo career since 2003 both in music and in Korean film and TV -- getting an especially big boost after being tapped by Christina Aguilera to perform in her 2007 concert in Seoul. Here, singing the praises of high-tech and himself ("everyone scream my name till you're out of breath!"), Minnovation sprinkles in some phrases in English amid the Korean -- but whatever, it's obviously not much about the lyrics, now, is it? Sad to say, Lee made headlines again on December 24 when a car in which he was riding plunged off a (fortunately not too high) cliff at a South Korean ski resort, leaving him laid up in the hospital for what looks to be at least a month.

Simphiwe Dana (South Africa): "Ndiredi"

Just off a successful tour of Britain at the end of 2009, this 29-year-old preacher's daughter from rural Transkei has become in just half a decade one of South Africa's (and Africa's) biggest musical stars, often compared to the late, great Miriam Makeba. Singing both in English and in her native Xhosa, Simphiwe Dana mixes traditional Bantu musical idioms with contemporary jazz, gospel, and blues influences, and it's all on gorgeous display in Ndiredi, released in 2004 as part of her debut album, Zandisile. Both song and video feel as cutting-edge and sophisticated as anything coming out of Western recording studios, yet still very traditionally African -- no mean trick to pull off. Dana doesn't shy from the gritty and the frank when dealing with social issues in a country where despite the banishment of apartheid this past decade and a half, poverty and dysfunction among the non-white population are still rampant. But these lyrics are more on the uplifting side -- evocative-sounding even to those of us who can't understand them -- speaking of persevering in the face of adversity ("almost got swallowed by the abyss...almost forgot the cause") and working to change the world. Paired with images both futuristic and mystical, it all adds up to a final product that's both powerful and entertaining.

Tarkan (Turkey): "Vay Anam Vay (Oh, Mama)" Buy now!

Now 37, German-born heartthrob Tarkan Tevetoğlu has been compared to something between a Turkish Elvis and Michael Jackson in terms of his impact on his country's pop music scene, and he's achieved a measure of fame abroad, as well, particularly in Europe. The dude garners A-list coverage from Turkey's media, of course, for almost everything he does, whether it's verbal gaffes; groundbreakingly racy video scenes; temporary military draft-dodging; shilling for Pepsi-Cola; scary run-ins with the paparazzi; a tiff with PETA over fur-wearing; or is-he-or-isn't-he-gay. Vay Anam Vay is from Tarkan's sixth and most recent album, Metamorfoz ("Metamorphosis"), released at the end of 2007 and less than critically acclaimed but still a commercial hit. The choreography's slightly goofy and the lyrics fairly trite love-song yadda-yadda ("If she said die, I'd die for her / the arrow went straight into my heart"), but whatever -- it's a very club-ready, infectious bit of electropop with just a touch of Eurasian musical exoticism. Like it? Buy now!

Mecano (Spain): "Un Año Más (Another Year)"

An oldie but goodie from one of the seminal Spanish pop groups of the 1980s and 1990s, newly reunited just this November. Two brothers, Nacho and José María Cano wrote and played the tunes and Ana Torroja sang 'em, and many were quirky doozies -- I Can't Get Up Today, This Isn't a Serious Cemetery, I Crashed a Party, Stereosexual. This one, from the 1987 album Descanso Dominical (Sunday Break) describes the annual New Year's Eve revelry in downtown Madrid's Puerta del Sol plaza -- "sailors, soldiers, singles, marrieds, lovers, strollers, even the occasional confused priest / Amid shouts and whistles, Spaniards big and small for once do something at the same time." But the video pulls in imagery from NYE throughout the world as well as movies and TV sources as varied as The Simpsons and the original Poseidon Adventure. Because nothing says "Happy New Year!" like a sinking ship.

Alfredo Matheus/Various (Panama/Venezuela): "Navidad de color (A Colorful Christmas)"

In this simple yet slick, formulaic yet moving singalong from 2008, Yuletide gets the We Are The World treatment with a Latino twist. Sponsored by outgoing (as in, leaving office) first lady Vivián Fernández de Torrijos, singer/songwriter/producer Alfredo Matheus Diez and actor Fernando Carrillo, both Venezuelan, crammed the Teatro Nacional (National Theater) in Panama City's beautiful colonial quarter with several dozen local celebs (Matheus is the dude in the red shirt, BTW). Stars from the music scene naturally predominate -- such as Erika Ender, Ricardo and Alberto Gaitán, Iván Barrios, Flex, Sandra Sandóval, and the inevitable Rubén Blades -- sprinkled with a few actors and pro jocks. Complete with the obligatory children's chorus and the more recently obligatory hip-hop riff, it's uplifting and catchy, the title and refrain referring to the kind of Yule experienced by most Latin Americans -- not white, but green and all the other colors of nature. "White Christmas or colorful Christmas, whether it's cold or warm, you've got to open up your heart." Well, who could argue with that?

Irene Grandi (Italy): "Bianco Natale (White Christmas)" Buy now!

Just turned the big 4-0, this Florentine pop singer back in 1994 lost the top prize to Andrea Bocelli in her big-time solo stage debut at the San Remo Festival. Whatever -- Irene Grandi has gone on to have a healthy if not quite stellar music/TV career, heavy on covers, novelty songs, and a diva-flavored dose of boorish behavior (she titled her 2008 autobiography Diary of a Bad Girl). In the latest of her more than ten albums, though, she's perfectly nice, not naughty -- it's a Yuletide collection called (prosaically enough) Canzoni per Natale, from which this translated update of Irving Berlin's antediluvian chestnut is taken; no doubt as an homage, they chose to set the video in Berlin, Germany. Others of the dozen songs on the album, by the way, besides several Italian numbers, include a bunch of -- well, covers, such as several of the usual international suspects like Silent Night, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, John Lennon's Happy Xmas (War Is Over), and Paul McCartney's Wonderful Christmastime. We were a bit let down, however, to not find La nonna è stata investita da una renna (Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer).

Funky Monkey Babys (Japan): "Hiiroo (ヒーロー - Hero)"

We know you're all dying to find out what's the latest and greatest in JapPop. Well, hai, douzo! Already being used as a theme song for the Japanese TV show Zoom In! since its November 18 release, "Hero" is the latest single from a trio from a Tokyo suburb called Hachioji, formed as a duo in 2004. Also known to their fans as "Fanmon," and headed by 31-year-old lead singer Katou Shunsuke (stage name "Funky Katō"), they're an undeniably high-energy bunch of dudes who've been all over Japan's media and have managed to corral other celebs into appearing on their albums and videos. "Hero" is a sweet parable set in the high-octane world of TV news, with an anchorman who learns to make time for his wife and adoring but neglected-feeling young son. Perhaps the most bemusing thing about Funky Monkey Babys is that they're considered a "hip-hop" act. By Japanese standards maybe, but these guys come across about as gangsta as Hannah Montana -- in our book, file this tune, at least, under "sugar-pop."

Mariza (Portugal): "Rosa Branca (White Rose)" Buy now!
Portugal's most famous contribution to world music -- compared to Spain's flamenco, Argentine tango, and the blues of the United States, and usually sung in a minor key -- soulful, melancholic fado originated in the slums of Lisbon nearly two centuries ago and has been seeing revival and evolution in the decade since the passing of its most famous icon, Amália Rodrigues. Fado's top diva of the 21st century so far is blonde, 39-year-old Marisa dos Reis Nunes -- stage name Mariza -- whose background does proud by the genre's African and Brazilian colonial influences; she's part black, born in what was then still in its final years as the overseas province of Mozambique, and besides mostly growing up in Lisbon also spent part of her childhood in Brazil. This lovely clip, Rosa Branca, is the featured single from Mariza's Latin-Grammy-winning sixth and latest album "Terra (Earth)," released last year. It includes a beautiful old Sintra palace backdrop and traditional folk dancers, yet very much conveys that contemporary, jazzed-up sensibility, by among other things adding afro-Brazilian percussion. Here she sings, "I know you so love roses -- why don't you love me?" But wethinks the lady doth protest too much -- this classy, dynamic songstress has already conquered the likes of Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the Royal Albert Hall, and chances are we'll be getting plenty more bouquets from her in the decade to come. Like it? Buy now!

