It’s just been a busy weekend, OK? I used to write these in advance and then schedule them for the appropriate day, but that was back when I was less chaotic. I did at least make the list at the start of the month, so today you have a delightful line-up featuring songs from Zimbabwe, Bolivia, the Cook Islands (me neither, but I’ve checked so you don’t have to).

Do you think that’s the International Date Line? I guess the wiggles are so that Polynesia can all have the same day at the same time.

(I crossed the IDL once. I had no February 9th 2019. Just didn’t happen.)

Anyway, admin over with, here are our four tracks:

We begin with Zimbabwean rhumba artist Juntal, and make sure you watch the video to this because it’s completely joyful:

Next up is Navidad en el Campo from Bolivia, which is an adaptation of a traditional Christmas song, although it also sounds a bit like something the choristers of King’s College might sing on Christmas Eve. The result is quite delightful (but the video is not necessarily worthy of your attention:

From the Cook Islands comes Kia Orana, which is Cook Islands Māori (like New Zealand Māori but not the same thing) for ‘hello’ or, literally, ‘may you have a long and fulfilling life’, which is a lot of meaning to fit into two words. This is a lovely song, but it has no video at all so feel free to go off and do the ironing while it’s playing:

And finally, this South African song, Sizalwe Indodana, which is Zulu for ‘A son was born to us’, is lovely, and will set you up for the rest of the day: