Lambada

Who could forget Lambada from the early 1990s? Everybody and their neighbour was shaking to this great little song. It differs from today's supposed “era-defining hits” in one important respect: this was actually music, unlike some of the modern creations that are difficult even to call music – Gangnam Style and friends... but that is another subject. Let us stay with Lambada, which for a while seemed to be playing absolutely everywhere and became very easy to grow tired of. Even so, I still remember it as a good song: its light, catchy melody is supported by a simple but clever chord accompaniment and exotic instrumentation.

The little boy in this picture looks remarkably like the fellow from the 1970s who sang Hafanana. The boy is still involved in music today, plays guitar and sings, and has fond memories of both the song and the video. Much less is known about the girl. Apparently she was frequently harassed and for that reason now lives a completely private life.

In case somebody somehow does not remember or know the song – is that even possible? – here it is:

At first I simply strummed the chords along with the song, which I think sounds quite good on ukulele. Then I thought it would be more interesting to play the melody above the chords as well, so recently I worked out how the two might fit together. You can see and hear my first attempts in the video below:

There is still plenty for me to polish, because this is a relatively fresh arrangement and several passages need a lot more practice. But I was so pleased when the whole thing finally came together that I decided I wanted to show you how to play it as soon as possible. I hope it makes you want to let your fingers dance the lambada over the strings . Like most fingerstyle arrangements, this is not specifically aimed at beginners. I tried to demonstrate everything slowly and several times; I hope it is easy to follow: