From Toto’s Africa to Vienna by Ultravox: around the world in 16 songs, and the stories behind them
- George Ezra might not have set foot in Budapest, but that didn’t stop him from penning a tune inspired by the Hungarian capital
- Other popular places celebrated in song include Kashmir by Led Zeppelin and Liverpool’s Penny Lane, by The Beatles
Songs about places are almost as popular as songs about love. Here’s a list of location-themed ditties that namecheck cities, countries and continents the writer may or may not have visited. Some are protest songs, others are unofficial national anthems and a few are so loved, they’ve been covered countless times.
In 1980, British electro-rockers Ultravox had a huge hit with Vienna – a song about a love affair and a city with Cold War connections. The atmospheric video hinted at Iron Curtain intrigue even though half of it was filmed in London. Some scenes were shot on a hurried trip to the Austrian capital, most notably at the Zentralfriedhof. The central cemetery is the final resting place of composers Beethoven, Brahms, Strauss and Schubert.
George Ezra had never been to Budapest when he wrote a song about the Hungarian capital. The British singer almost got there while backpacking around Europe in 2013 but after partying a little too hard in Malmö, Sweden, he overslept and missed his train. If you manage to make it, be sure to book a boat ride along the Danube – the parliament building and series of ornate bridges are best viewed from the water.
Another track about a place unvisited by the lyricist is Kashmir (1975), by Led Zeppelin. Band members Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were driving through the deserts of southern Morocco (rather than the Himalayas) when they found inspiration.
A songwriter who also wasn’t in the corresponding continent when he penned a location-specific tune is David Paich. Referring to the 1982 hit Africa , Toto’s keyboardist has been quoted as saying, “It’s a romanticised love story about Africa, based on how I’d always imagined it. The descriptions of its beautiful landscape came from what I’d read in National Geographic.”
Still in Africa, anti-apartheid anthem Gimme Hope Jo’anna was released by Eddy Grant in 1988. Jo’anna refers to Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa, and despite being banned in that country, the infectious protest song was soon blasting out in the townships.
Talking of protest songs, during the siege of Sarajevo (1992-1996), a beauty contest was held in a basement because of the threat of Serbian snipers in the surrounding hills. Inela Nogic won first prize and was immortalised in the song Miss Sarajevo (1995), written by U2 and Brian Eno.
The Bosnian capital is renowned for wearing its turbulent history on its sleeve. War-themed tours take visitors along “Sniper Alley” and into an 800-metre (half-mile) tunnel that was used to supply the city with food, fuel, medical supplies and troop reinforcements. Most tours end up at the street corner where, in 1914, Serb radical Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand – an event that fast-tracked Europe into World War I.
The Beatles were never invited to perform in the Soviet Union but that didn’t stop them from borrowing and parodying Chuck Berry’s Back in the USA. According to Paul McCartney, Back in the USSR (1968) is about a homesick spy returning to his beloved motherland, complete with California Girls (Beach Boys) comparisons: “Ukraine girls really knock me out” and “Moscow girls make me sing and shout.”
Also by The Beatles, 1967’s Penny Lane describes the comings and goings of characters that McCartney and John Lennon observed while waiting at a bus terminal on a Liverpool street. Further south, London Calling (1979), by The Clash, has been used in television commercials (British Airways, Jaguar) and a dozen or so film soundtracks, including Die Another Day (2002), Billy Elliot (2000) and Night at the Mu seum: Secret of the Tomb (2014).
Another song about a city with Cold War connections, David Bowie’s Heroes (1977) is a story of two lovers meeting secretly in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. Visitors to the German capital shouldn’t miss the East Side Gallery – at 1.3km, it’s the longest remaining section of the historic concrete barrier and is now decorated in street art promoting peace.
After writing the Australian classic Great Southern Land in 1982, Icehouse lead singer Iva Davies was advised to deny the song was about his country as there were fears it might alienate a global audience. A year later, Down Under, by Men at Work, topped charts around the world, including the United States. Evidently no one told the American record-buying public that besides being crammed with Aussie cultural references, the song is also about the slow death of the country’s identity due to … Americanisation.
The best known bossa nova tune of all time, The Girl from Ipanema (1964) is about Heloísa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto. The “tall and tan and young and lovely” Brazilian beauty was regularly spotted in the Rio de Janeiro suburb by songwriters Vinicius de Moraes and Antônio Carlos “Tom” Jobim. The Grammy-winning ditty is one of the most covered songs in musical history. It was used during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics and, if you fly into the South American city, you’ll land at Tom Jobim International Airport.
Not far from the notorious Guantanamo Bay military base and detention camp lies an impoverished city of the same name. Its claim to fame is another much covered song, which started life in 1891 as a series of poems by Cuban writer and revolutionary José Martí. Guantanamera, which tells of a failed love affair involving a local peasant girl (Guajira Guantanamera), has evolved into an unofficial national anthem reflecting Cuban patriotism.
A Hong Kong family group of Filipino descent, The Reynettes enjoyed commercial success with Kowloon, Hong Kong in 1966.
A toe-tapper of its time, the track is high on harmonies but with lyrics from another era (“Come here, come here rickshaw boy, take me down street Chop Chop Chop”).
From another time and another genre, in Ong Ong (2015), British band Blur sing of a “slow boat to Lantau through misty seas” – surely the only song ever recorded that mentions the Central to Mui Wo ferry.
