"Haba Haba" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Single by Stella Mwangi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
from the album Kinanda | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Released | 28 January 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Recorded | 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genre | Pop, dance, hip hop | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Length | 3:00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Label | Mwangi Records | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Writer(s) | Big City Beyond51 Stella Mwangi |
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Stella Mwangi singles chronology | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"Haba Haba" (English: "Little by Little", Norwegian: "Steg for steg") is a song performed by Norwegian-Kenyan singer-songwriter Stella Mwangi. It was Norway's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 and is included on her second studio album Kinanda (2011). The song was chosen using a mix of televoting, jury votes and an audience vote at the Oslo Spektrum during the national Eurovision pre-selection show Melodi Grand Prix on 12 February 2011. It was made available for digital download a day before its initial performance in the third semi-final. "Haba Haba" debuted at number nine in its first week of release, before progressing to number one for four consecutive weeks in the Norwegian singles chart. On 10 May 2011, it competed in the first half of semi-final 1 and performed second on the night.
"Haba Haba" is a pop song with afro-fusion influence, written by Stella and composed by Beyond51 and Big City. The song is bilingual, with lyrics in English and Swahili, marking the first time Swahili or any other East African language was performed at the contest. The lyrics describe how "a journey of a million miles starts with one single step". It is a positive, motivational song about how anyone can be whatever they want to be and tells the story of Mwangi as a young girl listening to her grandmother ("When I’s a little girl my grandma told me/ That I could be just anything that I wanted to"), who teaches her that she should appreciate the smaller things in life ("When I’s a little girl my grandma told me/ That it’s the little things in life that’s gone make me happy"). The song is based upon actual events as Stella once complained to her grandmother that things did not move fast enough, gaining the reply Haba haba, Hujaza Kibaba, which is Swahili for "little by little fills the measure", equivalent to the proverb "slow and steady wins the race".