Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Modern Talking Mongolian Style

I came to Mongolia when I was 16. Before then I had never heard of ABBA, George Michael or these guys:

Modern Talking

It didn't take me long to realize that Mongolians love these musical gems (and to start humming along to their songs!). My friend Amanda and I roll our eyes because every year around Christmas the "Last Christmas I gave you my heart" song (by George Michael) makes it to every radio station everywhere you go. They play it over and over in the departments stores like Christmas music. Second and third graders learn it in English class and sing it loud and proud. It's really sickening.

So, the other day I was taking a microbus (synonym for "sardine can") to another part of town when the guy that lets people in and out at the door, started singing along to"Touch By Touch" by Modern Talking. It was one of those moments when I just wished Amanda or Hetee could be there so we could have a good laugh. Alas, I was alone and quite sure I looked like a weirdo myself, trying to stifle the giggles.

Ok, so this was one of those "you had to be there" stories but in order to give you a better picture of what I saw, picture someone like an old grungy, Mongolian looking truck driver singing in a high pitched voice "Touch by touch, you're my all time lover. Skin to skin, come under my cover."

I know, it kind of made my skin crawl, too.

Too funny!

4 comments:

Gombojav Tribe said...

That "Last Christmas" song drives me crazy!! And the runner up for the worst holiday song ever (that is played continually on Mongolian radio) is that ABBA classic "Happy New Year, Happy New Year, may we all have our hopes, our will to try, if we don't we might as well as well lay down and die...."

Really puts you in a festive mood, doesn't it?

Anonymous said...

Hey I think some of them not whole mongolians!

Anonymous said...

i'm Tuff, a mongolian in miami.
i'm glad you mentioned "modern talking."
when i first came to the USA, it was really a shock that americans didn't know anything about what music the world is or was listening to, what are the fashionable clothes, what is the "in" product in the world. No one was heard of "Boney M", Raffaella Carra, Dschinghis khan, Smokie etc.
it often feels like to me very isolated part of the world.

~ Amanda ~ said...

oh my, i am laughing out loud reading this, does that count?