Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Malaika - Malaika


One of unknown, unsung Finnish pop singer heroes in the 60's was Martti Koskimo. He was the founding member of the group Ernos, but soon went solo, and recorded a couple of singles in the latter part of the decade, but his imminent breakthrough never realized. In 1967 he released "Malaika", with backing by the orchestra of Rauno Lehtinen and to the lyrics by Juha Vainio. The original song came from Kenya, Africa. It was written and first performed by Kenyan musician Fadhili William Mdavida. It has been said that Fadhili and this song "Malaika" put Kenya on the International music map. In the 50's Fadhili served as a session musician and arranger playing second guitar on many recordings. He was among the first in East Africa to use an electric guitar. In 1959, he created the band Jambo Boys, with whom he recorded the legendary "Malaika" in 1963. The song has been versioned by many international stars. We present here one of the most popular versions done by Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte.

Here's the triplet:

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