1996 Video Of Angelique Kidjo's Song "Wombo Lombo" & 2007 Video Of Angelique Kidjo Singing "Wombo Lombo" On "Jack's Big Music Show"

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a two part pancocojams series on Beninese, West African singer/songwriter Angelique Kidjo's 1996 song "Wombo Lombo".


Part I showcases two videos of "Wombo Lombo": the official YouTube video of that 1996 song and a 2007 video of the version of "Wombo Lombo" that Angelique Kidjo performed on the American children's television series Jack's Big Big Music Show.

Part I also includes "Wombo Lombo"s lyrics as well as some information and comments about that song.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/some-africans-some-other-peoples.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II presents a small compilation of comments from Africans and other persons writing on two YouTube video discussion threads and one other website about their childhood memories of watching Angelique Kidjo sing "Wombo Lombo" on Jack's Big Big Music Show.

Part II of this pancocojams post also presents some comments from Africans and other persons writing on YouTube discussion threads about other memories of the song "Wombo Lombo" when they were children, teens, or young adults.

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The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Angelique Kidjo and Jean Hebrail for composing this song and thanks to Angelique Kidjo for her musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos and all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to all the publishers of these videos on YouTube.

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE:
I'm an African American who has no memory of the song "Wombo Lombo" and just became acquainted with that song three days ago after happening upon Yemi Alade's & Angelique Kidjo's 2020 song "Shekere" (as a fortuitous result of a YouTube recommendation). The song "Shekere" by Nigerian singer Yemi Alade and Beninese Republic singer Angelique Kidjo is partially a remix of Kidjo's 1996 "Wombo Lombo" song. "Shekere" has quickly become a viral hit with 1,264,710 views in four days [as of 9:18 PM on February 9, 2020]. At least some people-including me- who watched that "Shekere" video sought out YouTube versions of the original song "Wombo Lombo" and any online information that could be found about that song. Some people also watched at least the official video for "Wombo Lombo", if not the Jack's Big Music Show video because Angelique Kidjo had recently won her fourth World Music Grammy (in January 2020). As it turns out, one of the other people who were nominated for that award, Nigeria's Burna Boy, is a huge fan of Angelique Kidjo and had recorded a remix of Kidjo's "Wombo Lombo as a bonus track on his 2013 debut album L.I.F.E..** Undoubtedly, Burna Boy's record " " led some people to Angelique Kidjo's original "Wombo Lombo" song. And there are other covers/remixes of Kidjo's "Wombo Lombo" song on YouTube.

My search for information and examples resulted in this pancocojams series.

I should also mention that I had heard of Angelique Kidjo before she won her latest Grammy Award for World music [January 2020] and I had fallen in love with Angelique Kidjo's song "Agolo"* in the 1990s, after hearing it somewhere and taping it for my personal enjoyment. However, it wasn't until today that I actually knew what that song's title was or that Angelique Kidjo was the one who sang that song.


* Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlgESq5FAx4 for a video of Angelique Kidjo's song "Agolo".

** Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af11CpjX9aE for the official 2013 video of Burna Boy's "Wombolombo".

*** Click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwoV1-ykm9E for a video of "Shekere" by Yemi Alade, featuring Angelique Kidjo. I plan to publish a series of pancocojams posts about the song "Shekere". The link to the first post in that series will be included here.

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SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Video #1:Angelique Kidjo - "Wombo Lombo"



Angelique Kidjo, Jul 1, 2014

-snip-
Statistics as of February 9, 2020 at 9:50 PM
total views -1,065,946
total likes-12 k
total dislikes- 204
total comments- 1,252

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Video #2: Wombo Lombo song [Jack’s Big Music Show]



titusXpullo, Apr 11, 2012
-snip-
Statistics as of February 9, 2020 at 10:28 PM
total views- 405,029
total likes-431
total dislikes- 95
The comment feature has been turned off

-snip-
Here's some information about Jack's Big Music Show from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack%27s_Big_Music_Show
"Jack's Big Music Show is an American musical children's television series originally aired on Noggin on September 12, 2005, to April 1, 2008. The show was produced by Spiffy Pictures, and was nominated for a 2008 Emmy award for Outstanding Pre-school Television Series.

The popularity of the show made the idea of appearing on it attractive to musicians. An executive from Nick Jr. in 2006 said that they were "clamoring to get onto Jack's Big Music Show."[1]

In May 2007, production was cancelled and it was announced that no new episodes would be produced. The last episode aired on April 1, 2008. However, it reran on Nick Jr. until early 2013.”...
-snip-
Here's some information about the episode that Angelique Kidjo appeared on and performed her song "Wombo Lombo":
From https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0961771/soundtrack
"Jack's Big Music Show (TV Series)
Jack Bunny (2007)
Soundtracks
Soundtrack Credits
Mel the Musical Magical Magician
Performed by Jack's Big Music Show

Magic Box
Music and Lyrics by Laurie Berkner
Performed by The Laurie Berkner Band with Susie Lampert and Adam Bernstein

