Saturday, January 28, 2006

AFRICA'S ONE HIT WONDER


You know the Songs, But You Don't Know the Singer

Go to every African party and there's that one song youknow is just your absolute favorite. You want to request it from the DJ but you just don't know the name of the song or the person who sang it. You then bastardize it some more in an attempt to hum the tune. Ya'll know what I am talking about. There is this one particular song that I swear to God no one knows the musician's name. As in I didn't know until today. Forget about Femi's and Tuface Idibia's song getting European accolades and other such awards. This one some has to be by far the most popular African song ever. It is the song that usually gets every body off their seats and gets the dance floor rolling. I mean the speakers start to peel....'tantaran tarra raan raan tarrraan raaaannn tarraaaan raaan.... ' and the room lights up. It brings smiles to everyones face and all get up, hands on head or index finger pointing to the heavens. All cares cast aside, the waist winding and the gyrating begins. It's the ultimate Makossa song with a nameless artist, forgettable at least,, you know the song, 'GAO'.

So my friend Singto sent me this link with so many african music videos. The database was extensive but I was curious to find the video for 'GAO'. I finally found it and it was like a mystery solved. I not only found the video, but Africa's Ultimate One hit Wonder. Who the hell is 'Magic System'? Whoever they are I gotta give them props for that song. I'm yet to hear another song that creates the reaction that 'GAO' does. I also hear there's a Nigerian version. It is timeless just like Nico Mbarga's Sweet Mother (that's another hot song, that's actually the 'Most Popular African Song' worldwide) and honestly I have no clue what in the world they are saying (still don't because my French is whack). I know it has something to do with 'Food' (mange). Anyways below is the link to the 'GAO' video and the lyrics. I am usually late to some of these online discoveries so this might be stale to some of you.

http://www.africanmv.com/vid/0056.htm

THE LYRICS

C'est dans ma galère que la go Antou m'a quitté oh ah {x4}

Quand j'avais un peu
Matin midi soir
On été ensemble
A la rue Princesse
Aux mille maquis
Santos payait les poulets
L'argent est fini
Antou a changé de côté
Wari ban nan
Elle a changé de copain

Nan guin nan wan, nan guin nan wan
Nan guin nan wan, nan guin nan wan

Dieu merci pour moi je savais chanter un peu
J'ai fait ma cassette oh on me voit à la télé
Matin midi soir c'est moi je chante à la radio
Antou a vu çà elle dit le gaou a percé
Attends je vais partir le couper

{Refrain:}
Et on dit premier gaou n'est pas gaou oh
C'est deuxième gaou qui est niata oh ah
Et on dit premier gaou n'est pas gaou oh
C'est deuxième gaou qui est niata oh ah

Dimanche matin koko on frappe à ma porte
A ma grande surprise c'est la go Antou je vois
On s embrasse j'ai dit y'a longtemps qu'on c'est plus revu
Elle veut me mentir elle dit chéri j'avais voyagé
Je suis de retour
Je t'appartiens
Prends moi cadeau, fais ce que tu veux

{au Refrain}

J'ai dit chéri koko qu'est ce que tu veux manger
Sans même hésiter elle me dit poulet braisé

J'ai dit chéri koko c'est poulet tu veux manger
Poulet est trop petit çà peut pas te rassasier
C'est caïman braisé, je vais te donner
Kedjenou d'éléphant, tu vas manger

Nan guin nan wan, nan guin nan wan

Elle est fâché elle dit elle s'en va à la maison
Si elle va à la maison population va me tuer
Je lui ai demandé pardon, elle a accepté
A un moment donné, elle a tout gâté
Elle est quitté dans poulet, elle s'en va dans aloco
Si c'est aloco c'est pas compliqué
C'est plantation de bananes
Tu vas griller
Au l ...



