Many may remember the name of the Brazilian group Kaoma, who rose to fame in 1989 after releasing Lambada, an iconic song that gained worldwide popularity.

Besides the fiery rhythm, the main feature of the song was the sensual “forbidden dance” that mixed steps of merengue, cumbia and salsa along with women in very short skirts.

Although the birth of this song and the group as such happened as a marketing strategy that culminated in a single success.

This is how Lambada, the song of the forbidden dance, was born

It all started when French producer Jean Karakos visited Porto Seguro and bought the rights to several songs, including “Chorando se foi” by Marcia Ferreira.

Subsequently, a Franco-Brazilian group was formed with the former members of Touré Kunda as Chyco Dru the bassist, Jacky Arconte the guitarist, Etna Brasyl the vocalist, Jean-Claude Bonaventure was the keyboardist, Fania the flautist and Loalwa Braz was the main vocalist. , not counting the young dancers Washington “Chico” Oliveira and Roberta de Brito.

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For example, they released their debut album ‘Kaoma Worldbeat’ together, which featured their songs ‘Lambada’, ‘Dançando Lambada’ and ‘Mélodie d’amour’ and achieved more than 30 million sales.

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Lambada, story of plagiarism

It wasn’t long after the song became an international phenomenon when the group Kaoma was sued for plagiarism.

The song turned out to be composed by the Bolivian group Los Kjarkas and Marcia Ferreira had only translated it, so the lawsuit ended successfully for the Bolivians, who received royalties and large sums of money as compensation.

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Tragedies around Lambada

Although those involved reaped the benefits of the theme with tours and even Loalwa Braz composed songs for two movies, ‘Lambada’ brought bad luck for years to come.

In 1991, the composer of the song Ulises Hermosa died of leukemia and in January 2017 Loalwa Braz’s body was found completely charred after a robbery.

Two days after his death, the founder of the group, Jean Karakos, died while his partner Olivier Lorsac disappeared and little is known about him today.