Sunday, November 30, 2008

Toad on the Road: Vietnamese Pop Music

Here is the Vietnam Top 5 based on what we have heard on the radio on buses and in restaurants.

5. Celine Dion (any track, they are all fantastic when blasted at full volume in a location you cannot escape from like a a 7 hour bus ride)
4. Vietnamese Pop featuring the lyric: Vietnam, Vietnam and Bam, Bam, Bam
3. Vietnamese Pop featuring the lyric: Louie Louie
2. Barbra Streisand: Woman in Love
1. Carpenters: Yesterday Once More

Barbra was ahead until we heard Yesterday Once More yet again whilst supping mojitos on the roof bar of the Rex Hotel, Saigon - a classic Graham Greene of a place that was only enhanced by the ghost of Karen Carpenter.

A special shout out should also go to Gloria Estefan. There we were with our native guide Chi, hiking across rice paddies in northern vietnam when out of nowhere blasts Gloria singing something slow and sad. Old GloGlo was Chi's celphone ringtone.

Tracks I have not yet heard but would like to:

Kim Wilde: Cambodia www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI2K8d-52rE

2 comments:

Adrienne Jenkins said...

Love it. Sort of like hearing Queen all the time in Barcelona.

Unknown said...

Okay, coincidence or not: we played the Carpenter's greatest hits CD today. I am finding this very creepy....
I have fond memories of being in Bangkok and Bali shortly after the movie "Speed" was released and there were posters of my beloved Keanu everywhere. He is to Hollywood what Cheezies (yes, my beloved Hawkins Cheezies) are to junk food.

Shriny