Sunday Morning Videyoga
c/o some frens around the ‘osphere, a couple transnational texts for yr viewing pleasure —
first, from @ripley, my favorite musical meme rears its head once again, thus time in a mid-90s Swedish rave-pop setting!? sez rip:
note the ZUNGUZUNG at 1:04! [Leila K.]’s of Moroccan descent but from Sweden & this song was number one in sales in Europe in the 90s
#1 in sales un Europe in the 90s?! Can anyone confirm this? That would be surprising in itself, and it would make for yet another rather significant instantiation — if an oddly tuneless one — of Yellowman’s well-propelled vocables —
…
second, from @nila, my source for sepia mutiny of all sorts, is this bit of “desiton,” a track which very clearly riffs on Yankee’s “Gasolina” gallop with its 32nd-note stutter-step synthline —
keep em coming, kids! &thx, as always..
musicologist, internet annotator, imagined community organizer.
10 Comments
1. ghis | March 29th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
yeah, i remember Leila K. I had her cassette ! She was huge in Europe, but n.1 ? I’m not sure of that.
2. erin | March 29th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
i remember this too…
#23 UK, #5 Germany – so says the wikipedia.
3. Max P | March 29th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
HA!
I totally feel you with that 32nd-note trill on the lead synth. It’s basically the same percussion arrangement too if you were to take out the vocals and some of the acoustic percussion sounds (tabla?)… I think a mash-up might be in order…
4. Ted Swedenburg | March 29th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
I never heard this song, but I really liked her rap song “Got to Get” when it came out in 1989. It was released as a 12″ in the US by Arista–and I still have it. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmuCLF3msj8
(Sad to read, on wikipedia, that Leila K apparently now lives on the streets.)
5. droid | March 30th, 2009 at 4:31 am
Also, 23 in the UK.
i have vague memories of this tune, but i don’t think she had that much of an impact considering 92/93 was also the time of the ardcore invasion into the UK and European charts.
6. ripley | March 30th, 2009 at 11:44 am
I knew the internets would do the research – my friend who played it for me was in Belgium so maybe it was #1 there? apparently there’s a mystery about Leila K, too? anyone know where she went? Gotta check out that rap song.
I love the wizard theme for the song though. kind of D&D/vampire eh?
7. Tism | March 30th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Remember it well. 2nd place in Holland (http://digidodo.boers.sohosted.com/default.aspx?artiest=Leila%20K), weird to read she’s living in the streets.
8. Birdseed | March 31st, 2009 at 12:27 pm
I’ve not heard anything about her since that impromptu comeback two years ago. Apparently she still has some major problems financially. It’s sad – she’s apparently been cast out by her Moroccan family as well.
9. DNMTN | April 6th, 2009 at 3:30 am
Like Ted Swedenburg says, I think she’s living on the streets, I’ve heard some sad stories about her. And yeah, Got to get is a cool song.
Leila K was also the reason I discovered Shannon, after she used the melody for “Give me tonight” in another hit of hers, “Electric” —> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEgbW1FxR78
10. The Incredible Kid | April 10th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
The Desis have been releasing reggaeton-flavored tracks for a while now. Bollywood tracks have been using reggaeton beats for years, but this song from the Ugly Aur Pagli soundtrack last year was the first overtly reggaeton song I heard coming from the industry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMII0qA_MnY&feature=related