Osdorp Posse (Netherlands): "Origineel Amsterdams (Amsterdam Original)"

So are you ready for...Nederhop? Most Dutch music acts -- and rappers more than any -- seem to work in English these days. But these five guys from the rough, outlying Osdorp section of west Amsterdam started out as kind of a goof but became serious stars on the Netherlands' underground music scene in the 1990's with its "Gangsterdam" sound, rapping not just in Dutch but in the Amsterdam dialect. Headed by lead singer Pascal Griffoen (aka "Def-P" -- think a Dutch version of Eminem), the Posse produced a dozen albums of material filled with plenty of trenchant commentary on social issues, but because it's a touch profane, they got little to no play on commercial radio. In fact, beyond "A ten-Euro note is a joetje," there's little about this song, "Origineel Amsterdams," that we can even translate for a family-friendly Web site, due to either profanity (don't worry, though, the visuals are perfectly clean) or just plain toughness in translating inside references. But basically it's a primer on Amsterdam slang relating to money, sex, prostitution, booze, and drugs, against a backdrop with some colorful glimpses of Holland's best-known city. Osdorp Posse disbanded just this fall, but two key members have reportedly started another hip-hop group called Digibombers, with an album expected in 2010. Mijn gott, we can only imagine...

Rob Yamanoha (Hawaii, USA): "Waialua Sky"

That famous outpost of the USA in the middle of the Pacific, the Aloha Isles have managed to produce a perhaps surprisingly varied music scene, from traditional Hawaiian -- mellow and melodic -- to slack key, reggae, hip-hop, and country. A Japanese-American from Haleiwa, on Oahu's north shore, the lately prominent adult contemporary singer-songwriter Rob Yamanoha borrows a little bit here and a little bit there to forge what you might call a smooth brand of acoustic rock with soul. With ukulele accompaniment and beautifully bucolic images, this tune from his 2007 album "Better" (which won Hawaii Music Award in '08) is actually a cover of a sweet, nostalgic tune from a beloved Hawaiian group of a generation ago, Krush.

Calle 13 (Puerto Rico): "La Perla (The Pearl)"

The big winner of the tenth annual Latin Grammys held in November 2009 -- nominated for and winning five awards including best urban album and recording of the year -- was this boricua duo composed of a pair of stepbrothers, tattooed René Pérez (aka "Residente") and bearded Eduardo Cabra ("Visitante"). Named after their family's street in the Hato Rey section of San Juan, they started becoming prominent on island radio in 2005 with their mix of hip-hop, reggaetón, and cumbia, and have become known for their lefty, pro-independence politics. "La Perla," winner of best short-form video, was filmed in the eponymous slum next to Old San Juan and features an appearance by Panamanian salsa legend Rubén Blades. In it, Residente boasts, "I've had attitude since I was five," and "I'm the black sheep of the entire flock." Yeah, no kidding -- but clearly, these dudes' work has struck a nerve, and it'll be interesting to see if they cross over like other less gritty Puerto Rican acts such as Marc Antony and Ricky Martin.

Mercedes Sosa (Argentina): "Sólo le pido a Dios (All I Ask of God)"
One of the nueva canción classics of a multiple-Grammy-winning folk singer much (though not universally) beloved throughout Latin America, "Sólo le pido a Dios" is a quintessential anthem to those ever-elusive ideals of world peace and understanding (the other song she's best known for is "Gracias a la vida"). Part Quechua Indian, and thus widely and fondly known as La Negra (the Black Woman), Sosa -- who passed away Oct. 4 at the age of 74 -- spoke and sang against Argentina's "dirty war" dictatorship of the 1970's yet praised Cuba's régime (though later in life she changed her tune, so to speak, re the latter). After returning from exile in Europe, she continued to sing in support of the world's oppressed and dispossessed, and worked with some of the world's top musical headliners, including Andrea Bocelli, Holly Near, Joan Baez, Luciano Pavarotti, Shakira -- and of course Sting. This song's lyrics include the lines: "All I ask of God is that I not grow indifferent to the pain, that dried-up death won't find me empty and alone, without having done enough." No danger of that; Mercedes Sosa's passing left a true void for many Latin Americans. She certainly wasn't glam, but all the same, she became that much of an icon. It's hardly a surprise that at the November 2009 Latin Grammys in Las Vegas, her Cantautora 1 nabbed "best folk album."

Hale (Philippines): "Bahay Kubo (Nipa Hut)"

A current top ten hit in the Philippines, "Bahay Kubo" is the sweet, laid-back lead single from this four-year-old band's latest album, Kundiman, released this past August. This, Hale's fourth studio album, is a bit of a departure for this foursome -- their first entirely in Tagalog and focusing on purely Filipino themes. With a simple story line starring lead linger Champ Lui-Pio and actress Heart Evangelista, the song takes its name from a popular old children's folk song about a little thatched country house with its little garden (lots of description of produce). The imagery in this song and video is also bucolic, if a bit slicker (but hey, what's up with that chick wandering around the wilderness in an evening gown?), and its theme involves searching for the one you love and finding shelter in a bahay kubo (played here by a thatch hammock rather than an actual hut).

