"Samba de Janeiro" () is a song by German pop group Bellini. It was released on 5 May 1997 in Germany as the lead single from their debut album of the same name (1997). The song was a hit throughout Europe, reaching number-one in Hungary and the top 10 in at least 12 countries. It interpolates the chorus of

Airto Moreira Airto Guimorvan Moreira (born August 5, 1941) is a Brazilian jazz drummer, composer and percussionist. He is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. Coming to prominence in the late 1960s as a membe ...

's 1972 song " Tombo in 7/4", as well as samples the drum rhythm from Moreira's " Celebration Suite". "Samba de Janeiro" won the award for best dance single at the 7th annual

Echo Awards Echo Music Prize (stylised as ECHO, ) was an accolade by the , an association of recording companies of Germany to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The first ECHO Awards ceremony was held in 1992, and was set up to honor ...

. In 2014, the group released a new version with additional lyrics, titled "Samba do Brasil", to celebrate the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

and

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, both held in Brazil. In 2022, a new arrangement of this song was created by YouNotUs and Louis III, entitled simply "Samba".

Critical reception

Alan Jones from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' wrote, "Fitting in with the current vogue for all things

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, Bellini's Samba De Janeiro is maddeningly familiar from first hearing — probably because fellow

Virgin Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...

recording act The Heartists' single 'Belo Horizonti' is essentially the same song. Bright, breezy, commercial and a hit whose time has come."

Chart performance

"Samba de Janeiro" peaked at number one in Hungary and number two in both Germany and Switzerland. It entered the top 10 in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, as well as on the

Eurochart Hot 100 The European Hot 100 Singles was compiled by ''Billboard'' and ''Music & Media'' magazine from March 1984 until December 2010. The chart was based on national singles sales charts in 17 European countries: Austria, Belgium (two charts separately f ...

, where the single reached number three. In the UK, it peaked at number eight during its first week on the UK Singles Chart, on 21 September 1997. It also charted on the

UK Dance Chart The Dance Singles Chart and the Dance Albums Chart are music charts compiled in the United Kingdom by the Official Charts Company from sales of songs in the electronic dance music, dance music genre (e.g. house music, house, trance music, trance, ...

, peaking at number 12. Additionally, "Samba de Janeiro" was a top-20 hit in Norway and a top-30 hit in Sweden.

Legacy

The melody of "Samba de Janeiro" was played during the

2008 UEFA European Football Championship The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of European ...

after every goal. It was also used as goal music for

Norwich City F.C. Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

from 1998–2013 and from 2018–present, featuring as the club's official goal music in the video game ''

FIFA 23 ''FIFA 23'' is a football video game published by EA Sports. It is the 30th and final installment in the ''FIFA'' series that is developed by EA Sports, and released worldwide on 30 September 2022 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation ...

''. The song was also featured in the 1999 arcade video game ''

Samba de Amigo is a 1999 rhythm game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for arcades. It later saw a port to the Dreamcast in 2000 and the Wii in 2008. Based primarily on Latin American culture, the game sees players shaking maraca controllers to ...

'', which was later released for the

Dreamcast The is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. It was released in Japan on November 27, 1998, in North America on September 9, 1999 and in Europe on October 14, 1999. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, prec ...

in 2000 and the

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in 2008.

Track listings

* 12-inch single # "Samba de Janeiro" (Original Version) – 5:38 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Peter Parker Rmx) – 5:52 * CD single # "Samba de Janeiro" (Radio Edit) – 2:50 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Club Mix) – 5:38 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Vanity Back Yard Remix) – 5:18 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Peter Parker Remix) – 5:52 # "Samba de Janeiro" (John Acquaviva Remix) – 7:59 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Merlyn Remix) – 6:00 * CD maxi # "Samba de Janeiro" (Radio Edit) – 2:50 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Club Mix) – 5:38 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Vanity Back Yard Remix) – 5:18 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Peter Parker Remix) – 5:52 * Cassette single # "Samba de Janeiro" (Radio Edit) – 2:50 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Club Mix) – 5:38 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Vanity Back Yard Mix) – 5:18 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Radio Edit) – 2:50 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Club Mix) – 5:38 # "Samba de Janeiro" (Vanity Back Yard Mix) – 5:18

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 1997 songs 1997 debut singles Eurodance songs Latin house songs Number-one singles in Hungary Songs in Portuguese Songs about dancing Songs about Rio de Janeiro (city) Virgin Records singles UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles