"Haba Haba" (English: "Little by Little", no, "Steg for steg", italic=no) is a song performed by Norwegian-Kenyan singer-songwriter

Stella Mwangi Stella Nyambura Mwangi (born 1 September 1986) is a Kenyan-Norwegian singer, rapper and songwriter. Much of her music concerns the situation in her home country Kenya, and discrimination her family had to endure after moving to Norway in 1991. ...

. It was

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

's entry at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2011 The Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the 56th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Düsseldorf, Germany, following the country's victory at the with the song "Satellite" by Lena. Organised by the European Broadcasting Uni ...

and is included on her second studio album ''

Kinanda ''Kinanda'' is the second studio album by Norwegian- Kenyan singer Stella Mwangi, released on June 10, 2011, in Norway. It peaked to number 15 on the Norwegian Albums Chart. Singles *"Smile" was released as the first single in 2010. *" Haba Haba ...

'' (2011). The song was chosen using a mix of

televoting Televoting, telephone voting or phone voting is a method of decision making and opinion polling conducted by telephone. Televoting can also extend to voting by SMS text message via a mobile cell phone. Broadcast contest televoting Televoting ...

, jury votes and an audience vote at the

Oslo Spektrum Oslo Spektrum is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in east central Oslo, Norway that opened in December 1990. It is currently owned and operated by Norges Varemesse. Oslo Spektrum is primarily known for hosting major events such as the annual ...

during the national Eurovision pre-selection show ''

Melodi Grand Prix Melodi Grand Prix (), commonly known as Grand Prix and MGP, sometimes as Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix ( no, Norsk Melodi Grand Prix), is an annual music competition organised by Norwegian public broadcaster Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK). It det ...

'' on 12 February 2011. It was made available for digital download a day before its initial performance in the third semi-final. "Haba Haba" debuted at number nine in its first week of release, before progressing to

number one Number One most commonly refers to: * 1 (number) Number One, No. 1, or #1 may also refer to: Music Albums * ''Number 1'' (Big Bang album), and the title song * ''No. 1'' (BoA album), and the title song * ''No.1'' (EP), by CLC * ''n.1 ...

for four consecutive weeks in the

Norwegian singles chart VG-lista is a Norwegian record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide chart ...

. On 10 May 2011, it competed in the first half of semi-final 1 and performed second on the night.

Production and song selection

"Haba Haba" is a

pop song Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

with afro-fusion influence, written by Stella and composed by Beyond51 and Big City. The song is bilingual, with lyrics in English and Swahili, marking the first time Swahili or any other East African language was performed at the contest. The

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...

describe how "a journey of a million miles starts with one single step". It is a positive, motivational song about how anyone can be whatever they want to be and tells the story of Mwangi as a young girl listening to her

grandmother Grandparents, individually known as grandmother and grandfather, are the parents of a person's father or mother – paternal or maternal. Every sexually-reproducing living organism who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic gra ...

("When I’s a little girl my grandma told me/ That I could be just anything that I wanted to"), who teaches her that she should appreciate the smaller things in life ("When I’s a little girl my grandma told me/ That it’s the little things in life that’s gone make me happy"). The song is based upon actual events as Stella once complained to her grandmother that things did not move fast enough, gaining the reply ''Haba haba, Hujaza Kibaba'', which is Swahili for "little by little fills the measure", equivalent to the proverb "slow and steady wins the race". The song was entered by Mwangi into the '' 2011 Melodi Grand Prix'', the annual selection process for

's entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. 21 songs were chosen to go through to the semi-finals by the national broadcaster

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...

, with "Haba Haba" performing in the third semi-final on 29 January. It came out of the semi-final in first place, advancing to the final on 12 February. "Haba Haba" progressed with three other songs to the Gold Final, following the elimination of the other finalists. Voting was conducted via a mix of the audience vote at the

(where the song beat its nearest rival by more than twice the votes), jury votes split into four different regions (where Stella came second in two regions and first in two, leading to her winning the overall jury vote) and

in two different regions (with "Haba Haba" winning in both). "Haba Haba" was the overall winner of the night with a total of 280,217 votes.

Eurovision Song Contest 2011

In the Eurovision Song Contest semifinal in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

on Tuesday 10 May 2011 "Haba Haba" was not among the ten songs which qualified for entrance in the final on Saturday 14 May 2011, despite being placed as one of the favourite songs to win the festival.

Track listings

Music video

A music video was shot by the director Frederic Esnault. The song is presented by Big City Music.

Charts and certifications

Peak positions

Certifications

References

{{authority control 2011 songs Eurovision songs of 2011 Eurovision songs of Norway Swahili-language songs Macaronic songs Number-one singles in Norway Melodi Grand Prix songs