Donna Summer : album covers

Hot Donna Summer

The disco/pop music-world have lost two prominent figures this month - Disco Queen Donna Summer and Robin Gibb of the BeeGees. Their music is well familiar to me and I grew up listening to them. So let's set aside our celebtration of 'Disco King' Bappi-da's music and remember the departed disco legends, starting with Donna Summer. 

Like her songs, her name itself had a feel-good effect. Besides her great singing abilities, she was a great performer, who also looked hot and sexy. Donna Summer proved that you don't have to look at picture,figure or movie to feel sensual - songs like Love to love you,baby and I feel love  can have the same effect!

Her name was part and parcel of the 80s hit-charts consistently. Among her many hits, the song 'I don't wanna get hurt'(1989) is special for me, because I discovered Donna Summer through this song. Since then there was no looking back. By and by, I discovered her earlier hits too (esp. in her collaboration with Giorgio Moroder- the pioneer of Italo-disco).Certainly she is one of my favourite singers of all time.

After dominating the hit-charts consistently for a decade and a half, Donna Summer and her brand of feel-good dance music became out-of-fashion.The next decade (90s) saw the emergence of new artists (Whitney Houston,Tracy Chapman, Mariah Carey- to name the few) and  music-forms ( such as rap, reggae,r&b,bhangra,rock-metal etc.)  Later that decade saw the re-emergence of the disco-sound with ABBA,Beegees,Boney M,Modern Talking, (Bappi-da and  Biddu in this part of the world) all gaining iconic status. So does the Disco Queen Donna Summer.

NB : Bappi-da's earliest disco-hit 'Ramba Ho'(1981) was inspired by Donna Summer (and Giorgio Moroder) super-hit 'I feel love'. As this year marks the 30-th anniversary of Bappi-da's colossal hit album Disco Dancer (1982) which made Bappi Lahiri a household name in the Indian sub-continent, if not in Asia and the whole developing world,  I'll be focusing more on Bappi-da and disco-music through out the year.

Rema & Bappi Lahiri

 

song : chandamama

singer : Rema Lahiri

composer : Bappi Lahiri

lyrics : Shailey Shailendra

album  : Dance Songs For Children (1986 -Hindi pop)

Trivia : Chandamama is a Hindi/Bengali word used for children to describe moon (literaly means 'moon-uncle'). Chandamama is also the name of a renowned children's publication.

Rema is very much a daddy's girl- in 'size' and in voice. Infact she is a female version of Bappi-da (sans jewelleries and sunglass). Like Bappi-da, she is blessed with a good voice. She sings with a constant warmth & smile (like Bappi-da) that suits perfectly for any dance number.

I am surprised that Rema didn't make it big on her own. Perhaps she started early and burned out early. Or perhaps Bappi-da never sticked to one singer for too long, and Rema was no exception. Anyway, like her daddy, the love and passion for music is unmistakable in her singing style. 

Check out Rema's songs (as adult) in albums include  Super Rema (1995) Bappiwood(2003) which can be heard in the website - www.bappilahiri.com/albums.asp