And yer can't help but sing along!
Cover yer ears
If yer visit The Shire on Laurelin these days, yer may hear the local hobbits talk a lot about earworms. How they infest the Shire this time of year. And that there is no escaping them.
So, er, what is going on?
This is a remnant from the old Grand Order discussion forums, where a mean hobbit (...me...) started posting summery earworm songs in June every year. Typically very catchy songs, often associated with summer somehow, which burrow deep inside yer brain and will not leave for a few days, no matter how hard yer try. Cue lots of moaning and complaining. Although we somehow like them too...
It caught on, and we're still doing it! To the extent that the term has burrowed into the hobbit roleplaying community on Laurelin, where earworms are annoyingly catchy songs played by the local musicians.
The 2020 earworms
I'll update this post with the earworms this year as they come the next month. We start with a real doozy.
Numa numa
This year, we're starting in sunny Romania, where in 2003 a Moldovan pop group unleashed a song which burned through the European hit charts in spring and summer 2004. It scorched ears everywhere. It has ever since. Sing along now....
Ma-i-a hi Ma-i-a hu Ma-i-a ho Ma-i-a ha-ha
Yes, it is O-zone's ever summery "Dragostea din tei", also called the "Ma-i-a hi song", or the "Numa Numa song". This is a masterpiece of evil, because not only can't you forget the song once you hear it, but you just have to sing along too.
Add a hilarious video, with lots of non-cool dancing near/inside/on an airplane, and where one of the lads just cannot STOP touching his glasses, this is near the ultimate summer earworm. Enjoy! And sing along!
Nu mă nu mă iei, nu mă nu mă nu mă iei
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="YnopHCL1Jk8"] O-zone - Dragostea din tei
The song gained further notority after the famous lip-sync and dance-along version by Gary Brolsma. Originally released in 2004, this is about as joyful a video as you'll ever see.
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="KmtzQCSh6xk"] Gary Brolsma - Numa Numa video
Life is Live is Liiife
Summer 1985 was scary, when Opus' Live is Life was unleashed upon the world. A song which burrows so deep, it was even part of a PhD study about earworms.
"For starters, she asked French-speaking Internet users to rank 100 pop songs according to their ability to be compulsively repeated within one's mind. The top five were: Singing in the Rain (Gene Kelly), Live Is Life (Opus), Don't Worry, Be Happy (Bobby McFerrin), I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor) and, in first place, Ça fait rire les oiseaux by Caribbean sensation La Compagnie Créole."
You are well warned. The video is sometimes hilarious, though!
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="pATX-lV0VFk"] Opus - Live is Life
Waiting for the worms to come
Here is an assorted collection of earworms suggested on the Laurelin hobbit Discord page:
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="9bZkp7q19f0"] Psy - Gangnam Style
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="cvvd-9azD1M"] Gigi D'Agostino - The Riddle. Based on Nik Kershaw's original. The atrocious auto-tune is the icing of the cake...
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="k85mRPqvMbE"] Crazy Frog - Axel F.
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="H9K8-3PHZOU"] Hampston the Hamster - The HampsterDance Song
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="Ct6BUPvE2sM"] PIKOTARO - PPAP (Pen Pineapple Apple Pen)
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="w0AOGeqOnFY"] The Coconut Song - (Da Coconut Nut)
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="EFrrEUNlH0c"] Taiska - Mombasa + sanat
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="S83qcVr2xjg"] Raffi - Banana phone (Original)
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="ytWz0qVvBZ0"] Diggy Diggy Hole
[tvideo type="youtube" clip_id="IHSiWCqknTs"] Lumberjack band 1952 - Ievan Polkka
What is your favourite earworm?
More earworms will be added to this post as us hobbits find our bearings the coming month. But which are your favourite earworms? Suggest them in the comments below!