A samba song for kids from Brazil, initially recorded in 1939 by Carmen Miranda, then again in 1940 as part of a legendary yet, for decades, unreleased recording Native Brazilian Music, a joint U.S./Brazilian goodwill endeavor coordinated on the Brazilian end by iconic composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. The original is an embolada, a fast-paced, often-improvised song style popular in northeastern Brazil in which vocalists challenge each other, competing lightly based on verbal and vocal ability. Found on the Smithsonian Folkways album, Music of the World’s Peoples: Vol. 3.

NOTE: The title of the song, “Bambo du Bambu,” is nonsensical, grammatically and otherwise. All Around This World decided to keep it for our samba song for kids because it was the title of a well-known recording of the song from the 1950s.

Country: Brazil
Language: Portuguese
Genre on CD: Samba

Instruments on CD: Agogo, Caixa, Cavaqhinho, Cuica, Ganza, Pandeiro, Surdo, Tamborim

LYRICS OF ALL AROUND THIS WORLD VERSION

We dance bambo du bambulelê, we dance bambo de bambulalá
We dance bambo du bambu we’re dancing the samba with our mother, brother, sister and papa, oh!We dance bambo du bambu we’re dancing the samba with our mother, brother, sister and papa, oh!
We dance samba samba samba samba samba samba samba samba samba samba samba with mama
We dance samba samba samba samba samba samba samba samba samba samba with papa

A recent version of Bambo du Bambo performed by Ney Matogrosso, with much inspiration from Carmen Miranda