Tshala Muana (Congo): "Mbombo"

A typically bouncy, colorful, shimmying piece of aural candy from a woman who's been one of Africa's most popular and iconic singers of the last quarter-century. Hailing from the enormous Central African country long renamed Zaire under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, 51-year-old Elizabeth Tshala Muana is widely known as "Mamu National" (The Nation's Mom), and has even served as an adviser to Congo's current ruler, Laurent Kabila. Musically, this grandmother of six is also dubbed the "Queen of Mutuashi" (mutuashi being Congo's Afro-Cuban-influenced dance music), but after more than 30 years in the business she's toned it down considerably from the days when her performances would include plenty of "almost half naked" writhing, as one Ugandan newspaper recently put it. Mamu's been at it a while, but she's obviously still got it...

Boyzone (Ireland): "Love You Anyway"

A 1990's Irish boy band formed from a newspaper addy, this quintet of lads had a string of hits that shot them to pop phenom-hood not just in Ireland but also the U.K., Down Under, and parts of continental Europe. After a seven-year hiatus, Boyzone reunited in 2007 and is well into a comeback, including a new album in 2010, with suave blond Ronan Keating singing lead. But they were slammed into the world media spotlight in a more tragic way recently by the death of band member Stephen Gately -- also known for his London musical stage career -- of still not completely clear causes while vacationing with his partner on Spain's island of Majorca. Released a year ago, "Love You Anyway" is the group's first new tune in eight years, an addition to their greatest-hits album Back Together Again...No Matter What. In this video, shot against a downtown New York City backdrop, complete with classic hot-dog stand and an old-timey -- and no longer in service -- Yellow Cab, Gately's the bloke propped up against the wall early on and the squirmy one at the end. Our deepest sympathies to the partner, family, and fellow band members of this talented young man, whose memory we honor here on Tripatini.

Malpaís (Costa Rica): "Boceto para Esperanza (Sketch For Hope)"
Tiny Costa Rica holds a very special place in Latin America -- literate and peaceful as well as beautiful and exciting. And this six-dude band, named after a remote beach area at the end of the road on the Nicoya Peninsula coast (literally, malpaís means "badlands"), is an unmistakable product of the Tico culture and ethos, fusing jazz and rock with local musical and folk traditions. This video from their first album, Uno (2003), is a mellow, charmingly produced pop poem both musically and image-wise, interspersing the band's set at San José's Jazz Café with pictures and footage of Costa Rica's nature and people. The tune, and especially its catchy refrain, evokes a certain wistful nostalgia: “Back when the air held traces of blue, and the backyard could fit all the existing light. Take me where I can sleep, grandmother. If you're going back, take me there.” (For the lyrics in Spanish, check our Spanish Language/Hispanic Culture Club.)

Myriam Fares (Lebanon): "Eih Elly Byehsal? (What's Going On?)"

This ditty hails from Lebanon via the pouty lips of sultry chanteuse Myriam Fares, who at 26 already has several albums and a brand of perfume under her belt... a decade after snagging first place at the Lebanese Song Festival. "Eih Elly Byehsal?" is in the Egyptian rather than Lebanese dialect of Arabic (which is more widely understood throughout the Arab world), and frankly, there's nothing remotely deep here ("I'm in love and how can I describe this passion?"). But it's certainly easy on both eyes and ears, so what the hey. Now, Myriam isn't without her critics: More than a few have said she tends to ape (part-Lebanese) Colombian sexpot Shakira, while some fans of another Lebanese singer a decade older, Haifa Wehbe, claim Myriam is copying her. Picky, picky...but never mind that -- what if Hezbollah finds out?

Peter Fox (Germany): "Alles neu (Everything New)" Buy now!

Germany's most popular popster of the moment, the bearded 38-year-old Berliner (né Pierre Baigorry) is a member of the dancehall/reggae band Seeed. Last year he released his first solo album, Stadtaffe ("City Ape"), from which this hit single "Alles neu" is taken (and the simian theme is carried amply into the video, as you can see). The album has been a Euro-blockbuster, and the song's striking visuals are matched by provocative lyrics such as, "My head explodes, everything has to change," and "I burn my studio, sniff the ashes like cocaine, I strike dead my goldfish, bury it in the yard." Another popular song from the same album, "Haus am see (House on the Lake)" was a little more sedate, to say the least.

Sonu Nigam & Kylie Minogue (India): "Chiggy Wiggy" Buy now!