La canción de la semana #424

Sweden had ABBA. Finland has BABB: The Bad Ass Brass Band! This week's song is Oso polar, from the band's truly bad-ass eponymous album.

La canción de la semana #423

...is Grano de Arena by Czech-born, New York-based singer-songwriter Marta Topferova, from her 2005 album La Marea.

La canción de la semana #422

Perfidia was written in 1939 by the Mexican composer Alberto Domínguez (1911—1975). Here are some of my favourite performers of this song:

• Xavier Cugat
• Diana Darvey (The Benny Hill Show)
• Ibrahim Ferrer
• Glenn Miller
• Carola Standertskjöld

La canción de la semana #421

A couple of days ago, I heard a Finnish version of ABBA's Hasta Mañana on Radio Nostalgia. I mean, it was sung in Finnish, except the words "Hasta Mañana". I asked myself, how would you sing this song in Spanish?

40 years ago, ABBA wanted to perform Hasta Mañana on Eurovision Song Contest, "as they thought that it was more in style with previous Eurovision winners". However, they hesitated to present a song where Agnetha Fältskog was a sole vocalist. But why Hasta Mañana? According to Carl Magnus Palm, the author of Bright Lights, Dark Shadows: The Real Story Of ABBA, the title was an accident:

The backing track for this mid-tempo ballad was recorded the day after Waterloo. Listening back to the tape after the session, the track triggered something in Björn and Benny. They realised that Who's Gonna Love You would be just as suitable for the Eurovision Song Contest as the rocking rhythms of Waterloo, perhaps even more so. Stig Anderson, who was headed for a Christmas holiday trip to the Canary Islands, had a cassette tape with the backing track thrust in his hand just as he was about to leave. His task, as usual, was to come up with suitable lyrics. In the Canary Islands, Stig kept hearing the phrase "hasta mañana", meaning "see you tomorrow", on the radio. He quickly put together the lyrics for the new song, and dictated them down a crackly telephone line between Spain and Sweden. Who's Gonna Love You had become Hasta Mañana.

Eventually, ABBA decided on Waterloo, gave Sweden its first Eurovision victory, and became the world's second best-selling band after The Beatles.

In the meantime, success of Hasta Mañana far outlasted that of Waterloo. In 1980, the band released the album of songs in Spanish, Gracias Por La Música, which contained such hits as Chiquitita, Fernando, and, of course, Hasta Mañana. So no surprises here: Hasta Mañana in Spanish is Hasta Mañana.

La canción de la semana #420

...is No me toquéis by Nudozurdo, an indie rock band from Madrid — or, according to Tastebuds, "with all its capital letters, THE BEST INDIE BAND in Spain in the last five years" (mind you that was published one year ago but Nudozurdo are worth checking out nevertheless).