Angelique Kidjo – Move On Up (Curtis Mayfield Cover)

Whilst it’s probably a manifestation of the reason that England are always shit in international tournaments, I have to say that I found most of the Germany-Spain semi-final rather dull. Yes Spain passed the ball amazingly well, but they seemed to spend most of the first half doing so in order to stop the Germans playing the attacking football that has lit-up this World Cup to date. I know that’s the idea, but as a neutral it rather sucks.

Add to that the depressing sight of Shearer, Lawrenson, Linkeker and Hansen having a licence fee funded holiday without providing any sort of insight in return, and it was really a rather soul destroying night. Until the credits rolled that is.

Because there then followed a marvellous semi-acoustic cover version of Curtis Mayfield’s 70s funk anthem Move On Up, with the whole thing given an African twist. As always, the name of the track wasn’t announced in the credits (they can do it in movies, why the hell can’t they do it with TV shows?) and so I despaired of finding out the name of the track, untill Twitter (in the shape of @JohnnyLaird) stepped in to save the day:

@ciaranj It’s Angelique Kidjo http://youtu.be/wtEkbYhtW3Q$

And, blow me, if he wasn’t right. Unfortunately the version on YouTube appears to be the official version, from her recent album Oyo, and therefore include the over-the-top wailings of honourary African Bono*, as well as the rather less annoying John Legend, as opposed to the far more haunting version played at the end of Match of the Day.

Even so, it’s still a belter of a cover. And whilst it’s hard to top perfection (and the original Curtis Mayfield version of Move On Up is about as close to musical perfection as you’re ever likely to find), Angelique Kidjo’s cover isn’t half bad.

UPDATE: Full props to Ahmed who left a link to the (much more satisfying) acoustic version that ended Match of the Day, which you can now see above in all its (2 minute) glory.

*What’s the difference between Bono & God? God doesn’t fly ’round the world in a private jet thinking he’s Bono.

Angelique on Facebook. Her official site.

Football in TV by dr. motte on flickr

4 comments

  1. Anyone know of anywhere i can watch a video of the ACTUAL acoustic live version she did at the end of the World Cup match the other night while the credits were rolling. The video here is the music video, not the one that was played on the TV after Gary Lineker finished his little schpeel.

  2. Yeah, I know. Unfortunately it’s all I could find. I’m guessing that you can probably watch the show again on iPlayer, but I couldn’t find a video I could embed.

  3. Just tried the iPlayer copy of the match, which ends before Lineker *or* the semi-acoustic version. The voice of the nauseating Bono trashes the official version, which – as you say – is nowhere near as good as the version with the acoustic guitars. Still can’t find it… 🙁

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