It suddenly strikes me that I should have added a #Eurovision hashtag to this thread, so here it is
#SmallCheeringThings #KAJ #Music
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It suddenly strikes me that I should have added a #Eurovision hashtag to this thread, so here it is
#SmallCheeringThings #KAJ #Music
Mosquito should be the europop dance-floor filler of the summer and indeed every summer, a universal experience rendered in perfect earworm form, plus also an unexpected accordion.
And if Bara Bada Bastu didn't convince you of the fact that "perkele" is the most satisfying swear word in existence, this will.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vao5I9lLGE
Lyrics:
Mo- mo- mosquito
El bandito
Te- terroristo
El diablo
I'm lying here in the sunshine, and life is nice
But one-two-three they appear, surprise surprise
Every year in summer it's as if
The wretches take one look at my body and think "blood buffet"
(Ah-ah-ah, aj-aj-aj*
Ah-aj-aj-aj)
When the buzzing intensifies I start to panic
(Ah-ah-ah, aj-aj-aj
Ah-aj-aj-aj)
Is it a bird
Is it a plane
Or the Egyptian plague?
Mo- mo- mosquito
El bandito
Te- terroristo
El diablo
(Ah-ah-ah, aj-aj-aj
Ah-aj-aj-aj)
They bite me on my head and my thighs
They arrive in the middle of the night, I am under attack
The fly along the walls, what a bunch of fucking hooligans,
I wave my arms about like a psycho and scream "go away!"
Spraying around in circles yelling "bite me!" **
(Ah-ah-ah, aj-aj-aj
Ah-aj-aj-aj)
Is it a bird
Is it a plane
Or the E-- PERKELE
Mo- mo- mosquito
El bandito
Te- terroristo
El diablo
(Ah-ah-ah, aj-aj-aj
Ah-aj-aj-aj)
Itching over my entire body
Hyttynen*** from Sahara to Vörå
Hyttynen and I keep on flailing (go away!)
Hyttynen from Sahara to Vörå
Hyttynen when you sit I'm going to hit (aah)
(Ah-ah-ah, aj-aj-aj
Ah-aj-aj-aj)
Mo- mo- mosquito
El bandito
(Ah-ah-ah, aj-aj-aj
Ah-aj-aj-aj)
You suck and I can't take any more
*many layered meanings in one small word - "aj" means "ouch", and "ajajaj" can be used both as a warning to look out for something, and as a general "whoops, blimey, oh dear", and as an expression of sympathy
** almost untranslatable pun alert: the original is "stick och brinn" - literally "go away and burn", a common expression to mean "fuck off" generally - but "stick" also has the dual meaning of "to bite", as in insect bite.
*** Finnish for mosquito
#SmallCheeringThings
Keep on KAJ-ing! Another entry in what is turning out to be a mega-thread of KAJ's much-more-than-Eurovision oeuvre. Might just dedicate my life to promoting obscure-dialect Swedish-Finnish comedy to the English-speaking masses, because honestly given *gestures frantically at absolutely everything*, why on earth not.
Anyway. So. If the synth and disco and rap and accordions upthread haven't been to your liking, how about some J-pop? "Pa to ta na kako?" in Vörå dialect means "Would you like some cake?" and sounds sufficiently close to Japanese if you squint a bit to have inspired this terrifically catchy bop, about the propensity of grandmothers to over feed you cake.
The English translation in the video is great. Cultural crib sheet:
We take baked goods very seriously in the Nordics,
In the Swedish tradition, to properly entertain guests, you should serve seven different types of biscuits, in addition to the buns and the cakes and the pies - this is the "sju sorters på ett fat" ("seven kinds on a plate").
We also take coffee very seriously - fun fact, Finland drinks the most coffee per capita in the world, with Norway, Iceland, Denmark, and Sweden (and the Netherlands) rounding out the top six. The word "påtår" means "refill", but is more like "another drop to top it up endlessly" and has more cultural heft than the word would imply in English.
The type of crockery they're using in the video - fine china, with a pattern of flowers and a gold rim - exists with only minimal variation in the house of every single Swedish grandmother.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mIKeXyCUiI
Also the making-of video is completely charming, I adore the fact that despite being quite famous and successful, they literally build their own sets 😍
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