Michael Jackson dies aged 50: eastern EU grab their crotch in tribute

Jackson on the set of 'Thriller', 1982 (Image ©MJ 25th anniversary/ Facebook)

On 25 June, the king of pop died after a cardiac arrest in LA. He remains a firm musical reference for the ‘eurogeneration’ growing up in the seventies and eighties. Ukrainian folk rock, Lithuania’s late MJ and Bulgaria’s Wacko Jacko wannabe – soundtrack tribute in videos

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by cafebabel.com

26/06/09

Tags : Ukraine, United States, death, music, obituary, Lithuania, Bulgaria, videos, folk music, Central and eastern Europe,

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Ukraine: ‘Black or White’ by Selo and Ludy

The Ukrainian folk rock cover band transform the 1991 hit song thanks to the help of an accordion and balailaika, a Russian string instrument

The band name translates to ‘Village and People’ | (Video: pjatochkin/ Youtube)

Bulgaria: ‘Bad’ by a baker on ‘Music Idol’

Nicknamed ‘the Michael Jackson of the croissants’, baker Trifon Aleksandrov did his best impression of the 1987 hit Bad. Watch him bash out his shoulder-popping Bulgenglish on the 2008 version of the popular music show version of Britain’s ‘Pop Idol’ here

Michael Jackson revived in Bulgaria

Lithuania’s own Michael Jackson

Copyright didn’t exist in the soviet era, so ‘Wacko Jacko”s songs (as the British media branded him) were often ‘freely translated’. However Rolandas Janavicius didn’t cover MJ songs himself. The lead singer of the band Rondo was simply known as the ‘Lithuanian Michael Jackson’, inspired as he was with his long locks and airy fabrics. Janavicius also lived a short life, dying of cancer aged 37 in 2007

Janavicius performs one of his hit songs in 1992 | (Video: ©gryzuva/ Youtube)

Plus a cafebabel.com favourite

‘I Want You Back’, Jackson 5 (1969) | (Video: @staciLMoss94/ Youtube)

Additional reporting from Teodora Kostadinova and Daiva Repeckaite in Sofia and Vilnius

by cafebabel.com

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Moonwalkers - 2009-06-26 18:49:56

For those wanting to wacko their jacko weekend in: There's a mass moonwalk flashmob going on at 6pm UK time in London's Liverpool Street station Parisians, meet up is at 7pm EU time at Notre Dame. Less flashmoby we're guessing, but hopefully not more sobby

Where were you when you heard? - 2009-06-26 19:06:49

http://london.cafebabel.com/en/post/2009/06/26/London-Learns-of-Jackson-s-Death

Micheal Jackson: biography - 2009-06-29 12:42:10

See this special babelblog for more: http://linea.cafebabel.com/en/post/2009/06/29/Micheal-Jackson:-biography

sumon - 2009-07-09 09:27:19

Ukraine: ‘Black or White’ by Sela and Audy

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