You will think that you recognise this song from the Tanzania All Stars, but if you hold on for a bit it becomes more interesting. There are some Swahili (I am guessing) sections, and some lovely voices, and all in all I promise you will come away feeling a bit more Christmassy than you were at the start. Plus, as an added bonus, the video is surprisingly similar that for to East 17’s Stay Another Day, which has no right to be a Christmas song, but nonetheless definitely is.
Krismasi njema!
WHOOPS I forgot to post this yesterday. But, you get a twofer because the first song (whose title translates as ‘Roll, Roll Down the Mountain’ which sounds like fun) is Peruvian and is today’s actual entry, but there’s a bonus afterwards in the shape of the Venezuelan version of El Burrito Sabanero, the song we had on December 1, which if you’ll recall, and I can’t think why you wouldn’t, is Venezuelan in origin but has been adopted by Colombia.
This performance is from Vienna, but at least some of the musicians are from the appropriate countries so it totally counts. Come back later for today’s song.
Feliz Navidad!
This song is by Kenyan musician and gospel minister Chris Ngonye, who is from the town of Machakos and has a whole bunch more music here, and I’m going to say that if you need cheering up on a cold and damp Tuesday, you could do a lot worse than go and listen to all of it.
This one, though, is our selection for today. My proficient Swahili allows me to tell you that its title translates as “Christmas Holidays”, although further attempts to translate the lyrics resulted in my internet telling me it’s in Indonesian, which it isn’t, so I gave up.
Anyway it doesn’t matter because the best thing about this video is the dancing: this is one where it’s important you watch as well as listen.
Krismasi Njema!
We’ve had this before, in 2012’s ‘Christmas songs from around the world’, but (a) it’s lovely and (b) Brazil takes up too much of the southern hemisphere’s total inhabited landmass to be left out of this year’s collection. Plus I have bonus content for you today in the shape a photo of Carlos Galhardo (1913-1985), who was one of Brazil’s biggest stars at the height of his career. Isn’t he dashing?
In addition to his singing career Galhardo was a bona fide matinee idol, appearing in such enticingly-titled pictures as Vamos Cantar, Pra Lá de Boa and my favourite, Banana-da-Terra, which probably isn’t about a man-eating banana, but I’m not going to let that stop me from imagining it (no spoilers please; the truth is almost always a disappointment).
(We also had it in 2019’s ‘good news stories’ edition, so I guess I must really like it.)
…or, as you’ll know if you speak Indonesian, ‘Christmas Has Arrived’. This is our first power ballad of the year, and it’s a belter. Judika is a bona fide star in Indonesia, having apparently made his way effortlessly from contestant to winner to judge on various TV talent shows. His YouTube channel has 4.17 million subscribers, and he is married to a former beauty queen. Once again I have Google-translated the lyrics into English and once again, I’m going to confess that it wasn’t really worth the effort.
Selamat Natal!
…which is, as you no doubt know, Lingala for “Today we come to celebrate Christmas”. This is the Bana Ngayime choir of Kinshasa (capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for those at the back), and as far as I can make out all of their songs are as joyful as this one, so if today is the day you’re putting up your tree, I can recommend leaving this playlist going as you do it, to keep your energy levels up as you discover that none of the lights work and the fairy’s wings have fallen off. Noël ya esengo!
You guys, I’ve just found a post sitting in drafts with my Oscars predictions for 2023. It’s been that sort of a year. But never mind! It’s nearly 2024, which is bound to be loads better. Isn’t it?
Anyway. We begin in Colombia, which is mostly in the northern hemisphere, but enough of it isn’t that it qualifies for our purposes. I am easing you in gently, you see. Mi Burrito Sabanero is actually a Venezuelan song originally, but for reasons which I have not entirely been able to discern it is now beloved of Colombians, which is lucky for us because Venezuela is all in the northern hemisphere so we wouldn’t have been allowed it otherwise.
(I am hoping that you, like me, will get a gentle geography lesson over the course of the next twenty three days.)
Anyway, don’t be put off by how much the first singer sounds like Ann Stephens in They’re Changing Guards At Buckingham Palace (as my mother once said, ‘I can only think she must have been the producer’s daughter’), because it gets nicer once the choir join in. I was going to translate the lyrics for you, but they appear to be largely nonsense, so I haven’t bothered, but with my expertise in Spanish I can tell you that it seems to be about a donkey travelling to Bethlehem. Plus the donkeys in the video are wearing Santa hats, so it is definitely a Christmas song, even though it’s only Colombian if you squint.
Well, that was a funny old year, wasn’t it? I think it’ll be about mid-2025 before I get my head around most of it. But as always when December strikes, all other thoughts leave my head as I dive into the world of dear-god-do-I-have-to-think-of-another-musical-theme?
Fear not, though: once again, inspiration has struck and for 2023, which is if you’re counting is the sixteenth year of this nonsense, we will be travelling Down Under to the sunny side of the globe. Twenty four Christmas songs from countries of the southern hemisphere await you, and I feel confident that at least some of them will delight you as much as they have me. Kia ora!
Oh hey, hi! Are you all set? Still need to do some shopping? I had to go out for a red cabbage and extra booze earlier so I know how you feel. I have stolen a march on the big day, though, by half-prepping most of tomorrow’s food already, though I have some reservations about the part-done potatoes. It was Mary Berry’s idea, though, so fingers crossed and best foot forward, and so on.
Anyway, I hope you are all set, and are now settling in with a glass of sherry and the Christmas movie of your choice. But before you do that, turn the lights down and have a listen to this completely gorgeous 1963 recording from Smokey Robinson and the Miracles from the album Christmas With The Miracles.
Merry Christmas! Let’s hope its a good one, without any fear.
This isn’t really a song but an instrumental, but it’s so completely joyous that I couldn’t possibly go with an alternative. The Boston Pops Orchestra is the fun branch of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and has since 1885 been delighting audiences with renditions of popular and, especially, holiday songs. This recording, from 1949, is their first but by no means only version of this track, which if you’re going to have a golden Christmas oldie, is in my view certainly the best one to pick. Listen out for the sound effects (hooves and bells); they are excellent.
Glad All Over 