La canción de la semana #875

...is Papa Upa by Babalu, Eddy Mar Salsa y Sabor, from the band's 1976 record Tranquilisate. I'd never known who they were if not for Gia Fu's programme Salsa Records From Curaçao, full of equally obscure and wonderfully catchy tunes. I didn't even know they played salsa in Curaçao. Now I know.

La canción de la semana #874

...is DPM (De Pxta Madre) by Kany García. The song was released two years ago but I first heard it in Kany's recent (and gorgeous) Tiny Desk Concert.

Kany García: lead vocals, steel guitar, ukulele Antonio Alonso: drums, percussion, background vocals José M. Gómez: keyboards, accordion, background vocals Olga I. González: background vocals, shaker, tambourine Bryan Pérez: bass guitar Cristian F. Rivera: music director, steel guitar, ukulele, background vocals Ricardo Rodríguez: classical guitar, background vocals

La canción de la semana #873

Irina Bogushevskaya (Ирина Богушевская) sang:

Ах, Рио-Рита! Как высоко плыла ты над нами,
Через страх и озноб, через восторг побед,
Аргентины далёкой привет!

But what Rio Rita has to do with Argentina? Very little. The pasodoble was composed in 1932 by the Catalan Enric Santeugini i Montsalvatge (Enrique Santeugini y Montsalvaje), then resident in Berlin. Originally called Adiós Madrecita (but seriously!), it really became famous as Für dich, Rio Rita (Rio Rita was the name of a dance bar in Tauentzienstraße 12, Berlin), with the German lyrics by Oscar H. Adam. In 1937, the instrumental version by Marek Weber and his orchestra came to the former Soviet Union where it was incredibly popular. By that time, both Weber and Santeugini left Germany.

The song appeared on a B-side of a 78 rpm shellac record, whose A-side was occupied by... Argentina (Ich will ja nichts als deine Liebe) by Santiago Lopez, also performed by Marek Weber. (Neither composer was credited on a Soviet disc. Typical.) Maybe that explains the Rio Rita-Argentina connection?

La canción de la semana #872

...is Frágil by Yahritza y su Esencia and Grupo Frontera. An alternative version of this song is closing Yahritza's recent Tiny Desk Concert.

La canción de la semana #871

I've been listening to this album by 2 Caras — in fact, the only album by 2 Caras — for I don't know how many years. How come I never shared a song on this blog? So, here you are: Chimango from Tango Ska.