Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series on Beninese, West African singer/songwriter Angelique Kidjo's 1996 song "Wombo Lombo".
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.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/1996-video-of-angelique-kidjos-song.html for Part I of this series. 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.
****
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.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE:[This same note is also found in Part I of this series.]
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 and 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 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.
****
SOME AFRICANS' AND SOME OTHER PEOPLE'S MEMORIES OF ANGELIQUE KIDJO'S SONG "WOMBO LOMBO" SONG FROM THEIR CHILDHOOD, TEENAGE, OR YOUNG ADULT YEARS
This compilation is only a sample of similar comments that I found online. Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.
A.
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyMDHccQhzo Angelique Kidjo - "Wombo Lombo"
Published by Angelique Kidjo Jul 1, 2014 [The video given as #1 in Part I of this pancocojams series.]
1. Elizabeth Mirembe, 2014
"When I was in nursery school, we danced to this song as part of our class presentation for the concert :) :)"
-snip-
Another commenter shared that this commenter is Ugandan.
**
2. Onye wuchi, 2015
"Was very shock to see my primary school best song"
**
3. Rita So Sweet, 2015
"I LISTENED TO THIS SONG IN MY CAR YESTERDAY!!! IF I HADN'T WATCHED JACK'S BIG MUSIC SHOW THAN I WOULDN'T HAVE NEVER KNOWN THIS SONG EXISTED! THANK U NICK JR! 😄😄 AMAZING SONG!"
**
4. coilygurl, 2015
"I became an Angelique fan as a kid when this video used to come on BET! I still love it! If only I knew all of the words!!"
**
REPLY
5. SootheSayinYaySayer, 2016
"this was on BET?"
-sniphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BET
From "Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American pay television channel that is part of the ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks unit of ViacomCBS. It is the most prominent television network targeting African American audiences"...
**
6. Elizabeth O'Brien, 2016
"Rodrick Edmund Brown I 1st saw this on Jack's Big Music Show, a childrens' music program, and I've loved her since! Beautiful, makes me feel amazing... regardless that I do not understand all of the lyrics. The music, her voice & the overall beauty of the dance, dress & feel, just feels good. ❤"
**
7. Brendan Power, 2017
"Shout out to my dad who played this to me as a young kid growing up in rural Ireland. Funny to look back on the words I would invent to fit the Yoruba part :)"
**
8. Ladyflo, 2018
"Please take me back to 1996 to ghana when i was 7. I want to listen to this again with the other kids from our block, run around in the DIRT and scrape my knee, eat real natural cultural food and get excited when we went out for chips or fried rice haha, watch tv programmes from peoples windows who could afford satellite tv, play under the moon during power cuts, catch up on acapulco bay, esmeralda, aladdin and by the fireside, climb almond trees, blow soap bubbles from the soapy water someone used when they did their washing by hand etc #Luckytobeafricanandborninafrica"
**
9. Nana Akwesi, 2018
"😭 I love this song! It has always been my favorite... I think Fan milk Ghana 🇬🇭 used it to advertise their products when i was young! Its a beautiful song!"
**
10. Spn Nangolo, 2018
"Stil a hit in 2019 was probly 6 when it made ma ears come for the 1st time..MUCH LUV FROM NAMIBIA"
**
11. Munie Balkyz, 2018
"I was 6yrs in 1997 and I had a friend called Yabbe, so this song made happy because I always thought that she was singing about my friend when she said si yabe"
**
12. The ofcourse TV, 2018
"I will be 27 years in 2 weeks. When I was 12, I usually hear radio stations play this song and it puts me in a very good mood😀😀,, like it makes my travel so far in a chilly peaceful zone. I love you "Africa!!
**
13. Erin Threlkeld, 2019
"First heard this in the movie Sahara. One of the few good things to come from that B movie"
-snip-
There are several movies with the title "Sahara". I'm not sure which movie this commenter (and others) referred to.
**
14. Muchinah Mungai, 2019
"So it's Wombo Lombo and not 'wamarabo'.That's how me and many other kids from Central Kenya used to sing the chorus."
**
15. Rufai Sarki, 2020
"You need to be 17yrs old in 1996 to enjoy this song better, I was 😍 We partied well"
**
16. voice of Africa1, 2020
"
"This song made my child hood, I never knew she was African, it was the same period with Patra, and late Brenda Fassie"
**
**
17. voice of Africa1, 2020
"This song made my child hood, I never knew she was African, it was the same period with Patra, and late Brenda Fassie"
**
18. Seun Akioye, 2020
"I refuse to see my Angelique as Mama, she was my crush as a teenager."
**
19. Kolawole Babatunde, 2020
"Proud of African Nigeria. I swear can't do without listening to this beautiful music when I was a little boy back in Nigeria on our black and white television, God bless Nigeria, 2020 still banging on my head right now"
****
B. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hcwTNWXGDA Angelique Kidjo - Wombo Lombo
Raymond Beck Dec 12, 2011 [sound file]
1. ogounlurker, 2011
"remembering this on BET when it had some flava!!!!! 90's"
**
2. UGottaKnowThis, 2013
"I heard this song on Jack Big Music Show while watching it with my son. The video is fun to watch. It always gets my foot tapping to the beat. Wait.... I think I'm going to get up and dance! LOL Peace"
**
3. Tamson Jack, 2013
"Aw, I'm feeling so nostalgic, I used to love this as a kid. So happy I found it again :)"
**
4. Half-Blood Prince, 2016
"6 years old, my mom ironing my dads shirt for work, and I'm dancing in the corner. 24 now, I'll forever love this song."
****
C. From https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858646191/ Sunday, August 15, 2010
ANGELIQUE KIDJO AFRICANA SPECIAL
Blogger- Unknown
"This is a song from my childhood "Wombo Lombo". It was a pleasant surprise to see it on 'Nick Jr' recently. Oh wow! how the world has become globalized? All thanks to new media.”...
****
This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment