Legendary South African songstress Miriam Makeba dies on stage at 76

Miriam Makeba, the legendary South African songstress known as "Mama Africa" and "The Empress of African Song," died after collapsing on stage during a concert in Italy.

Makeba, who gained fame and renown worldwide, was exiled from her own country for 31 years during apartheid. In exile, she sang for such leaders as President John F. Kennedy and performed with such musical greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte, and Paul Simon.

In a statement issued after her death, Nelson Mandela said, "Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."

He further noted that "Whilst this great lady was alive, she would say: 'I will sing until the last day of my life.' "

She was the first African woman to win a GRAMMY Award for Best Folk Recording in 1966, along with Harry Belafonte, for "An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba." The album voiced the plight of black South Africans under apartheid.

Makeba's exile began when she starred in the anti-apartheid documentary Come Back Africa in 1959. The following year, when she attempted to come back to South Africa to attend her mother's funeral, she found that her passport had been revoked. She would not be allowed to come back to South Africa until the end of apartheid and Nelson Mandela's release from prison 30 years later.

Makeba's life in exile was not without controversy - in the early sixties she married black power activist Stokely Carmichael and decades later, supported dictators such as Togo's Gnassingbe Eyadema and the Ivory Coast's Félix Houphouet-Boigny, performing at their political campaigns even as they were brutally suppressing the democratic movements that were sweeping West Africa in the early 90s.

We played "The Click Song," one of Makeba's most famous songs, at our wedding.

Now, not just one but two famous female singers have died recently, within a week of each other. It MUST have something to do with the moon being in Scorpio ...

Talented Singer Yma Sumac Dies at 86

The amazingly talented Peruvian singer Yma Sumac has passed away at the age of 86.

Born in Cajamarca, Peru in 1922, as Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo, she claimed to be a descendant of the Incan emperor Atahualpa, and around this legend she constructed an exotic, mysterious image as an Incan princess, which she cultivated for decades. Her stage name was first Ymma Sumack (Quechua for "pretty flower"), which was later changed to Yma Sumac when she came to the United States and signed her first recording contract with Capitol Records in 1950. Her voice covered 4 1/2 octaves.

Some sources credit her with singing the highest note ever recorded in the female voice, in the track "Chuncho" on one of the many LPs she produced in her heyday during the 1950s.

She is responsible for introducing Peruvian folk music to an American audience and the world music scene in general, and intepreting it for a modern audience in her own entrancing style.



















I am pleased to say my mom introduced me to her when I was a kid. One night when I was sitting in front of the TV, we came to a channel that was airing Secret of the Incas with Yma and Charlton Heston, and I still remember how excited my mom got when Yma Sumac made her appearance. "Ooo! ooo! There's Yma Sumac. Listen to her sing! Isn't she somethin'?"

I giggled at her campy kookiness but, like my mother, I was entranced by her voice, which she could fashion into a warbling nightingale with one note and into a growling jungle cat the next. I'd never heard anyone do anything like that with their voice before, and have never heard anything like it since.

Que descanse en paz.

It rubs the lotion on its skin ...

OK people, get ready for one HILARIOUS song and video ... "Lotion" by a UK band called The Greenskeepers, done in honor of Buffalo Bill of Silence of the Lambs. The video consists of a montage of clips from the movie, skillfully edited to make it look like the characters in the movie are jamming to the song. The song itself was featured on a recent episode of Grey's Anatomy and got such an enthusiastic viewer response that it will be featured on a CD compilation of songs from the show. Be forewarned that if you are playing this video while at work, you'll have to pretty much kiss your productivity goodbye for at least the next few minutes. The song is pretty damn catchy, so you and your co-workers will be singing along with it - and playing the video over and over again in between laughing fits.

Now sit back and watch the video ... or else it gets the hose again ... you don't want the hose again, do you?!?!?!!!!

A cheeri-o and thank you to The Greenskeepers for making this video. You guys are feckin' brilliant!! :-)

(Click here to start the fun)