MJ - The King of Pop

This ain't a biography of Michael Jackson.

Let us first hear him singing "Wanna be startin' somethin'". I have also included the lyrics for those who want to sing along.

I said you wanna be startin' somethin'

You got to be startin' somethin'

I said you wanna be startin' somethin'

You got to be startin' somethin'

It's too high to get over (yeah, yeah)

Too low to get under (yeah, yeah)

You're stuck in the middle (yeah, yeah)

And the pain is thunder (yeah, yeah)

It's too high to get over (yeah, yeah)

Too low to get under (yeah, yeah)

You're stuck in the middle (yeah, yeah)

And the pain is thunder (yeah, yeah)



I took my baby to the doctor

With a fever, but nothing he found

By the time this hit the street

They said she had a breakdown

Someone's always tryin' to start my baby cryin'

Talkin', squealin', lyin'

Sayin' you just wanna be startin' somethin'



I said you wanna be startin' somethin'

You got to be startin' somethin'

I said you wanna be startin' somethin'

You got to be startin' somethin'

It's too high to get over (yeah, yeah)

Too low to get under (yeah, yeah)

You're stuck in the middle (yeah, yeah)

And the pain is thunder (yeah, yeah)

It's too high to get over (yeah, yeah)

Too low to get under (yeah, yeah)

You're stuck in the middle (yeah, yeah)

And the pain is thunder (yeah, yeah)



You love to pretend that you're good

When you're always up to no good

You really can't make him hate her

So your tongue became a razor

Someone's always tryin' to keep my baby cryin'

Treacherous, cunnin', declinin'

You got my baby cryin'



I said you wanna be startin' somethin'

You got to be startin' somethin'

I said you wanna be startin' somethin'

You got to be startin' somethin'

It's too high to get over (yeah, yeah)

Too low to get under (yeah, yeah)

You're stuck in the middle (yeah, yeah)

And the pain is thunder (yeah, yeah)

It's too high to get over (yeah, yeah)

Too low to get under (yeah, yeah)

You're stuck in the middle (yeah, yeah)

And the pain is thunder (yeah, yeah)

You're a vegetable, you're a vegetable

Still they hate you, you're a vegetable

You're just a buffet, you're a vegetable

They eat off of you, you're a vegetable



Billie Jean is always talkin'

When nobody else is talkin'

Tellin' lies and rubbin' shoulders

So they called her mouth a motor

Someone's always tryin' to start my baby cryin'

Talkin', squealin', spyin'

Sayin' you just wanna be startin' somethin'



I said you wanna be startin' somethin'

You got to be startin' somethin'

I said you wanna be startin' somethin'

You got to be startin' somethin'

It's too high to get over (yeah, yeah)

Too low to get under (yeah, yeah)

You're stuck in the middle (yeah, yeah)

And the pain is thunder (yeah, yeah)

It's too high to get over (yeah, yeah)

Too low to get under (yeah, yeah)

You're stuck in the middle (yeah, yeah)

And the pain is thunder (yeah, yeah)

You're a vegetable, you're a vegetable

Still they hate you, you're a vegetable

You're just a buffet, you're a vegetable

They eat off of you, you're a vegetable



If you can't feed your baby (yeah, yeah)

Then don't have a baby (yeah, yeah)

And don't think maybe (yeah, yeah)

If you can't feed your baby (yeah, yeah)

You'll be always tryin'

To stop that child from cryin'

Hustlin', stealin', lyin'

Now baby's slowly dyin'



I said you wanna be startin' somethin'

You got to be startin' somethin'

I said you wanna be startin' somethin'

You got to be startin' somethin'

It's too high to get over (yeah, yeah)

Too low to get under (yeah, yeah)

You're stuck in the middle (yeah, yeah)

And the pain is thunder (yeah, yeah)

It's too high to get over (yeah, yeah)

Too low to get under (yeah, yeah)

You're stuck in the middle (yeah, yeah)

And the pain is thunder (yeah, yeah)



Lift your head up high

And scream out to the world

I know I am someone

And let the truth unfurl

No one can hurt you now

Because you know what's true

Yes, I believe in me

So you believe in you

Help me sing it, ma ma se,

Ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa

Ma ma se, ma ma sa,

Ma ma coo sa



Now that you know the lyrics, the whole song makes sense to you. Please concentrate on the last four lines -

Help me sing it, ma ma se,

Ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa

Ma ma se, ma ma sa,

Ma ma coo sa



Does it appeal to you. Take a look at the following song







In 1972, Manu Dibango had recorded a hit song called “Soul Makossa” which was nominated for the Grammy awards. Soul Makossa, which was the B side of Mouvement Ewondo, a single composed for the 1972 African Nations Cup in Cameroon, was named after the makossa, a Cameroonian dance, but he stretched the word out, played with it: “Ma-mako, ma-ma-ssa, mako-makossa.

A decade later, it so happened that Dibango was in Paris, listening to the radio at his apartment, when he heard something familiar: those same syllables, more or less, in a very different context. The DJ was playing “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” the unconventional first song from “Thriller.” It is more than six minutes long, and although the music is exuberant throughout, the lyrics aren’t as silly as they first sound: paranoia (“Still they hate you, you’re a vegetable/You’re just a buffet, you’re a vegetable”) gives way to exhortation (“If you can’t feed your baby, then don’t have a baby”) and, eventually, inspiration (“I believe in me/So you believe in you”). The galloping rhythm sounds a bit like “Soul Makossa,” and near the end Jackson acknowledges the debt by singing words that many listeners mistook for nonsense: “Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa.” Soon, Dibango’s phone started ringing. Friends and relatives were calling to offer their congratulations: Michael Jackson was singing his song! But Dibango’s pride turned to puzzlement when he bought the album, only to find that the song was credited to Michael Jackson and no one else.

When contacted Jackson first argued that the refrain consisted of a string of meaningless words spouted in the heat of the moment. Then later, he insisted that they were words in Swahili. Eventually he conceded that he had indeed borrowed the lines from Manu’s Soul Makossa and reached an out of court settlement.

Manu Dibango again sued Jackson in 2007 after the pop star gave permission to Rihanna to use the famous chorus as a hook for her song "Don’t Stop The Music" without contacting Manu.



Here is the song from Rihanna.







Finally I am including a tribute to MJ by Sonu Niigaam.







Please send in your comments.

The Musical Truth of FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014

You might be thinking that I am obsessed with theme songs from FIFA World Cups after you see two consecutive posts on the same subject. Actually while I was doing my research for my last post I came across some interesting facts about theme song of FIFA World Cup 2014 Brazil. I then decided to put them forward to you and it finally has resulted in this blog post.

If you perform a YouTube search with the key words "FIFA 2014 Official Theme Song", you will have about 46 hits with all different songs. I found that suspicious but nonetheless decided to continue my investigation. Some of the songs are, no doubt, very melodious and I am including some of them below.

Confused? So was I.
Which one of these is the official theme song then? I decided to check the relevant page on the FIFA site. I could not find any article or video in the FIFA site mentioning any particular song as the "Official Theme Song for FIFA Brazil 2014". I stumbled upon a page mentioning the songs in the recent past.
More confused I decided to Google "Which is the theme song for FIFA World Cup in Brazil 2014". I got 30,400 results in 0.14 seconds similar to the YouTube search. I decided to concentrate on the first two or three entries considering the 180 odd factors that Google employs to list and omit entries during a search (in fact SEO sites are going berserk to find out all of those and haven't been able to till date).I have already included the videos of these songs in this post.
The first entry in the Google search is the song urging us to "Save Galvao Birds". I did not know what Galvao birds were till I decided to Google again and picked up a YouTube video which summarizes everything. Here is the 4.10 minute long video followed by another short one which tell you everything you wanted to know.





This is what Paulo Coelho tweeted for the campaign and this is the relevant page from Wikipedia.

Now lemme share with you some other non musical aspects of FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014, something on logos.



The logo is called "Inspiration", and was created by Brazilian agency "Africa". The design stems from an iconic photograph of three victorious hands together raising the world's most famous trophy. As well as depicting the humanitarian notion of hands interlinking, the portrayal of the hands is also symbolic of the yellow and green of Brazil warmly welcoming the world to their country.
Let us turn our attention to the other aspect of the logo now. A highly analytical and detailed critique of the newly announced logo for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil tells us that it represents a facepalm. A facepalm is a popular online expression referring to the physical gesture known more widely as "smiting one's brow" or "smiting one's forehead;" that is, striking one's own face in a display of exasperation. In Internet discussions, the term is used as an expression of embarrassment, frustration, disbelief, disgust or general woe. There are two ways in which it is used:
Physical gesture
To bring the palm of the hand to the face
To bring the face down to a cupped hand or hands.
Written use
Primarily used in text communication on the Internet, often as *facepalm*, m-( (or similar) or an ASCII picture showing facepalm when it is generally used to show embarrassment or disbelief, but is also used in personal communication.
One of the earliest examples of its online use is by linking to a well-known photograph of Jim Horne, a model, whose use of the brow-smite typified the "disgust" aspect and became an internet meme. Using Facebook or instant messaging, the act of facepalming can be shown with the // emoticon.



I thought it appropriate to write this short note on the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 logo and facepalm here because I was awestruck and stared in disbelief when I deciphered the truth about official theme song of FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014.

Enough of internet memes, pranks and dissemination of knowledge. Lemme now treat you with a playlist of the songs from the previous FIFA World cups. The tradition of an official song dates back to the 1966 FIFA World Cup™ in England with a song for the first Official Mascot, “World Cup Willie”, who was a lion. Ever since, the official music programme and the Official Mascot have become a more and more significant component of the event, providing an excellent opportunity for more than just football fans to identify with the world’s biggest single-sport event.Official songs at recent FIFA World Cup™ competitions have included Un’estate italiana by Edoardo Bennato and Gianna Nannini in 1990, Gloryland by Daryl Hall with Sounds of Blackness in 1994, and La Copa de la Vida by Ricky Martin in 1998. In 2002, the official song was Boom by Anastacia, while Vangelis’ vocal official anthem featured typical Korean and Japanese sonic elements. In 2006, The Time of Our Lives by the Il Divo quartet was a resounding success. In my playlist I have two additional tracks - first one is the song from FIFA World Cup Chile 1962 and the second one is the official anthem (not the official song) from FIFA Korea-Japan 2002.

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Sit back and enjoy and keep on writing to me.

The Musical Truth of FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010

The FIFA World Cup Soccer 2010 was held in South Africa with Spain winning the trophy by defeating Holland in the final. Throughout the tournament the official song “Waka Waka” by Shakira and the official Coca Cola theme song “Wavin’ Flag” by K’Naan have been reverberating in our TV sets. The popularity of these two songs worldwide made me investigate into the roots of these songs and I have been thinking of writing about these in my blog but was not able to due to time constraints. My internet buddy Arkadev Ghoshal who is the author of the blog site “Quizzing Realms” recently posted a “question” on his site and while answering that question I made up my mind not to delay my blog post any more. As I write down my research and my thoughts on these two songs, I am reminded of Jayasish (aka Jasha); junior to me by 3 years from my alma mater R G Kar Medical College, Kolkata. He was there in Johannesburg to witness the final and we all were thrilled to watch the photographs and the videos that he posted on Facebook.

Before delving deep into Waka Waka, let us hear the official version of the song as an YouTube video.



At the time of writing this blog at 17.35 hours, Indo China Time (ICT) of the 9th Day of October 2010, this video has been viewed 206,598,748 times in the official Vevo channel of Shakira. It has become the number 3 all time most viewed music video and number 4 all time most viewed video.
As Cindy Casares wrote in her blog on the 12th of April 2010, “We've been kind of obsessed with Shakira's new song for the 2010 World Cup ever since the clips were first leaked. “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)”, (originally called “Zangalewa” or "Tsamina Mina" on the internet), has this fantastic African chorus, and it turns out that's because it's sampled from a Cameroonian song first recorded in 1986, called "Zangaléwa," that was hugely popular in Shakira's native Colombia, (not to mention all over Africa). The part of the original song that Shakira samples most closely is the chorus which doesn't begin until seven and a half minutes into the original song”.
The same feelings were expressed by Robert Mackay writing in his column in The New York Times of 24th May 2010. As he wrote, controversy was building up around the origin of the song much before the scheduled start of the World Cup matches. The organizing committee had to issue a clarification that this world cup anthem was collaboration between the Latin star, Shakira and the South African band, Freshlyground. Mackay went on to write, “For her part, Shakira Mebarak Ripoll has not invoked her credentials as a representative of the global meeting pot — a Latina of Lebanese ancestry, she sings in both Spanish and English — but instead stressed the global nature of her effort to try to teach the world to dance the Waka Waka. She has a YouTube channel that encourages fans from every part of the planet to submit clips of themselves dancing to the song. Her official Web site points to video of recent “Waka Waka flash mobs” in Colombia and Venezuela and kids at a school she founded in her hometown performing their version. What has gotten less attention is the fact that the song’s central “Waka Waka” riff has impeccable African roots”.
Tsamina or Zangaléwa is a 1986 hit song, originally sung by a Cameroonian Makossa group called Golden Sounds who were beloved throughout the continent for the dances and costumes. The song was such a hit for Golden Sounds that they eventually changed their name to Zangaléwa, too.
Here is the song, Zangaléwa, by Golden Sounds.

Zangaléwa (Audio only)

The original song is quite long and the portion which has inspired the World Cup anthem does not appear before 7.26 minutes. That is quite a long wait. I thought it best to upload the audio as I am not very happy with video quality of the YouTube video. However, for those of you who are interested in watching the video, you can find it here.


The best treatise on this subject can be found in Dibussi Tande’s blog and I have borrowed quite substantially from his writings.
In 1985 the Golden Sounds, a group composed primarily of members from Cameroon’s Presidential Guards released an album whose title track Zangalewa was based on a parade song which was popular with the rank and file of the Cameroonian army and whose origins could be traced back Cameroonian riflemen who took part in the Second World War. Zangalewa became an international hit which transformed Emile Kojidie, Victor Dooh Belley and group leader Ze Bella into celebrities (to the dismay of the army brass who subsequently created the conditions that led to the disbanding of the group a few years later – but that is another story). The group also included a few members who were not in the military such as Annie Anzouer who with Ze Bella performed some of the group’s most popular tunes such as Maladie difficile à soigner
and Un bébé, and who later went on to have the most successful solo career among all Golden Sounds members.
Fast forward to 2010. Ze Bella who had retired from the Presidential Guards in 2002 was enjoying a quiet retirement in his village when he got a call from an acquaintance in France informing him that Shakira had just released a version of Zangalewa. This information was soon confirmed by Emile Kojidy another Golden Sounds alum now living in the United States. They were both right.
A few days earlier, the Internet had been inundated with buzz about the new song by Columbian pop star Shakira titled “Zaminamina” which was rumoured to be the official anthem for the FIFA 2010 World Cup. To many listeners, the song was eerily familiar and many bloggers and journalist sought to find out the origins of the song.
To Cameroonians and many African, the origin of the song was no mystery as they instantly recognized it as a remix of “Zangalewa”. Thus began a frenzied online campaign to alert the world that this was not a Shakira original but a remix. The task was made all the more easier thanks to videos of the Golden Sounds performing Zangalewa that were available on the web. The campaign picked up steam as the international media began taking an interest in the story. [See for example, this report on the French cable news channel France24 titled "Shakira Used Cameroonian pop song for World Cup anthem… without asking".
In an interview with Cameroon Tribune, which ran a special report on the controversy, Ze Bella, the leader of the defunct group declared that while they were proud that a “world music icon” had remixed their song as the World Cup anthem, they nonetheless expected to be properly credited and adequately compensated. He however lamented that there was little they could do if Shakira or Sony refused to pay up:
Nous sommes vraiment impuissants pour aller aujourd’hui aux Etats-Unis revendiquer nos droits. Il y a au moins une trentaine de groupes de par le monde qui ont repris les Zangalewa. / We are really powerless to travel to the United States to assert our rights.

On May 11 2010, some members of Zangalewa held a press conference in Douala, Cameroon, to inform the media that negotiations were well underway with Sony and Shakira who had agreed to an out of court settlement and that Sony mauling over the possibility of including the single on Shakira’s next album scheduled to be released at the end of the year. Didier Edo, the group’s manager conceded that it had not been easy to negotiate with Shakira’s manager, Sony Music, and all other interested parties.There are at least 30 groups that have remade Zangalewa and below is a YouTube playlist of 11 songs

The majority of these songs are from different African countries and they have been posted by YouTube users much before the World Cup song by Shakira was even conceived. All these support the fact that Shakira and Sony Music were inspired by the original number by Golden Sounds which the Columbian artist and the corporate house, initially, declined to accept.

