Musical Montage: Kaoma “Lambada”
Becoming an international dance craze in the late 80s and early 90s, the Lambada, aka “The Forbidden Dance,” spawned two films released on the same day in 1990 and a worldwide pop hit, “Lambada” by the band Kaoma. The Lambada originated in Brazil and spread to other countries, especially the Philippines, Latin America, and the Caribbean. It incorporated elements from other dances, like Maxxie and Carimbó, and was also an evolution of “dirty dancing”. Around the time the dance started to become a craze, Menaham Golan and Yoram Globus, the duo behind Cannon Films, had separated, with Golan forming 21st Century Film Corporation. Both Cannon and 21st Century raced to get films based on the Lambada craze into theaters, and Lambada and The Forbidden Dance opened on March 16th, 1990. The Forbidden Dance featured Kaoma’s “Lambada” on the soundtrack. Neither film received great reviews or did particularly well at the box office, but critics saw Cannon’s Lambada as marginally better, and it made about $3 million more. Before either film, Kaoma recorded a music video for “Lambada” in 1989, which you can check out below.
