Cool Stuff #2

My first cool thing is Shakira. The coolest thing about Shakira is that she counts for both Latin America as well as the Middle East! She was born in Colombia to a Lebanese father and a Spanish-Italian mother, and was exposed to both Latin American and Middle Eastern music from a very early age. Her music, especially this song, "Ojos Así," reflects her heritage through its use of traditional Middle Eastern instruments, such as the doumbek, but also through the Spanish lyrics. This song's bridge happens to be in Arabic, which I think is super duper cool, especially since she can sing fluently in both Spanish and Arabic. :) 

(Random fun story before moving on: Shakira's father took her to a local Middle Eastern restaurant when she was four, and there happened to be live music that night. When the doumbek started playing, little four-year-old Shakira jumped up on top of the table and started belly dancing. By the time she finished elementary school, she was known as the Belly Dancer Girl.)

Yes, those are the Wiggles, but before you judge me, I would like to justify myself by explaining that the Wiggles originated in Australia, from a segment of the Australian Broadcasting Company, and were never expected to go anywhere or "make it" at all. But they did, and they are now considered THE preschool rock band that all the cool four year olds listen too. Which considering the Wiggles' fairly humble origins is pretty darn impressive if you ask me. 

Oh, you say, but the Wiggles don't count as something cool. 

THEY TOTALLY DO.

In 2008, the Wiggles were named Business Review Weekly's top earning entertainers for the fourth year in a row, beating out the likes of Joan Sutherland, Keith Urban, and Kylie Minogue. They've earned seventeen gold, twelve platinum, three double-platinum, and ten multi-platinum awards from their combined DVD and CD sales that total to about 21 million copies. So they don't play traditional Australian folk music, and they don't use digeridoos in their concerts, but they have made Australia the standard in early childhood popular music, which is kinda neat. 

Hate on the Wiggles all you'd like, but when you sell more albums and concert tickets than AC/DC (which also originated from Australia...the more you know...) for four years in a row, just let me know... 

My last cool thing has very deep personal meaning to me. "The Prince of Egypt" is the first movie I ever remember seeing in theaters, and if you know anything about my unhealthy obsession with movies deep love for the art of cinema then you can probably guess that this is kind of a big deal. But reminiscing over the good ol' days is not why I have gathered you all here today. Oh no. 

If you've ever seen "The Prince of Egypt" then you know that music plays a huge part in the storytelling. Hans Zimmer (of "Lion King" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" and pretty-much-any-film-score-that's-not-John Williams fame) and Stephen Schwartz (of "Pocahontas" and"Wicked" fame) were responsible for the music of the film, and they knocked it out of the park, mostly thanks to Israeli icon, Ofra Haza. If you don't know who Ofra Haza is, that is totally okay, but she really is an amazing person. (In fact our text book for this class has many, many wonderful things to say about her; you should totally check it out!) I don't really know that much about her work and career outside of "The Prince of Egypt" but this course has made me very curious, and I know that I will be listening to her work in the very near future. 

Besides the fact that she has a gorgeous voice and starred in one of my very favorite movies of all time, I think that Ofra Haza is the coolest of cools because she recorded her part in the film in at least ten different languages, including her native Hebrew, but she manages to portray her character flawlessly every single time. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch "The Prince of Egypt" and sing along while eating my feelings, after which I'll probably unashamedly try to dance along to some Shakira...