I love when the Tablet magazine folk let me indulge my obsessions. I had a particularly awesome time writing this week’s column, about the 1978 Israeli Eurovision Song Contest winner, A-Ba-Ni-Bi. Does ANYONE remember the dance? Come on, Jews!
Here it is as performed by a vast clutch of Toronto school children in 2009 (same choreography as Camp Ramah in 1981):
And here it is enjoying its new life as an extensively re-recorded, re-choreographed multicultural sensation. This time it’s in Mandarin, sung by a Taiwanese singer, with the addition of surf guitar.
As I say in the piece, it’s been performed a gazillion languages (seriously, go click on all the links in that Tablet piece — I’m quite proud of them). My fave covers are the Spanish trance version and the version for marching band.
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