Then there's Genny(...on a different tangent) Nigeria's Gabrielle Union (because she is every darn Nollywood movie just like Gabby is in every black movie) and you can tell she watches a lot of J-lo movies because she's picked up a bit too much J-lo mannerisms. Love her or hate her, ol girl is hot and doing her thing, Lux girl and all. I used to get irritated by some of her movies (the amerikana-jandifies- fakky-fakky type) but I am actually starting to like her quite a bit. I admit I was in denial of her potential and just could not place a finger on what the buzz was but I guess I've finally came around. Lol. Especially after the movie with 'The Professor' where she was a mad woman living with the madman and the nigerian 'Cinderella'. She has a lot of drive and is beautiful. That's just a few things you need to get to the top. Plus I gotta show support to my fellow Igbo sister...lol... her 'Owerri Igbo' is konk. Here's a link to her website and music video.

http://www.aboutgenevieve.com/
http://www.africanmv.com/vid/0033.htm

(Yeah.. finally got my internet connection so I can entertain myself now by writing about life in Santa Maria)

11 comments:

Nneka's World said...

GAO, serious, same here i always thought that it was by kofo olomide. That is when i hear this song i go crazy, i cant really do makosa, but i shake my bum pieces to it.
Hmm Genny from the block, na wa oh! You must admit she is a talented actress and she should stick to it and not sing, hmm i dont know what she was saying in that song. It was too painfull to watch. She cant hold a note! Anyway she should keep acting she's good at it

Anyway how is cali treating you these days, hope you are settling in well and not missing family too much

Anonymous said...

very interesting blog entries u got babe..thumbs up!!

TMinx said...

lol, im a French speaker wannabe but i can read it more than I can speak. From what I can gather this babe 'Antou' was with him and he used to buy her chicken in the summer, but when his money finished, she left him for someone else. He could sing a little so he made a record which was played on the radio and then he became famous and traveled, when he got back, to his surprise she knocked on his door.

The end kind of gets undecipherable for me...he asks her what she wants to eat in sarcasm and she says chicken and he says its too small, he'll get her an elephant lollll and something about using a rake to eat it not a fork…so she gets upset and he asks her forgiveness...but they don’t get back together…weird eh? Its got some African French which I don’t get...but basically the chorus says the first mistake isn’t really one, to make the same mistake a second time is stupid

Wow I tried oh!

Anonymous said...

Genny...babe is hot !

Adaure Achumba said...

@Nneka... gurl i ain't got no bum (suffer from nasatall) so i rattle my bones well o. I actually like Genny's song. It's quite catchy, she seems like the modern nigerian response to Onyeka, just that a stylist and a better make up artist would help a bit. But make she rock on oh...shoooo... if i could i would have my own music video.. another one hit wonder... a remix of Rex Lawson's 'Love Adure'...get P.Diddy on that ish... holla..lol

@ Teaty Lawla.. Thanks for the props, read your blog too, pretty cool.

@Tminx.... YOU ROCK!!!! That's funny. I need to face it, my french os abysmal. I could not decipher all that information o. As in i don't even see 'poullet' in those lyrics.. lol. Props jare.

@anon... Yes oh Genny os hot... this is my favorite picture of her, she looks very exotic and she must have taken sone points from Jay Manuel because her pose knocks like 20 pounds off her and give her more contourism...bet some dudes are drolling.. abeg you gotta appreciate good stuff when you see it. Lol... and no i don't swing like that...just 'expressing'

Anonymous said...

just a note: I'm pretty sure that "persuasion" is spelled wrong in your sidebar. Thought you might want to fix it.

Adaure Achumba said...

Do you mean spelled 'incorrectly'? Gotcha!! Thanks for pointing it out. I'll make the correction.

Anonymous said...

Ah oui Magic System they're the bomb...u should listen to some"couper decaller" from Ivory Coast where actualy Magic System is from...it's the new sound , actually people listen to it more than "dombolo" (Koffi, Xtra Musica etc..) but it's so funny that that song took over everybody..I think it's the beat..the lyrics are funny he basically talks about a chick who left him when he was broke but the minute he became an accomplished musician, she wants to come back in his life...funny lyrics thu:)

Anonymous said...

Thankfully for me I went straight to the dj to find out who sang this song. It is an absolute crowd puller. Unfortunately, I stopped attending family gatherings/weddings and the like around the time this song was originally released. I think my life has been the poorer for it. It's the first cd I've bought in about two years! I'm a fluent french speaker and I struggled to understand the lyrics. I'll learn them in time for the wedding on saturday!

Anonymous said...

Very funny post! I found your page because I was searching for who sang that song and had no clue how to spell "Gaou". The other song title I recently (finally!) tracked down was Vul'indlela by Brenda Fassie.. No idea of what she's singing about, but it's a GREAT song!!

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