“Music…became the engine of my life.” Lou Bega



I found Lou Bega’s CD A little bit of Mambo at Goodwill last week and, not having heard of him, decided to risk $2.69. Peggy likes him more than I do—I’m sharing him with you partly to give you a sense of the playfulness that I love about her—but I readily acknowledge his brilliance.

He was born in 1975 in Germany— where he still lives—and is of Italian and Ugandan descent. He released a hip hop CD when he was 15, but his career only took off after he lived in Miami and discovered Cuban music, specifically mambo. According to Wikipedia, he once performed in front of 170,000 fans in Poland. When I hear of such crowds, I immediately wonder two things: how far away from the stage was the fellow in the back row; and how much of a walk was it to the toilet?

I’m sharing this particular song because most of you are women, and it struck me as especially powerful for your gender. Play it once, and you laugh; play it again, and you cry—or at least I do, and I’m not even a woman.

Now that you’ve experienced music beloved by Peggy, get ready because I'm next, and you're in for a change.

14 comments:

Lorraina said...

Please thank Peggy for me for this Snow. I played it twice and was just a bopp'in all over the room in my 5 wheeler chair. Fun stuff!

THINGS YOU'D NEVER GUESS ABOUT ME said...

Well...allow me to compose myself...*stepping up on soapbox now*...

My beloved sister just visited me in Florida. She flew for the first time in her life....and flew alone...just to reach my homesick side.

She is 72 and used to be the fat sister. I'm 61 and used to be the skinny sister.

All that has changed. She's a size 8 of energy and I'm...I....I look like Chastity Bono.

Your video just kind of reminded me: I've been skinny and I've been fat. Skinny is better.

I loved the cute song, but wished his dancers had the heft on them like the "sweet cola" he professed to love.

Gee...Thanks Snow...now pass the roach.

kylie said...

love it!

Rubye Jack said...

What can I say? Hmmmmm, I'm at a loss for words.

OneOldGoat said...

Ya know, Snowbrush??? I'm really glad I found your blog! You are the right kind of people. Thank you.

Beth - the old goat

Elisabeth said...

Well Snow, it's good to see that like Lou Bega men don't want the half starved look for women that the media perpetuate. With four daughters, and myself one of four sisters, I know about this body beauty myth and struggle, and it's not just the media who perpetuate it. To some extent we all do.

Great song. Thanks.

CreekHiker / HollysFolly said...

Great song... Can't wait for what's next!

Marion said...

I'm glad you're getting in touch with your inner female, Snow-man. Loved the song. It's awesome (and so are you).

Love & Smiles,
Marion

Vagabonde said...

I went to Paris for 3 weeks in May and enjoyed the music there. There is such a variety – many types of music sang in different languages. Here everything is in English, or Spanish if you go to a Mexican radio. The time we went to Paris, in November 2009, I was able to get tickets to see the famous Cesária Évora from Cape Verde (near Sénégal) she is super. I think New York City has many international groups but it is slim for the rest of the country. That Manu chao has quite a dynamic group.

All Consuming said...

Hehehe, it's a cute tune, I do wish he's used some curvy women as his backing dancers though. Tsk.

Snowbrush said...

Guys, I have three thoughts about the dancers being skinny. One is that the reason for his girlfriend's distress is that she doesn't fit in with the skinny women, and so if the other women looked like her, there would be no plot. The second is that the dancers are regulars in his numbers and quite possibly under contract. The third is a question of sorts: should people who are hiring dancers only hire larger ones, or should they hire a certain percentage of large to little--and how large is large? The fourth--and the hardest to talk about--is that I (for one) had rather see slim dancers than, shall we say, full-figured dancers. Maybe this makes me the typical scum-of-the-earth subhuman chauvinist pig male, but I think it could be that my preference is commonplace. Now, whether more men than women would share my preference is another matter, and one about which I have no data.

Snowbrush said...

P.S. I might add that I didn't find his dancers to be drop-dead gorgeous women. In fact, I didn't even consider them sexy. I did think they were awfully cute and that their facial expressions were superb. So while it's true that no large women were among the dancers, it's also true that the dancers didn't fit my definition (at least) of great beauty, and so a case could be made that he's already using dancers who are removed from the standard Rockette image.

kylie said...

you know what, this is probably the only place i can say this but i am sick of the talk about female body shapes.

the genetic lottery gave me a long, thin, androgynous shape which has filled out and softened a little with age and babies and i am eternally grateful that i am approximately the shape that designers make clothes for but it's not a shape men neccessarily find sexy and when i'm around women i almost have to apologise for being "the ideal"

not to mention, i might have been gifted with height and delicate bones but my weight remains healthy because i am continuously careful. i love food, i make no great restrictions on what i eat and i enjoy it but there is always one part of me that is making a nutritional evaluation, one part that says "that is enough"

people who tell me i can eat anything i want because i am slim are ignoring the fact that i am slim BECAUSE i am disciplined that way, not because i am just "lucky"

everyone should just stop bitching bodies and make the most of what they happen to be

oh and snow, this is not directed at you or your readers in particular, just my vent at the politics of beauty

Mim said...

I loved this Snow - delightful!