Lambada (song)

"Lambada", also known as "Chorando Se Foi (Lambada)" or "Llorando se fue (Lambada)" (both meaning "crying, he/she went away" in Portuguese and Spanish, respectively), is a song by French-Brazilian pop group Kaoma. With vocals by Brazilian vocalist Loalwa Braz, the song was released as Kaoma's debut single and included on their debut album, Worldbeat. The accompanying music video, filmed in June 1989 in Cocos beach in the city of Trancoso, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, featured the Brazilian child duo Chico & Roberta. The song became a huge hit in Europe and many parts of the world. Sung in Portuguese, it is a cover of the 1986 hit "Chorando Se Foi", by Márcia Ferreira, itself based on the Cuarteto Continental version of "Llorando se fue" (the first upbeat version of the song introducing the accordion), released in 1984 through the Peruvian record label INFOPESA and produced by Alberto Maraví; both songs were adapted from the 1981 original song by Bolivian group Los Kjarkas. At the time of release, "Lambada" was regarded as the most successful European single in the history of CBS Records, with sales of 1.8 million copies in France and more than four million across Europe. Overall, "Lambada" sold five million copies worldwide in 1989 alone, according to the New York Times. However, Kaoma did not credit the original songwriters and also made changes to Márcia Ferreira's lyrics. This ended up leading to successful plagiarism lawsuits. 1989 and 1990 are considered to be the lambada genre's boom years, although the lambada rhythm had existed for much longer. The song became one of the most covered songs worldwide.