Europe-themed week this time! We'll start with a user request. Their titles may not be familiar to everyone, but they're quite popular songs around the world!
Koi no Maiyahi (恋のマイアヒ) O-Zone| Version |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | x3 (101) | x3 (146) | x5 (251) | x8 (368) |
Taiko 8, Taiko PS2 6, Taiko PSP 2
130
none
maiahiKoi no Maiyahi is untranslatable to Japanese, the word 'maiyahi' being a Romanian word repeated many times throughout the course of this song. What is it and where is it from actually? This song is actually one of the many, many cover versions of the Romanian song "Dragostea Din Tei", composed and performed by the Moldavian pop group O-Zone. Released in Moldavia in 2003, the song was written and composed by the group's main singer Dan Bălan, and was sung by the whole band (Bălan, Arsenie Todiraş, and Radu Sârbu.) Its title means "Love from the Linden Trees" (hence 'koi' in the Japanese title), but it's more known casually as 'the Numa Numa song' or 'Mai Ya Hee' around the world.
On Spring 2004, Dragostea Din Tei was spread across Europe, where it became one of the year's smash hits. In some European countries like Sweden and Italy, the O-Zone version of the song was replaced by a dancing cover performed by Haiduchii (artist name for Paula Mitrache), which it reached the highest rank of both national charts of the same year.
The song then went viral throughout the world because of its infectious tune and lyrics, even though no one understood them; tons of remixes, cover versions, like this one, and even parodies have been spawn around the world; from those, one remarkable one is the parody "Marica tù" by Los Morancos (also known as 'pluma pluma gay', for its references to homosexuality). A worldwide Internet phenomenon - the Numa Numa dances - began in the same year, featuring silly videos of random people dancing under O-Zone's greatest single.
Even in Japan the song was well-known, hence this Taiko porting. Like other slow songs, the chart has sinple clusters and intuitive patterns, but may give training players some trouble towards the end, where the 'numa numa' chorus is filled with short ddkkddkk streams.
U~U~Umauma (ウッーウッーウマウマ（゜∀゜）) Caramelldansen| Version | | | | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taiko 12 to 14 | x4 (151) | x5 (215) | x5 (399,341,294) | x8 (508) |
| Taiko 0 to K | x3 (151) | x3 (215) | x5 (399,341,294) | x7 (508) |
Taiko 12 (not counting Asian version), 12.5 to 14, 0 to K 132 none umaumaAnother Variety song with an untranslatable title...? Unlike Koi no Maiyahi, this one is a big hit in Japan! This is Caramelldansen, the first track and the lead single of Swedish music group Caramell's 2001 album, named Supergott. The title is Swedish for 'The Caramell Dance', referring to the dance exclusively made and performed by the group.
Caramelldansen is known in Japan as "Uma uma dance" (ウマウマダンス), because the lyrics in the chorus "u-u-ua-ua" were misheard as ウッーウッーウマウマ ("u- u- umauma"), sometimes written with the emoticon (ﾟ∀ﾟ) added to the end for effect, and the same emote is used in the Taiko song title. Since the lyrics are in Swedish, trust the Japanese to come up with their own nonsense interpretations of the lyrics (happens to all popular non-Japanese songs). An example: "Dansa med oss, klappa era händer" ("Dance with us, clap your hands"), as "Barusamiko-su Yappa irahen de" ("(I) don't want any Balsamic vinegar after all" in the Kansai dialect).
This song's popularity did not start from the original, but by an Internet meme, started in 2006 by the imageboard 4chan. Referencing 2002 Japanese visual novel Popotan's characters (and to its related 2003 anime show), someone captured images of the main characters - Mai and Mii - doing a hip swing dance with their hands over their heads to imitate rabbit ears, matching it with the chorus of a sped up version of Caramelldansen - known as the Speedycake Remix - which is done by the same singers of Caramell, Malin and Katia. The meme's worldwide boom happened between 2006/2007, as emerging video hosting websites like Youtube and NicoVideo were literally overwhelmed by any kind of Videogame/Anime characters performing the 'Uma Uma Dance', also being one of the early main causes of criticism for the role of such sites as "chasms filled with endless versions of Caramelldansen".
The song's "legendary" fame still lives with covers made in other languages (mostly English) and many releases into rhythm game franchises. Taiko no Tatsujin is no exception, being one of the most wanted arcade-exclusive songs to date for the Variety genre besides Yawaraka Sensha Ura (which went on to finally be included in 3DS2 (DLC) and PS Vita1, but Caramelldansen was removed since Kimidori ver. Awww.). The version used in Taiko is not the original, but the Speedycake remix. Its Oni mode features long successions of single notes and small clusters, but is nothing too troublesome aside from the odd 5-note cluster. Caramelldansen is also one of the few Variety songs to feature the Forked Path gameplay in one of its modes.
