Comments for "Beautiful Song from Congo "Na Lingui Yo"" Video at VideoSift.com

By sbchapm

sbchapm (http://livemusic.videosift.com/member/sbchapm) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 21:36:28 -0700

From Tube: A group of disabled Congolese musicians is threatening to take the United Nations peacekeeping mission to court over a song for last year's elections.
Let's Go and Vote was played repeatedly in the run-up to last year's historic polls on radio and TV stations.

In a country where a third of the population is illiterate and with crumbling infrastructure, the song is credited with boosting turn-out to 70%.

But the eight members of the Staff Benda Bilili band were paid $50 each.

The UN has denied any responsibility for paying royalties.

On the video clip that became a hit, the street musicians appeared in their wheelchairs, dancing the rumba and urging people to "go and vote" for a brighter future in DR Congo.

"It is thanks to our song that people went and voted but Monuc [UN Mission in DR Congo] did not pay us and we are still forced to sleep and beg in the streets. This is slavery," said band leader Nzale Makembo.

'Fraud'

Most of the band are polio victims, who sleep rough next to the barbed wire fence which surrounds the Monuc headquarters in Kinshasa's dirty city centre.

By sbchapm

sbchapm (http://livemusic.videosift.com/member/sbchapm) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 21:37:01 -0700

See here too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IosyMU0gTaI

By siftbot

siftbot (http://livemusic.videosift.com/member/siftbot) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:53:02 -0700

Moving this video to sbchapm's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 3 days.

By sbchapm

sbchapm (http://livemusic.videosift.com/member/sbchapm) — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:48:32 -0700

*promote

By siftbot

siftbot (http://livemusic.videosift.com/member/siftbot) — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:48:32 -0700

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued - promote requested by original submitter sbchapm.

By siftbot

siftbot (http://livemusic.videosift.com/member/siftbot) — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:53:02 -0700

Moving this video to sbchapm's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 3 days.

By sbchapm

sbchapm (http://livemusic.videosift.com/member/sbchapm) — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:30:23 -0700

*promote

By siftbot

siftbot (http://livemusic.videosift.com/member/siftbot) — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:30:23 -0700

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued - promote requested by original submitter sbchapm.

By siftbot

siftbot (http://livemusic.videosift.com/member/siftbot) — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:27:18 -0700

Tags for this video have been changed from 'music, polio, kinshasa, byrne, eno' to 'music, polio, kinshasa, byrne, eno, funky, sex machine, bikes' - edited by Eklek

By kronosposeidon

kronosposeidon (http://kronosposeidon.videosift.com) — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:13:45 -0700

I love finding good *obscure music from the farthest corners of the globe. Thanks for not giving up on this, sb. I only wish I had seen it sooner.

By siftbot

siftbot (http://livemusic.videosift.com/member/siftbot) — Sat, 10 May 2008 17:13:46 -0700

Adding video to channels (Obscure) - requested by kronosposeidon.

By legacy0100

legacy0100 (http://livemusic.videosift.com/member/legacy0100) — Sat, 10 May 2008 19:54:00 -0700

Wow, that was some serious groove.

By sbchapm

sbchapm (http://livemusic.videosift.com/member/sbchapm) — Sat, 10 May 2008 23:21:46 -0700

Yay! I thought you guys might like it if you ever got to see it. Third time's the charm.