"Samba de Janeiro" () is a song by German pop group Bellini. It was released on 5 May 1997 in Germany and on 15 September in the United Kingdom as the lead single from their debut album of the same name (1997). The song was a hit throughout Europe, reaching number-one in Hungary and the top 10 in at least 12 countries. It interpolates the chorus of

Airto Moreira Airto Guimorvan Moreira (born August 5, 1941) is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. He is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. Coming to prominence in the late 1960s as a member of the ...

's 1972 song " Tombo In 7/4", as well as samples the drum rhythm from Moreira's " Celebration Suite". "Samba de Janeiro" won the award for best dance single at the 7th Annual Echo Awards.

Critical reception

Alan Jones from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' wrote, "Fitting in with the current vogue for all things

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

, Bellini's Samba De Janiero is maddeningly familiar from first hearing — probably because fellow

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

recording act The Heartists' single

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

is essentially the same song. Bright, breezy, commercial and a hit whose time has come."

Chart performance

"Samba de Janeiro" was very successful on the charts in Europe, peaking at number-one in Hungary and it was a number two hit in both Germany and Switzerland. It made it to the top 10 also in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Scotland and the United Kingdom, as well as on the

Eurochart Hot 100 The European Hot 100 Singles was compiled by '' Billboard'' and ''Music & Media'' magazine from March 1984 until December 2010. The chart was based on national singles sales charts in 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium (two charts separately ...

, where the single reached number three. In the UK, it peaked at number eight in its first week at the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, on September 21, 1997. It charted also on the

UK Dance Chart The UK Dance Singles Chart and the UK Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the dance music genre (e.g. house, trance, drum and bass, garage, synthpop) in record ...

, peaking at number 12. Additionally, "Samba de Janeiro" was a top 20 hit in Norway and a top 30 hit in Sweden.

Music video

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

was produced to promote the single. It was later published on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

in August 2017. As of June 2022, it has more than 25.7 million views.

Legacy

The melody of "Samba de Janeiro" was played during the

2008 UEFA European Football Championship The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

after every goal. It was also a notable theme in the ''

Samba de Amigo is a rhythm game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. The game was released in arcades in December 1999, and for the Dreamcast video game console in 2000. A port for the Wii was also developed by Gearbox Software and Escalation Studio ...

'' video game series, and is featured in crossover games such as ''

Sega Superstars Tennis ''Sega Superstars Tennis'' is a mascot sports video game developed by Sumo Digital and published by Sega. It is the second title in the ''Sega All-Stars'' series, preceded by ''Sega Superstars'' (2005), and crosses over characters, locations, a ...

'' and ''

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing is a 2010 kart racing video game, produced for Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS (February 23, 2010), and Microsoft Windows (March 3, 2010), featuring characters from multiple List of Sega video game franchises, Sega franchises. The game ...

''. The song makes several appearances in the ''

Bemani , stylized as BEMANI, is Konami's music video game division. Originally named the Games & Music Division (G.M.D.), it changed its name in honor of its first and most successful game, ''Beatmania'', and expanded into other music-based games, mos ...

'' series in Japan: *A cover of "Samba de Janeiro" by Bass Fist! featuring Boogie Girl, from ''

Dancemania ''Dancemania'' is a series of remix compilation albums by i-DANCE. The series deals primarily with dance music, especially Eurodance. Despite many of its tracks being made by various musicians from all over the world and mainly from the European ...

Bass'', appears in ''

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Bass Mix'' and ''Solo 2000''. *"Trance de Janeiro", a remix of Bellini's song, appears in ''

DDRMAX2 Dance Dance Revolution 7thMix ''DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution 6thMix'' is the 6th game in the ''Dance Dance Revolution'' series of music video games. It was released in the arcades by ''Konami'' on October 19, 2001, and for the PlayStation 2 on May 16, 2002, in Japan. ''6thMi ...

''. *A cover/remix by Lion Musashi appears in '' beatmania IIDX 13: DistorteD''. The song is included as an on-disc title in Harmonix's ''

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'' for

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

. The song is also featured as a cover by Ultraclub 90 in the dance rhythm game, ''

Just Dance 2021 ''Just Dance 2021'' is a 2020 dance rhythm game developed and published by Ubisoft. It was unveiled on August 26, 2020 during the Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase August 2020 web presentation as the twelfth main installment of the series, an ...

''. It is also used as

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

goal celebration song.

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

used it for a few years in the early 2010s. The song is still very popular in Finland. Presenters Viki and Köpi of the Finnish radio broadcaster YleX play it up to a hundred times every Friday and on certain days, such as during the charity event Naurumaraton (''Laughter Marathon'').

Track listings

* 12" single # "Samba de Janeiro" (Original Version) – 5:38 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Peter Parker Rmx) – 5:52 * CD single # "Samba de Janeiro" (Radio Edit) – 2:50 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Club Mix) – 5:38 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Vanity Back Yard Remix) – 5:18 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Peter Parker Remix) – 5:52 # "Samba de Janeiro" (John Acquaviva Remix) – 7:59 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Merlyn Remix) – 6:00 * CD maxi # "Samba de Janeiro" (Radio Edit) – 2:50 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Club Mix) – 5:38 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Vanity Back Yard Remix) – 5:18 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Peter Parker Remix) – 5:52 * Cassette single # "Samba de Janeiro" (Radio Edit) – 2:50 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Club Mix) – 5:38 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Vanity Back Yard Mix) – 5:18 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Radio Edit) – 2:50 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Club Mix) – 5:38 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Vanity Back Yard Mix) – 5:18

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1997 songs 1997 singles Eurodance songs Number-one singles in Hungary PolyGram singles Portuguese-language songs Songs about dancing Songs about Rio de Janeiro (city) {{Brazil-stub