As I started off the thread, I guess I have to start off the posting, as it has taken off with a loud thump so far.
In my novel manuscript, The New Little Princess, the Princess sings original songs and plays her grand piano at her 9th birthday party, on 30.5.25. As her guests are classmates from her international school in Guatemala City, some Guatemalan and some international, she sings two English songs and two Spanish ones, in the local version of the language. Her father, without telling her, posts his video of the songs on the replacement for the internet which starts that year: it goes viral and that is how the Princess begins her new career.
The first English song, “Can Ya Not Hear Me?”, confronts the issue that she only has a piano, not a band.
This piano'll put a smile on your face
Ya won't think about drums, guitar or bass
Come on, baby, can ya not hear me?
Come on everyone, yar feet cannot stand there
In a minute, have yar heels in the air
Come on, baby, can ya not hear me?
Chorus:
Because when I start to rock
You'd better roll, roll, roll
'Cos this new kind o' music's
Got an old soul, soul, soul
And the first time ya hear it
You will know, know, know
Yar feet cannot stop
And ya cannot stop rockin'
And you know, you know, you know
Ow!
You've lost contro-ohl!
[Musical interlude]
[Chorus]
Cannot understand it, well, that's all right
Hey! If you can feel it then ya know
It's OK
Come on, baby can ya not hear me?
Come on, baby, let it take you over
A new kind of music
Not 'Miracle Lover'
Come on, baby, can ya not hear me, me! me, me!?
[Musical interlude]
[Chorus]
Come on, baby, can ya not hear me?
Come on, baby can ya not hear me?
Come on baby can ya not hear me? [shouted]
[Final chord played twice]
The next song is Spanish, a rocked-up version of a Guatemalan children’s song, Vamos a la mar. She makes it a little more polite: “Vamonos a la mar”. The music starts like a classical Andalusian copla song about the poor, in this case about her poor Garifuna friends in Livingston, Guatemala, her family’s weekend home, where the party is. By the middle of the song, it sounds more like The Ballad of John and Yoko.
Somos pobres patojos garífunas
No podemos comer carn' a menudo
Cuando cansamos d'el pan de yuca
Queremos diferente algo
Hey! [shouted]
Vamonos a la mar, tun tun tun!
A comer pescado, tun, tun, tun
Fritito y asado, tun, tun, tun
Servido en un palo
Yeah, yeah!
A comer mucho mejor, tun, tun, tun
Convertirémos en pescador -es -es -es
Chorus:
Así que vamos a visitar la mar
Mañana
Por la mañana
Wow!
Señor langostino, entrad el tampado
Con señor' jaiba
Y señor calamar oh
Con señor' anguila
Y señor tiburon
Ahora que no puede comer me!
Entrad, entrad hasta qu' esté lleno
La olla y nuestr' estmagos
Chorus: (Repeat 3 times – a little slower each time)
Her second English song is The Love Of A Friend, which she says is her birthday present to all the friends attending her party. Whenever I post these songs on the internet, this is the favourite.
It starts with the start of the piano part of Chopin's 1st Piano Concerto, 3rd Movement. The Princess changes it more and more and then launches into her own, ballad-style melody.
Chorus:
The love of a friend
Is worth more than money
The love of a friend
Is sweeter than honey
You'll never get it from anyone else
In your family or in your love
Because a friend's love is special
To you from your friend
When all the others are gone
All your lovers are in love with others
Whom have you got?
Look around, you've got your friends
A friend doesn't need to take your heart
A friend only wants to be a place to start
Yet a friend still cries when you are apart
Because a friend needs a friend
[Musical interlude]
It's so sad, so many times
We forget to say 'Thank you'
So sad, so many times
We forget to say 'I love you'
To our friends
They're just friends
We take our friends for granted
And the seeds of sorrow are planted
Because there is nothing like a friend
Chorus
Because they're special, so special
So special, so special
Ya cannot deny it, so why're ya tryin' ta fight it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah you're special
Everyone of you is so special
To . . . me
The Princess’ fourth song is in Spanish, the title in continental Spanish: it is what people in Spain call Guatemalan girls, “Guatemalteca”. Guatemalans have a different word for themselves. It is about a Guatemalan girl who is enticed away by a rich Cuban (after the end of Communism in Cuba in 2023, the Cubans become the richest in Latin America) to America, only to find that she has been enticed to join his harem.
Chorus:
Guatemalteca
Solamente una guatemalteca
Guatemalteca
Que belleza guatemalteca!
Que belleza en la selva
Cosecha de las frutas y todos de las flores
Las frutas ella pone en las cestas
Y las flores ella pone en el pelo
Chorus
él es uno rico Cubano
Vivendo en "el valle del paradiso"
En america dond' ella gustaria voy
él dice "vamonos" y ella va
Una guatemalteca en el carro del montero
Chorus
Pero ese "valle del paradiso"
No es la clase de paraíso
Que pensabas qu' era
En su casa de allí hay
[a cappella, spoken]
Hmm . . . Qué?
Mexicana, guatemalteca
Una Cubana, un' americana
Colombiana, peruana
Ecuadoreana, argentina
Paraguaya, uruguaya
Dominicana, venezolana
Boliviana, chileana
Canaria, andaluza
Catalana, balear-ah!
Asturiana, Cathtilliana
Una vasca
Para! (shouted)
Veinte otras chavas - puchica! (shouted)
Y él dice (spoken)
"No problema - it's OK
Por que t' eres numero uno anyway"
Pero ella dice
Si, soy el uno
Si, ell' es el uno
Si, ell' es el uno
Si, ell' es el uno
Si, ell' es el uno -
Para! (shouted)
Y luego ella le da (Spoken)
Un gran cachimbazo! (shouted)
Ojo de Cristo! Puede seas tu
Una guatemalteca viviend' un zoo (repeat these 2 lines 3 times, then)
Uno, dos, tres, quatro (repeat 3 times then)
Para! (shouted)
Next, the Princess’ father tells her they have to leave for the party’s dinner reservation and she can only sing one more song. She does not know whether to make it an English song, which she thinks would be unfair to the Guatemalan guests, or a Spanish song, which would be unfair to the international guests. So she convinces her Japanese friend from school, Michiko, to help her sing a Japanese children’s song that they like to sing together: Donguri Korokoro.
Go for it!