Let us now turn our attention to the second song, called the "Official Theme" of World Cup 2010. The ambiguity lies in naming the song as the official theme, confusing people all over the world about its place in the World Cup history. This immensely popular song called "Wavin' Flag" by the Somalia born Canadian artist K'Naan has never been the official song designated by FIFA. In reality this song was chosen as Coca-Cola's promotional anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Here is the song

	K'naan - Wavin' Flag .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

If you search the history of this song it is evident that this particular song was recorded by K'Naan in 2008 for his album "Troubadour". It was chosen as the "Coca Cola" anthem or the World Cup 2010 and officially recorded as "Wavin'Flag" in the album "The Celebration Mix". Here is the original cover version of the song from the album "Troubadour"



The remix of "Wavin' Flag" was part of Coca-Cola's global integrated marketing campaign "inspired by the joyous dance celebrations familiar to Africa." Coca-Cola integrated its jingle, well known from previous Coca-Cola commercials, into the mix, generating a direct association between the remixed song and the brand.
A music video was shot for "Wavin' Flag (The Celebration Mix)", which includes a guest appearance by Damian Marley (son of Bob Marley). It is interesting that this video was recorded in Estadio Centenario in Montevideo, the site of the first 1930 FIFA World Cup Final.
Once the Celebration Mix was released, "Wavin' Flag" ascended to the summit of the national charts in Germany, Switzerland and Austria as well as number two in the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy and Ireland.

Here is the video from "The Celebration Mix" from K'Naan's official channel on YouTube. He is candid in admitting by adding a note "ATTENTION : This is NOT the official video or song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup". I appreciate his honesty.



There have been many official and unofficial bilingual versions released till date due to the immense popularity of the song. Here is an integrated version.



For those interested in more details the playlist follows



The songs in order of appearance are – Arabic (Nancy Ajram), Portuguese/Brazilian (Skank), Chinese (旗开得胜 – Chi-Khai-Do-Sho; Hit the ground running by Jackie Cheung & Jane Zhang), French (Fefe), Greek (Professional Sinnerz and Komis X), Indonesian (Ipang), Japanese (Ai), Nigerian (Banky W and M.I.), Russian (St1m), Spanish (David Bisbal), Thai (Tattoo Colour), Caribbean (Machel Montano), Haiti (Mikaben), Hungarian (Nálunk van a labda by archors & sports reporters of Hungarian Television – MTV), Indian ( Jasim), Somali (Gulled Ahmed), Italian (Mr. Blaza and MagicEmy), Mongolian (P.Bayartsengel, D.Anu, E.Solongo and E.Soyombo), Srilankan/Sinhala (Ekama Irak Yata" by K'naan, remixed by Pradeep), Vietnamese (Phuong Vy).

An international remix of "Wavin' Flag" features French music producer David Guetta and American rapper/producer and Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am and has been made for an international release outside of Canada. A big part of the will.i.am solo parts were newly written for the international version, and even for the K'naan part, some of the lyrics were amended.



In early 2010, the song was remade by a supergroup of Canadian artists, credited as Young Artists for Haiti, as a charity single to benefit relief efforts following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
The charity single was spearheaded by producer Bob Ezrin and was reworked to include specific lyrics for Haiti (including a rap solo by Drake) and was released on March 12, 2010 with proceeds going to Free the Children, War Child Canada and World Vision Canada.
Participating soloists included (in order of appearance) K'naan, Nelly Furtado, Sam Roberts, Avril Lavigne, Pierre Bouvier, Tyler Connolly, Kardinal Offishall, Jully Black, Lights, Deryck Whibley, Serena Ryder, Jacob Hoggard, Emily Haines, Hawksley Workman, Drake, Chin Injeti, Ima, Pierre Lapointe, Elisapie Isaac, Esthero, Corb Lund, Fefe Dobson, Nikki Yanofsky, Matt Mays, Justin Nozuka and Justin Bieber.
Performing the chorus (including the soloists) were Arkells, Lamar Ashe, Broken Social Scene, Torquil Campbell, Canadian Tenors, Aion Clarke, City and Colour, Tom Cochrane, Jim Cuddy, Jim Creeggan, Kathleen Edwards, Dave Faber, Jessie Farrell, Colin James, Pat Kordyback, Brandon Lehti, Colin MacDonald, Jay Malinowski, Stacey McKitrick, Suzie McNeil, Stephan Moccio, Kevin Parent, Josh Ramsay, Red 1, Hayley Sales, James Shaw and Shiloh.
I am reminded of "USA for Africa".



It has been a long discussion on the songs associated with FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 that have made history. Please post your comments as they serve as inspiration for me. My next post will be on "The Musical Truth of FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014".