Expert: Bong Santos - 1/7/2010

Question
Hi Bong,

Long time, no hear from you... still I do enjoy reading your answers to the questions you were replying to and they are great!!

I do have a question, there was an upbeat 80s song which is sang in either French or Italian... I really cannot figure the song title nor the singer.  I always heard that song during Friday Madness in 89.9, which I can remember it right is quite popular here in the Philippines...

Hope to hear from you... thanks in advance!


-  Aris  :)

Answer
Dear Aris,

Thanks for your kind words!

You know, it's quite hard to name a song without a bit of a clue. I can name a few "foreign-sounding" songs but I cannot assure you it's the one you have in mind.

You said it's either French or Italian. LA VIE EN ROSE is a French song, orignally the signature song of EDITH PIAF, a famous version was recorded by GRACE JONES in 1977 but re-released in 1980, 1982 & 1985. There's also LIBERTE by GILBERT MONTAIGNE from 1989. LANCA PERFUME by RITA LEE was not an Italian or French song but Portuguese. PROBLEMES D'AMOUR by ALEXANDER ROBOTNICK from 1983 was Italian.

Those are some of the songs that made it big here. There are still more but I don't think they ever got airplay here.

Maraming salamat po!!

BONG M. SANTOS
Manila, Philippines