How Guinean Singer Mory Kanté’s Music Was Lifted To Create ‘Tamma Tamma Loge’ and ‘Jumma Chumma De De’

Guinean singer Mory Kanté is already very popular in India, courtesy his song 'Tama' being used by 2 composers – Bappi Lahiri and the duo, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, in 1990 and 1991, respectively, to create 'Tamma Tamma Loge' and 'Jumma Chumma De De'.

Tama (Mory Kanté, 1987)

Jumma Chumma De De (Hum, 1991)

'Tama' was part of Mory's 1987 album Akwaba Beach.

However, Bappi Lahiri's 'Tamma Tamma Loge' was not inspired just by Mory's 'Tama'; it included another song from Mory from the same album – a much more popular (internationally) song called 'Yeke Yeke'. 'Tamma Tamma Loge' is a mix of both the songs. Yeke Yeke's music appears at 0:48 in 'Tamma Tamma Loge'.

Yeke Yeke (Mory Kanté, 1987)

Tamma Tamma Loge (1990)

To muddle things up, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, who used 'Tama' for Hum, had previously used 'Yeke Yeke' too, as-is (as in Mory's original version) in the background music of the same director's (Mukul Anand) Agneepath in 1990, the year Thanedar was released.

'Yeke Yeke' has been the subject of background music even before Agneepath, though. Toyota used the song as background music to a television advertisement for its second generation Toyota Carina ED in Japan, in 1989, given how successful Akwaba Beach was, as an album!

But, there's more of Akwaba Beach in Hum. The song 'Ek Doosre Se Karte Hain Pyaar Hum' is generously inspired by another song from the same album, called 'Inch Allah'.

Incidentally, 'Yeke Yeke' also saw a southern version, in the 1997 Telugu film, Preminchukundam Raa. The song, 'Pellikala Vachesindhe', composed by Mani Sharma was a blatant rip off of Mory Kanté's 'Yeke Yeke'.