Tube of the summer of 1989, La Lambada has become a real social phenomenon. Associated with a torrid dance, this song marked the spirits and the memories. A curious story for this hit of Bolivian origin and interpreted by the group Kaoma ...
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A very sensual couple dance
During the summer of 1989, an air of Brazil blows over France. A song called La Lambada hits the airwaves, bringing with it a new, very sensual dance that features couples, body to body waving hips and shoulders, occasionally wedging one knee between the legs of the other. To reach us, this song and this dance benefited from a nice combination of circumstances.
Indeed, the previous year, a French filmmaker Olivier Lorsac and a music producer, Jean Karakos, on vacation in Bahia, discovered this title, La Lambada , performed by a local artist, Marcia Ferreira. This song, which is in fact an adaptation of a title by a Bolivian group, made a triumph in Brazil. The two French decide to bring her back to France.
A title broadcast 250 times on TF1 in the summer of 1989
Back in Paris, Olivier and Jean set up a group with former musicians of Touré Kunda and a Brazilian singer, Loalwa Braz. This group, called Kaoma, therefore records La Lambada . The CBS label accepts to release the 45 rpm record and the mini-single. A synergy is then set up between the record company, Orangina and the young private channel TF1. At that time, Dominique Cantien, director of varieties and entertainment for the channel, fell in love with the song that his companion at the time, Nicolas Hulot, had already told him about. She therefore accepts the partnership and the clip will be broadcast 250 times on the air in July and August 1989, even serving as an interlude between each program.
In a few weeks, La Lambada became the hit of the summer of 1989 and sold more than 1,735,000 copies in France, before becoming an international success.
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For the anecdote, Olivier Lorsac had declared himself author of La Lambada with SACEM under the pseudonym of Chico d'Oliveira. He therefore collected all copyright, amounting, just for France and over a single year, to 6 million francs. With the title's worldwide success, the two true Bolivian authors, the Hermosa brothers, woke up and sued through their own record company, EMI. Result of the races, Olivier Lorsac had to return the money, claiming in his defense that he had been abused by a Brazilian publisher, who allegedly told him that the real original author was dead.