An Odd Place

Maybe you want to know what pop music from a part of the world unfamiliar to most people in other parts of the world might be like. To start with, I'll take you to Mozambique. A Portuguese colony until 1975, there was a decidedly Portuguese influence on Mozambican pop with a subtle South African undertone. The nearest "offshore" pirate radio station to South Africa was, remarkably, in Lourenco Marques (now Maputo). It was called Radio LM and played a lot of the popular tunes of the day. The most famous singer in Mozambique in the 60s was Joao Maria Tudela, and his first big hit was in 1959 with the song "Kanimambo." He died recently in April 2011 in Portugal. Here is a clip of Kanimambo:

Greetings

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! This is a blog for people who are fans of oldies music, and for people who are curious about music from around the world. There will be music from places as close to home as Mexico (for me at any rate) and from places as far away as Mozambique. There will be places included that you didn't think had rock and roll, such as Madagascar, Cambodia, and the former USSR (Estonia, Tatarstan, and Belarus, for example). Some of the pop stars mentioned in this blog are practically household words in their respective countries. Others were famous during the 60s, only to be forgotten about and rediscovered on the web by a select few individuals. Yet others were popular for just a short time. Many were popular only in the countries they came from, while others were more popular abroad than they were at home. You might recognize some of the songs that sound seemingly foreign...after all, they are covers of familiar English-language tunes.

Well, just click on a tune, turn up your speakers, relax, and have a good time! I will try to update this blog on a regular basis.