relaxing sunday - the power of the Tibetan music: Sa Ding Ding

Apart from my beloved hip hop music, here in relaxing Sunday I have introduced quite a number of different songs and music: pop R & B singer in Taiwan, bossa nova band from France, fado from Portugual, the chanteuse from France, famous love song from Spain, etc. 

And now, here comes the power of music from the Tibetan: Sa Ding Ding (薩頂頂). 

Sa Ding Ding is a singer, musician, composer, performer and choreographer from China.  This song is named “Alive” (萬物生) in Chinese and this version is in “sanskrit (梵文)”.   

Sa Ding Ding’s new album, “Alive”, has attracted international attention.  Her sound is unique and her music is distinctive: representing an original creative passion affected by ethnic diversity and shaped by a modern China.

The song “Alive” is a show piece from Tibetan style, with the first part of the song (male singing) in Pure Tibetan music. The lyrics is in sanskrit and the music video shows very pretty scenes in Tibet.

After appreciating this song and the music video, do let me know how you feel about this new style from the East.

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relaxing sunday - Nouvelle Vague

Nouvelle Vague is a French band with the source of their songs from new wave and punk music and the use of ’60s Bossa nova-style arrangements (bossa nova meaning “new wave” or “new beat” in Portuguese) .

I love listening to their songs, especially in a relaxing Sunday afternoon. 

Would like to have a taste of their style and song?  Watch the following video:

If you want to know more about this band, do visit the following website:

relaxing sunday - Kanye West

Let’s hip-hop this weekend!

Kanye West’s new album, The Stronger, is my favourite hip hop music these few weeks, can’t hold but to share with you all.

relaxing sunday - Gente da Minha Terra

I once talked about Peter KAM in one of my gallery’s posts earlier.

To recap, Peter Kam, 金培達, is a renouned Hong Kong film scoring musician.  He is the award winner of the Silver Bear For Best Film Music kudos at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival by the Hong Kong film “Isabella” in 2006.  

The film Isalbella is one of my favourite movies last year. The film takes place in Macau (I have introduced this little town next to Hong Kong in these two weeks’ travelling posts here: Macau - the good old days and Las Vegas of the East - Macau).  It gives us a very artisitc account of the change of governance of Macau from Protugal to China in 1999, through a story of a local Macau Police.

Today, I am not going to go deep into the movie, Isabella, but I would like sharing with you a beautiful music piece chosen by Peter Kam for the movie, the Gente da Minha Terra.    

The song, Gente da Minha Terra, is originally performed by the Portugual Fado singer, Mariza Reis Nunes and included in Mariza’s album Fado em Mim in 2001. 

Fado (translated as destiny or fate) is a music genre which can be traced from the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. It is characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor. The music is usually linked to the Portuguese word saudade, … (Home-sickness has an approximate meaning. It is a kind of longing, and conveys a complex mixture of mainly nostalgia, but also sadness, pain, happiness and love).  - Wikipedia

This beautiful Portugual Fado song, Gente da Minha Terra, is full of nostalgic emotions with a sense of sadness.  No wonder that Peter Kam has won the Best Film Music kudos, this song matches with the film Isabella perfectly, for its nostalgic feelings, the sadness and its origin in the Portugual. 

Let’s also appreciate the original version performed by the Portugual Fado singer, Mariza.

O Gente da minha Terra
Lyrics by Amalia Rodrigues
Music by Tiago Machado

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Related post:

• sophie’s gallery

relaxing sunday - la vie en rose

Lyrics by Edith Piaf
Music by Louiguy
enr. 9 octobre 1946

“La vie en rose” (French for “Life in Pink”) was the signature song of the French chanteuse, Édith Piaf (1915-1963).  The song is a classique and has been performed by numerous artists all over the world. 

Edith Piaf, was one of the greatest and famous chanteuses.  She was called the “little sparrow” (”Piaf”, French coloquial) due to her heartbreaking voice.  Her audience commented that “you made me cry, …… you are the voice of paris. ”

Her song, la Vie en Rose, means “the life in pink”.  However, the life of Edith was not that “rosy” and she died young in the age of 48.  The director, Oliver Dahan, has protraited the tragic life of Edith in the new film,  La Môme (Eng name: la Vie en Rose), which has just been released. 

