Bruce Melodie & Shaggy: “When She’s Around (Funga Macho)” (2023)
It can take just one artist to break down barriers of taste. It can take just one song to stretch a listener’s music appreciation by the breadth of a continent.
Rwandan singer Itahiwacu Bruce is that type of singer. And “When She’s Around” is that type of song.
Over the years artists like Juan Luis Guerra (Dominican merengue and bachata), Trio Mandili (Eastern European folk music), and Julieta Venegas (Latin pop) have helped this writer overcome any limitations a classic rock/American pop upbringing would impose and embrace whole new worlds of sounds.
Artists such as the Proclaimers, Brave Combo and the Latvian Women’s Choir didn’t hurt, either.
Just as one ought to have playlists on hand for every mood and occasion, a true lover of music should endeavor to live in a wide, disparate world of sounds and musical parlance.
And I’m not saying “When She’s Around” is exotic or any great stretch for an American ear.
But that’s the point. The song is sung mostly in English and has a tasty hook. And Jamaican reggae singer Shaggy plays an ambassador, adding a note of familiarity.
But songs like this can bridge us to the exotic. The fresh. The new sounds that can be the antidote to four more minutes of your life spent listening to Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” for the 2,316th time.
Sorry, Bruce–not sorry.
My only hope, as always with artists making a bid for international notoriety, is that they don’t become international by sounding international; that is, compromising what makes the sounds distinctive and representative of their corner of the world.
There are already signs that Bruce Melodie may be going in that direction. Let’s hope as some of us are encouraged to discover his roots he doesn’t forget them.
Every Moment Has A Song 