Good kids' music in Spanish from a talented performer
Written: Jun 28 '00 (Updated Oct 07 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots of catchy songs aimed at children
Cons: I don't know enough Spanish to understand all of them.
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| dtobias's Full Review: Vamos a Jugar by Tatiana |
Earlier, I did a review in the category for the Univision network (a Spanish-language TV network) saying how I happened to run into the children's show El Espacio de Tatiana and become interested in its host(ess), Tatiana, a Mexican pop singer turned TV star. You can read it at:
http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-3789-F851EF3-3952AC05-prod5
I've got hold of her latest CD, Vamos a Jugar now, so I can review it.
First, a little more on the singer's background. It might be conceivable to describe her early career in the '80s as being "the Mexican Tiffany," in the same manner as Alanis Morissette's early career is sometimes described as "the Canadian Tiffany," though this wouldn't quite fit due to the fact that Tatiana actually had several popular albums out in Mexico by the time Tiffany's debut album came out; so it might be more fitting to call Tiffany and Alanis the American and Canadian Tatiana. At least, such a comparison holds in the aspect that all three artists had musical success in their native countries as teenagers, with a "light pop" style, during roughly the same era.
But the three artists' careers have taken enormously different trajectories in the years since.
* Tiffany had a brief and international pop success, then her popularity faltered; some attempts at comebacks with a broad range of styles (from R&B/dance to country) didn't catch on, but she's trying again this year; watch for her release in October, 2000. I'm rooting for her. (But, then, I run a fan site about her, at www.tiffany.org.)
* Alanis had initial pop success just in Canada, but when she switched to harder-edged, bitter and cynical toned, songs, she became an international success. Ironically, her "anti-sappy-commercial-pop" stuff became very commercial in a music market that seemed to eat that sort of thing up; so was it genuine or just a marketing gimmick?
* Tatiana (OK, I'm finally back on her... too much digression and I'll likely lose rating points for lack of topicality!) released more successful pop albums than most "teen pop stars," but then decided to make a career shift to children's entertainment. This has been wildly successful, leading her to become one of the leading children's entertainers in the Hispanic world, with a bunch of hit albums, videos, a weekly TV show, and what looks like the beginnings of a massive merchandising empire, with a children's party site and day-care center "Tatilandia" in the Mexico City area, and various lines of clothing, accessories, and kids' cosmetics bearing her name and likeness (which she seems to have been clever enough to retain trademark rights to herself, rather than letting some faceless corporation own her). I wouldn't be too surprised if in ten years she's the richest person in Mexico, at this rate. Is anyone selling stock in her businesses?
So why hasn't anyone heard of her? (Outside the Hispanic community, that is.) Well, us English-speaking Americans are language bigots. Few of us are fluent in any other language besides English, and few have any interest in listening to music in other languages. While the rest of the world consumes enormous quantities of English-language pop music from the U.S., England, and elsewhere, alongside their native-language songs, Americans outside of immigrant communities ignore almost anything that's not in our language. It's a rare event when a non-English song makes our pop charts, though it's happened a few times. As a result, the rest of the world has a much greater familiarity with American entertainers than we do of those from anywhere else. The foreign stars we do know are mostly the "crossover" artists who have chosen to record some English material as well as their native language. That's where the "Latin explosion" the media hypes so much comes from -- Ricky Martin and his cohorts hit American pop charts with songs in English, not Spanish.
Tatiana only records and performs in Spanish, so the English-speaking world remains ignorant of her. That's just the way things work culturally. (Though, where I live in South Florida, it's not that long a drive for me to enter the Spanish-speaking world; it's quite a culture shock to still be in the United States but be totally surrounded with people who speak a foreign language.)
Anyway, my Spanish isn't very good (but I'm trying to learn some more), so my reviews might not accurately get what the songs are about, but I'm trying.
Vamos a Jugar (Let's go play) is an album intended for children. It shows off her nice, clear voice as a vocalist, and her love of children. However, the TV show does better than any CD can to show off her full range of talent and personality. She's a good singer, but an even better kids' TV host. (And the TV show, with its visual images including the videos and performances of her songs, gives more opportunity for somebody like me who's weak in Spanish to understand what's happening.)
These are the songs on the CD:
1) Vamos a Jugar: The title track, urging listeners to come and play.
2) El Médico Brujo: I think that means "Witch doctor," and that's confirmed by the use of a witch-doctorish character in the TV show performance. Are "witch doctors" politically correct these days, or are they regarded as "promoting negative stereotypes of tribal Africans"? Anyway, the main chorus of this song is something like "Ooo, Eee, Ooh Ah Ah, Ting Tang, Barrabarra Bing Bang," which I suspect is as meaningless in Spanish as in English. [Added Note: I have since found out that this is a translated version of a 1950s novelty song, "Witch Doctor" by Ross Bagdassarian.]
3) No Seas Flojo: Roughly, "Don't be a loose person," or "goof-off", "slacker", etc. It's urging listeners not to be lazy and refuse to study for school.
4) México: She's singing about how great her native country is.
5) "Papo" El Zapato: "Papo the Shoe." The main chorus here is [male voice] "Yo soy Papo El Zapato." [Tatiana] "Él es El Zapato Papo." (I am Papo the Shoe; He is the Shoe Papo.) In the TV performance, the male parts are sung by a gigantic shoe, logically enough. Not exactly lyrics of Shakespearean brilliance, but it probably appeals to the children's audience it's aimed at.
6) Veo, veo: This song runs through the vowels, asking the audience to name something beginning with each letter; some kid shouts out something wrong for each (like "elefante" for "A"), leading to a chorus of "No"s. It's done to a very catchy tune.
7) La risa de los vocales: ("The laughter of the vowels") This song continues the "vowels" theme of the last song, showing how each can be used to produce a laughing sound.
8) Chicas de Hoy: ("Girls of Today") This was actually a song from her earlier pop career (the title track to one of her albums) which she has resurrected and redone, and it's pretty good. I just today received a used cassette of that earlier album that I bought on Ebay, so I can compare the versions; the old one was somewhat slower and tamer in sound.
9) La Yenka: That word isn't even in my Spanish-English dictionary...
10) La gallina turuleca: Something about a hen, but "turuleca" is another word I can't find in the dictionary...
11) La banda Dominguera: "The Sunday band."
12) Oración: A bedtime prayer.
There are lots of pleasant songs here. Maybe you should try it on your English-speaking kids to see if they'll find it interesting enough to make them want to learn Spanish so they can find out what the songs say. Certainly, if you know any kids who speak Spanish (or are studying it), this would be a good CD for them. (Perhaps mostly for the younger kids, not because it's in any way unpleasant for older people to listen to, but because once they reach the awkward adolescent years they take great pains to show they've outgrown anything "childish," at least until 20 years later when they get nostalgic for it and buy stuff from when they were a kid at high prices on Ebay.)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dtobias
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Member: Daniel Tobias
Location: Boca Raton, FL
Reviews written: 167
Trusted by: 94 members
About Me:
A programmer and Internet developer who's been a "computer geek" for over 20 years now.
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