La canción de la semana #285

...is Menino do bairro negro, beautifully performed by Galician singer Uxía. This song appears on her new album Meu Canto, recorded in Brazil.

La canción de la semana #284

...is Arco Iris, the title track of the new album by the Moroccan singer Amina Alaoui.

Coffee Break Spanish

Just finished listening to Coffee Break Spanish — free course of 80 Spanish lessons. Each lesson is between 15 and 25 minutes, so it makes it ideal to listen to while walking, or on (waiting for the) bus (train), or, indeed, during the coffee break of any description. It is a good fun and I learned quite a lot from Mark and Kara. (And I just adore the Scottish accent!) The second part of the course was more challenging, at least for me, since I find it difficult to visualise the verb conjugation tables without writing things down.


Lesson 77 was actually the first lesson that I heard back in May and, surprise surprise, it deals with some peculiarities of Canarian Spanish.

La canción de la semana #283

Browsing the free music collection of Other Minds Archive, I came across this fascinating live recording of legendary Chilean group Inti-Illimani.

At Stanford University on October 30, 1973, Inti-Illimani, a Chilean folk music group, performed in concert, just months after the military coup in Chile had led to the their exile as well as the death of their fellow folk singer and frequent collaborator, Victor Jara. Saved from a similar fate by the fact that they were on tour in Europe at the time of Pinochet's violent take over, the group took this opportunity to offer a poignant tribute to Jara and other victims of the fascist regime.

Almost twenty years later, Inti-Illimani were once again able to record in Chile. This week's song, Mulata, is taken from the band's 1993 album Andadas.

La canción de la semana #282

...is Impermeable azul, the Spanish version of Leonard Cohen's classic Famous Blue Raincoat, performed by Christina Rosenvinge. This song appears on 2CD + DVD set Acordes Con Leonard Cohen, recorded live in Barcelona in 2007 and featuring such artists as Perla Batalla, Jackson Browne and Duquende.