I had no idea that every four years, the European pop music market was glutted with vaguely Latin-themed dance songs extolling the virtues of soccer and trying hard and working together and other affirmations that have been ripped out of a hackneyed 1980s motivational handbook, but here we are!
Today’s entry is from Finland’s Teflon Brothers, who have a tenuous Eurovision connection – they performed at the 2013 Finnish national finals at the interval act.
In 2014, the Teflon Brothers reached number one on the Finnish charts with their ode to Argentinian footballer Diego Maradona ‘Maradona ’86’. (And before you ask, yes I know who Maradona is without googling. He was once rumoured to be one of Madonna’s boyfriends – why wouldn’t I know him?)
And in 2018, to capitalise on this year’s World Cup fever, the Teflon Brothers have released a new version of the same song, but in Spanish!
I applaud their ingenuity, I really do. But in an attempt to turn the song from a mid-1980s synth pop ripoff to a Despacito-style Latin hit, they’ve lost a lot of what made the song fun to begin with. I mean, I get that the Teflon Brothers are still having fun, recording a song in a Helsinki nightclub surrounded by a bunch of scantily clad women, but it doesn’t translate. The cheekiness that was evident in the original song and video has petered out, to the point where we don’t know whether the Teflon Brothers are satirizing the Pitbull lifestyle, or aspiring to it.
Disappointing! Bring me back some real pop music, please!
dudepoints.fun 