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"Aie a Mwana"
Single by Bananarama from the album Deep Sea Skiving
B-side	Dubwana
Released	September 1981
Format	7" single
Recorded	June 1981
Genre	Pop, New Wave
Label	Demon Records
Writer	Daniel Vangarde Jean Kluger
Producer	Paul Cook John Martin Sara Dallin
Bananarama singles chronology
— "Aie a Mwana" (1981) "T'ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)" (1982)

"Aie a Mwana" is the first single released by English girl group Bananarama. Group members originally recorded the track as a demo and ultimately it was the demo version that was pressed onto the record. Originally released as a stand-alone single, "Aie a Mwana" was eventually added to the group's debut album Deep Sea Skiving two years later.

Bananarama's previous experience in a recording studio was as background vocalists on the Department S b-side "Solid Gold Easy Action", a T. Rex cover. Prompted by friend and early supporter Paul Cook (of Sex Pistols), Bananarama decided to release their own single. As they had been including several cover versions in their repertoire (including later hit "Venus"), they decided on an obscure 1975 disco song by Black Blood, sung in Swahili. Group members Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward had to learn to sing the song phonetically. The "tropical" nature of the single inspired the group's name: banana coming from the vibe of "Aie a Mwana" and -rama added to the end as a nod to an early Roxy Music song called "Pyjamarama".

Issued by independent label Demon Records, "Aie a Mwana" managed to climb to number ninety-two in the UK singles chart. Write-ups in the English music and fashion press (NME, The Face) caught the attention of Terry Hall, who invited Bananarama to sing on his new vocal group Fun Boy Three's next single.

In fact, the original song was not Swahili at all. Originally it was called "Aieaoa", and was featured on the pseudo-Japanese dance album Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki which had been released in 1971 by the French writing and production team of Daniel Vangarde and Jean Kluger^[1]. In 1975^[2] Belgian group^[3] Black Blood recorded the version with Swahili lyrics and a more African vibe, called "A.I.E. (A Mwana)", heard by Bananarama.

After Bananarama's success in the UK, Vangarde and Kluger, who by then had found international success with the Gibson Brothers and then Ottawan, also recorded versions of the same song with both Ottawan ("A.I.E. Is My Song", with English lyrics, 1982)^[4] and La Compagnie Créole ("A.I.E A Moun'la", 1987).

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