Run After Bugle Bunny
Performed by The Schwartzman Quartet

Wombo Lombo
Music and Lyrics by Angélique Kidjo and Jean Hebrail
Performed by Angélique Kidjo

The Hop
Performed by Jack's Big Music Show featuring Anne Harris"

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INFORMATION ABOUT ANGELIQUE KIDJO'S ALBUM FIFA, WHICH INCLUDES THE SONG "WOMBO LOMBO"
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ang%C3%A9lique_Kidjo
..."Kidjo and Jean Hebrail traveled all over Benin in 1995 to record the traditional rhythms that would form the base for the Fifa album. Carlos Santana appears on "Naima", a piece Kidjo wrote for her daughter. The single "Wombo Lombo" and its video was a big success all over Africa in 1996. Recording: Benin, Paris (Guillaume Tell), London, Los Angeles, Sausalito Plant (Carlos Santana)."...

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COMMENTS ABOUT ANGELIQUE KIDJO'S SONG "WOMBO LOMBO": The language used in this song
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyMDHccQhzo [discussion thread for the video given above as #1.

[Numbers are added for referencing purposes only].

Pebbles, 2016
1. "Is she speaking Yòrubá?!!! Anyone help or am I hearing similar dialect?"

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REPLY
2. Patently Mosh, 2016
"She's obviously singing in Yoruba. Her mother is Yoruba of Benenoise origin. The entire concept of the song is founded on Yoruba folklore. This is the same for her song ''Agolo''."

**
3. Doctor Black, 2016
"Yes, most of her songs a combinations of yoruba and fon languages. her mother is a proper yoruba descent and her father a tribal Fon speaker."

**
4. Per A.J. Andersson, 2017
"She sings both in Fon (father tongue), Yoruba (mother tongue), French and English. I'm not an expert in Fon though, nor in Yoruba, and Google Translate is of no help…"

**
5. Ayeni TonyOpe, 2020
"Her father is Fon and her mother is Yoruba (of Dahomey dialect, the Beninese Yoruba). She sings in both languages and so many other languages.
She has so many songs in Yoruba but not as smooth as Nigerian Yoruba possibly influenced by her French, fon and other local dialects.
You should listen to this her song, "Olofofo", deep deep Yoruba lyric."

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LYRICS: WOMBO LOMBO
"(Wombo Lombo" as written by and J. Hebrail Angelique Kidjo")

Gbogbo ènyan n' so houn kpé onindjo kan m'bè
Niboni mon léri ènikan odamin lohoun
Ilé onindjo wa lègbè odo
Inou gbèrèko oman tou oko akpèdja
Have you ever seen this man moving ?
Do you think anyone else can do it ?
Really this dance has got something,
Something, no way you can't beat it.

Wombo lombo
Wombo lombo
Wombo lombo
Wombo lombo

Gbogbo ènyan n'so kpé onindjo kan m'bè
Niboni mon léri ènikan odamin lohoun
Ilé onindjo wa lègbè odo
Inou gbèrèko oman tou oko akpèdja
Have you ever seen this man moving ?
Do you think anyone else can do it ?
Really this dance has got something,
Something, no way you can't beat it.

Ho ham ham ho ham
Yélélé ho ham ham ho ham
Ho ham ham ho ham
Yélélé ho ham ham ho ham

Wombo lombo
Wombo lombo
Wombo lombo
Wombo lombo

Have you ever seen this man moving ?
Do you think anyone else can do it ?
Really this dance has got something,
Something, no way you can't beat it.

Wombo lombo
Wombo lombo"


Source: https://genius.com/Angelique-kidjo-wombo-lombo-lyrics

Information from that website:

"Wombo Lombo is the 2nd song off of Kidjo’s album, Fifa. Kidjo appeared on Jack’s Big Music Show to perform the song."
-snip-
Note that J. Hebrail is Jean Hebrail, Angelique Kidjo's husband and song writing partner. Jean Hebrail is a (White) French man.

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GOOGLE TRANSLATE RESULTS FOR THE FIRST VERSE OF ANGELIQUE KIDJO'S "WOMBO LOMBO"
[These results may not be accurate. Additions and corrections are very welcome.]

Google translate- Yoruba to English
"Everyone is preparing a party
Here I know what one is
Our hotel is by the river
Inou gets you a fishing boat"
-snip-
There were no Yoruba results for other non-English portions of this song except the word "Yélélé". Google translate indicates that the English translation for the Yoruba word "Yélélé" is "depending".

Additions and corrections are very welcome.

It's obvious that "Angelique Kidjo's song "Wombo Lombo" is about the joy of dancing, but it would be great if people who speak Yoruba (and Fon?) would share help translate this song in English. For instance, are "Wombo Lombo" nonsense words, or are they the name of a particular type of dance that was created for this song? And does the verse t hat begins with "Ho ham ham ho ham" mean anything or is it just (almost entirely) made up of nonsense words?

Your help is needed to further the world's understanding of this African song.

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This concludes Part I of this two part pancocojams series.

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