The film is now on in Hong Kong and I would definitely watch this film.  If you are interested in this film, you may also wish to read:

• The official website of La Vie En Rose
• Interview with the director, Oliver Dahan
• Interview with the main actress, Marion Cotillard

relaxing sunday - Historia de un Amor

These days, a romantic and beautiful melody keeps coming up to my mind.  Then I recall that it is the Historia de un Amor.  Let’s paint this Sunday with a brush of romantic tone.

Historia de un Amor (Spanish for “a love story”) is a Spanish song about a woman’s old love written by Panamanian songwriter Carlos Eleta Almaran. It was written after the death of his brother’s wife. It is also in the soundtrack of a 1956 Mexican movie of the same name. The song tells of a woman’s suffering after her love has disappeared.

 Lyrics

The song in its Chinese version is named 我的心裡只有你没有他 (Chinese for “I don’t have anybody else in my heart but you”).  It is very popular and has been performed by many artists over different period of time.   The lyrics is about the a person missing his / her true love, who has left. 

The latest version of this song could be found in a Hong Kong cartoon movie named “Mudull, Prince de la Bun (菠蘿油王子)” and the song is performed by a Cantopop band “At 17“.  This cartoon, together with the song, is a very touching piece of work. 

relaxing sunday - can’t forget about you

for this relaxing sunday’s evening, how about pouring yourself a glass of wine and tune on your hi-fi to reward yourself for all the things you have achieved this week.

oops!  don’t want anymore chill-out music today and wanna find something to cheer up your mood a bit, to have a little bit of rhythm, yet to add a little taste of classic and elegance?

here is a good choice i would like recommending to you: “can’t forget about you“.  this song is in Nasir Jones’s album “hip hop is dead“ released in Dec 2006.  it interestingly mixes a sample of Nat King Cole ’s famous song: “unforgettable” into the hip hop rhythm, not only creating a new listening experience, and also saluting to the all time classic music piece of Nat King Cole. 

after listening to the “can’t forget about you”, you would certainly miss the classic “unforgettable”.  let’s touch up this sunday with this wonderful piece of music. this version is a duet with his daughter, Natalie Cole, created after 40 years of Nat King Cole’s death, which is a beautiful and touching re-presentation of the classical work.

here are the CDs you may probably be interested in:
Nasir Jone’s Hip Hop is Dead
Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable: with love
Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable

relaxing sunday

today, i would like to share with you a very poetic and romantic music piece written and performed by Jay Chou, a talent and popular song writer and singer in Taiwan. 

this beautiful song is the main theme for Jay’s first directed movie, ”the Secret”.  while i would talk more about this movie tomorrow, let’s first listen to the song, “不能說的秘密 (a secret which cannot be told)”:

to tell you more, Jay is an artist famous for being the song writer, the singer and the composer for all his albums.   he writes very good R & B songs, he sings very well and he raps brilliantly.  apart from all these, he is an excellent pianist.  In this song, “不能說的秘密 (a secret which cannot be told)”, i would like to draw your attention to the beautifully written undertone of the piano, which is also played by Jay himself.  i love the piano undertone most, which is very poetic and soothing. 

i have attempted an English translation of the lyrics for you, hope that you could appreciate the beauty in this song.

the cooled coffee has been removed
my supressed emotions have been left behind
my wish to go back to our good old days
is clearly written on my face

it was not the rainy day
it was the moment when we sought shelter under the rain
which was the most beautiful
but memory has gone sour

you told me that when we let go of our love
we could go ahead
and didn’t need to regret for what we had lost

you stopped me from saying goodbye
and i have to imagine you were still by my side
before you had disappeared

you told me that when we let go of our love
we could go further
maybe it’s fate that made the two of us met
and it’s fate that made our love only lasted for this autumn

now that the autumn leaves have fallen all over the ground
somebody please tell me how i can re-collect
all these fallen leaves
and our sweet memories