Aie a Mwana

Infobox Single
Name = Aie a Mwana


Artist = Bananarama
from Album = Deep Sea Skiving
B-side = Dubwana
Released = September 1981
Format = 7" single
Recorded = June 1981
Genre = Pop, New Wave
Length =
Label = Demon Records
Writer = Daniel Vangarde
Jean Kluger
Producer = Paul Cook
John Martin
Sara Dallin
Last single = —
This single = "'Aie a Mwana"
(1981)
Next single = "T'ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)"
(1982)"Aie a Mwana" is the first single released by English girl group Bananarama. Group members originally recorded the track as a demo and ultimately it was the demo version that was pressed onto the record. Originally released as a stand-alone single, "Aie a Mwana" was eventually added to the group's debut album "Deep Sea Skiving" two years later.

Bananarama's previous experience in a recording studio was as background vocalists on the Department S b-side "Solid Gold Easy Action", a T. Rex cover. Prompted by friend and early supporter Paul Cook (of Sex Pistols), Bananarama decided to release their own single. As they had been including several cover versions in their repertoire (including later hit "Venus"), they decided on an obscure 1975 disco song by Black Blood, supposedly sung in Swahili. Group members Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward had to learn to sing the song phonetically. The "tropical" nature of the single inspired the group's name: "banana" coming from the vibe of "Aie a Mwana" and "-rama" added to the end as a nod to an early Roxy Music song called "Pyjamarama".

Issued by independent label Demon Records, "Aie a Mwana" managed to climb to number ninety-two in the UK singles chart. Write-ups in the English music and fashion press ("NME, The Face") caught the attention of Terry Hall, who invited Bananarama to sing on his new vocal group Fun Boy Three's next single.

Origins of the song and other versions

In fact, the original song was not Swahili at all. Originally it was called "Aieaoa", and was featured on the pseudo-Japanese dance album "Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki" which had been released in 1971 by the French writing and production team of Daniel Vangarde and Jean Kluger [ [http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/05/the_road_from_y.html WFMU's Beware of the Blog: The Road From Yamasuki to Bananarama ] ] . In 1975 [Some sources state 1973] Belgian group [Some sources state that the group came from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but this may be a different group of the same name. Other sources state that the group were from the Congo, but recorded in Belgium.] Black Blood recorded the version with Swahili lyrics and a more African vibe, called "A.I.E. (A Mwana)", heard by Bananarama.

After Bananarama's success in the UK, Vangarde and Kluger, who by then had found international success with the Gibson Brothers and then Ottawan, also recorded versions of the same song with both Ottawan ("A.I.E. Is My Song", with English lyrics, 1982) [ [http://www.bide-et-musique.com/song/1879.html Aie Is My Song (par Ottawan) - fiche chanson - B&M ] ] and La Compagnie Créole ("A.I.E A Moun'la", 1987).

References

Charts