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Aie a Mwana

"Aie a Mwana"
Banana aam.jpg
Single by Bananarama
from the album Deep Sea Skiving
B-side Dubwana
Released 28 September 1981
Format 7" single
12" single
Recorded June 1981
Genre Pop, new wave
Length 3:33
Label Demon Records
Writer(s) Daniel Vangarde
Jean Kluger
Producer(s) Paul Cook
John Martin
Sara Dallin
Bananarama singles chronology
"Aie a Mwana"
(1981)
"It Ain't What You Do"
(1982)

"Aie a Mwana" is the best-known title of a song originally written by the French-Belgian writing and production team of Daniel Vangarde and Jean Kluger.

It was first recorded in 1971 under the title "Aieaoa" on the album Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki. In 1975, a version with predominantly Swahili lyrics by Black Blood, an African group recording in Belgium, was released as "A.I.E. (A Mwana)". The Swahili version also appeared in a football video game, Pro Evolution Soccer 2011. In 1981, "Aie a Mwana" became the first single released by English girl group Bananarama. In 2010, with an identical melody but new lyrics and released as "Helele", it became an official song for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, in a version by Velile and Safri Duo.

The original song was called "Aieaoa", and was featured on the pseudo-Japanese dance album Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki, which was released in 1971 by the French writing and production team of Daniel Vangarde and Jean Kluger.

In 1975, Belgian record producer Michel Jaspar - who had been born in what was then the Belgian Congo - was contacted by Zairean singer Steve Banda Kalenga, who had formed a band with friends from Angola. Jaspar renamed the band Black Blood and, with fellow musician Ralph Benatar and with the encouragement of Kluger, produced the band's first single in Belgium. The A-side was "Marie Therese", written by Jaspar, and the B-side was a version of "Aieaoa" which Jaspar re-wrote with lyrics in Swahili, apart from the words "Aie a Mwana" themselves which are meaningless. It was the B-side, "A.I.E. (A Mwana)", which became successful, reaching #1 in Belgium and France, as well as being a hit in other parts of the world.

After Bananarama's success in the UK with their version of the song, Vangarde and Kluger, who by then had found international success with the Gibson Brothers and Ottawan, also recorded versions of the same song with both Ottawan ("A.I.E. Is My Song", with English lyrics, 1982) and La Compagnie Créole ("A.I.E A Moun'la", 1987).


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