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It’s only 4 days before the much awaited massacre match between Mexico and Argentina, and judging by some of my Facebook friends’ profiles, nobody is getting much work these days, or paying attention to non-soccer news.
So, in full solidarity with them -and with everybody else- this blogger is going offline for a while…at least until after we score 7-1 against the albicelestes.
Yeah, right.
[ UPDATED: Wilfrido Vargas this week came forward to deny reports of a potential lawsuit against Shakira.]
The Waka Waka Gate -which I am proud to have partly initiated– is about to become more interesting.
Turns out Dominican composer Wilfrido Vargas is, like, pissed. Now, he claims Shakira plagiarized his song, El negro no puede.
Truth be told, neither Wilfrido nor Shakira can claim ownership of the now infamous Waka Waka. As you have been reading in this blog -and everywhere else for that matter- the song precedes both Vargas and Shakira. It is, in fact a popular African song based on an African military melody, Zangalewa, popular throughout the continent.
So, if anyone is about to get rich (or richer) with the Waka Waka, let’s dig a bit deeper and see who owes what to whom. And if anything comes out of this whole mess, this blogger wants her share. LOL.
Thanks to some loyal followers of this blog, I was able to find this jewel in the depths of YouTube. Turns out Waka Waka is not only not exclusive of Shakira, nor Las Chicas del Can, but apparently it’s as popular in Africa as the Happy Birthday.
So…until I find a version that tops this one, meet my favorite Waka Waka performer… so far.
New York City’s Hamilton Heights, the cradle of the Hispanic lettuce, is also home to “Superior Market,” a Dominican-owned bodega that now caters to an increasingly Mexican clientele.
Not only they offer Mexican produce, but they seem to know that hat-wearing Mexicans with pants à la Michael Jackson tend to lurk around the ATM machine.
Photo: Laura Martínez
If you are remotely familiar with Univision and it’s exclusive Spanish-language rights to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, I’m certain you have heard the now ubiquitous Waka-Waka, a melody everybody wants us to believe was written from scratch by the super famous 33-year old Colombian singer Shakira.
Well… years before the hip-queen even reached puberty, the Waka-Waka was already a sensation, first performed live on Latin American television by the wonderful Las Chicas del Can, under the original title of Waka-Waka: El Negro no puede, freely translated by myself as: Waka-Waka The Black Guy Can’t Get it Up.
So, without further ado, here are both versions. Watch and judge for yourselves…
Which is your favorite Waka-Waka?
Hat tip: Carlitos [manito] Tropical
Hugo Chávez knows Hillary Clinton is not particularly fond of him. So the Venezuelan leader decided to improvise a heartfelt melody about their mutual dislike for each other. Enjoy, and if you don’t understand the lyrics, read below:
Hillary Clinton doesn’t love me, but that’s OK, since I don’t like her either
Some blame it on the bad omen that Mr. Calderón will bring to South Africa this week, but in a rehearsal that took part this week at Soccer City to test all the technical details of the grand event, South Africa kicked Mexico’s butt 2 goals to 1.
Oh well, at least we got one goal, which is the very least we can expect this Friday.
Let’s pray!
One of the few good things about Arizona’s SB1070 (besides opening a world of business opportunities to this blogger) is that it has proven to be very good for the creative minds. On the heels of Zubi Advertising’s Gringo Mask, comes this year’s winner of the Círculo Creativo’s Not So Young Creatives contest.
Thanks to this piece, Flor Leibaschoff and Matías Sada, of Dallas-based Dieste, are now on their way to Cannes, where I am sure they will not be asked for their documents… [given they don’t look like Algerian immigrants, that is.]
It is only eight days before Mexico faces South Africa in the first match of this year’s 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament. So, the folks from the Mexican national soccer team are busy making, well, Bimbo sandwiches… which is not at all bad, because they could be drinking and smoking…
Oh, wait, they are doing that, too!
oh, and one more thing: since when is a sandwich ‘el alimento ideal’?
We can talk forever about “cultural insights” and “smart” marketing strategies, but the organizers of this Latin single’s event in Queens, NY do know how to write one catchy tagline.
“Venga frío y salga caliente” has got to be, like, the most attractive, appealing and convincing branding slogan, ever. [So much so, I wouldn’t even know how to translate it]
So, stop reading! What are waiting for? If you live in the New York City area, free on June 3rd and feel like leaving a party venue feeling positively horny, make sure to check out this Latin Single’s Hot Fiesta.
Hat tip: LatinVision
[UPDATED: For reasons I do not know yet -but which I intend to investigate- Univision has removed that video from its site, so lucky those of you who managed to watch. Enjoy a photo of the Naked Cowboy sharing the stage with Ivy Queen and Cristina herself]
Too busy celebrating the long weekend that you missed El Show de Cristina last night? Do not despair. This blogger was there to document it all, including the surprising appearance by the one and only Naked Cowboy himself. ¡Ajúa!
Vodpod videos no longer available.
You might have been resting in your laurels this Memorial weekend, but it was pretty busy at Univision headquarters, where top executives had to issue a public apology for a skit stereotyping Africans as -what else?- half-naked, dark-skinned people with big hair and small spears dancing around.
The skit, which aired on Univision’s popular morning show Despierta America, included hosts wearing Afro wigs and dancing to what civil rights activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson described as a “faux jungle music beat.”
The apology, which was published Saturday in Los Angeles Times, stated that: “[The skit] is completely unacceptable and against our policies, standards and practices. We sincerely apologize to our viewers and all who were offended.”
So far so good, so I’m just going to sit tight and wait for Televisa to issue its own apology for the ad below, currently running on Mexican television.
Remember the Gringo Mask?, Zubi Advertising’s provocative –yet hilarious- idea to protest against Arizona’s SB1070 immigration law?
Well, turns out it is no longer out there.
Apparently, yielding to criticisms by some gringos who didn’t like Zubi using the word gringo to describe gringos, the agency this week pulled it off the Web, replacing it with an explanation of what the mask intended –and didn’t intended to do.
Gone with the Gringo Mask was the dedicated Facebook fan page and previous URL’s linking to the Gringo Mask on Zubi’s own blog
I think Zubi doesn’t care what I think… but I think it shouldn’t have yielded to the pressure. The mask was not only funny; it was one of the very first attempts I’ve seen from a Hispanic ad shop trying to push the envelope and make a strong –yet witty- statement about one issue that touches the nerve of the very market they are supposed to serve (immigrants, specifically U.S. Hispanics).
Only the ignorant would take offense: the mask was a comical tool to show that we (non-gringos) know very well that “gringos” come in all shapes and colors. And no, I do not think the word “gringo” is a racial slur.
I don’t know you, but I was among the lucky ones who managed to download my gringo mask. You never know when you’re going to need it!
Ok, people, if you needed one more reason to root for El Tri at this year’s 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, consider this:
Diego Maradona has promised to run naked through the center of Buenos Aires if Argentina wins the World Cup.
So please, repeat after me: ¡Que gane México! ¡Que gane México!…
In which case, this blogger promises to start eating more sandwiches and spare you the embarrassment of seeing the results.
MTV doesn’t only know how to make funny commercials. They also know that Mexicans will be so absorbed by this year’s World Cup that they will even forget to feed their foul-mouthed pets.
This campaign was created by La Comunidad, and it includes other spots filmed in Russian and Korean.
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