An Ich for an Ich: Ich + Ich and "Vom Selben Stern"

I believed that I was of German heritage for most of my life. I say believed because I now know that I don't have much, if any, German in me despite my last name. While this is another story, I was adopted and my adoptive parents believed I had Irish, English, German and French Canadian heritage. Turns out that they were right on the English and French Canadian, but not so much on the Irish and German.

However, believing this, I was attracted to all things German. My grandmother had gone to Austria twice when I was young, and I loved to look at her pictures of the houses in the Austrian Alps, houses of her relatives that she had established relationships with. I also liked looking at the different style of writing - some of it was in the old German typeset. And as soon as I could, which meant college, I started taking German. I never got over halting German, but was able to put my meager skills to the test when I spent two months backpacking around Europe and spending about a month of that time in and around Germany and Austria. I think I even got to a point where I could understand a lot of what was being said, and keep a slow conversation going. I still also have a soft spot in my heart for Germans over all other European peoples. They are quick to an opinion, very justice-oriented, in many cases are not overly expressive, but when you get to know Germans they are very good friends and will go out of their way for you. I like them a lot, and have missed going over to see my friends in Germany since I haven't been there in a long time. But my German is now very rusty again.

A German tune is our random song for the day. Vom Selben Stern is by the pop duo Ich + Ich (I and I) which is made up of Annette Humpe and Adel Tawil. Ich + Ich was formed in 2002 when Tawil, a former member of the German boy band The Boyz came into the studio to sing a song that Humpe, an icon of the New German Wave of the 1980s with the band Ideal, had written. Their first album together, the eponymous Ich + Ich, came out in 2005 and two songs reached the German Top 10. Their followup album, Vom Selben Stern (2007), reached Number 1. A third album, released in 2009, also reached the top of the German charts and yielded their first Number 1 single. Humpe writes or co-writes most of the duo's songs, and sings lead on some tracks but mostly does backing vocals, leaving most of the lead vocals to Tawil. She has heavy stage fright, so Tawil is the only one of the two on stage with the band when Ich + Ich tours. Tawil is a native German of Egyptian and Tunisian heritage. Vom Selben Stern (From the Same Star) can be found on their 2007 album of the same name.

A Little Night Magic: Jazzamor and "Nuit Magique"

Why is it that I am not enamored of French? It's a fine language, but I've never felt it to be the most beautiful language as the movies and Francophiles make it out to be. Sorry, French people and people of French descent and those who speak French. Perhaps I have a tin ear for languages, or something.

It is different for me, however, when French is used in music. When I listen to a jazz song in French, the music elevates. It doesn't especially matter if the voice singing is male or female, though I must say that given my gender I do find a female voice singing French to be very irresistible. However, French just seems to make the song that much more sophisticated, mysterious, sexy, longing, romantic, whatever.

Here's my biggest surprise. I am not a huge fan of rap and hip hop, though I like some offerings. I don't go in for the "gangsta" rap and all of the hypersexualized, treat women as objects to be passed around and used type of rap and hip hop but I do like rap and hip hop with social messages. Again, it's nothing personal against anyone. However, when I heard my first rap song in French, I didn't care. They could have been singing about anything, even reprehensible things that I would never agree with, and yet the language somehow made it different and interesting even within the conventions. I've since heard rap and hip hop in other languages as well, such as German, Dutch, Spanish, a couple of different African languages, and I find it more interesting than what I get in English.

So I'm strange, I suppose.  But, if you like songs in French you'll find today's selection very interesting.  It's not hip hop or rap (at least this time) but it's a jazz selection infused with bossa nova by a German duo named Jazzamor.  Jazzamor was founded in 2002 by Bettina Mischke and Roland Grosch.  Originally part of a jazz quartet, they decided to explore jazz in a different direction by minimizing the instrumentation and blending in bossa nova rhythms and a lounge sensibility.  Jazzamor's first album, Lazy Sunday Afternoon (2003), yielded a hit in the song Way Back, which was picked up by Nikon for an ad campaign.  Since then, they have released five more albums to date.  This song, Nuit Magique (Magical Night) is off of their 2006 CD release Travel.