A re-tooled cover version of Typically Tropical's 197? hit 'Barbados', Vengaboys strip out all the racial stereotyping of the original that furrowed my brow, switch the Caribbean destination for the Balearics and concentrate solely on the arms in the air chorus. Perhaps it concentrates a bit too much - the original at least had a story of sorts underpinning the nonsense (bus driver longs to escape the rain and head home to the sun), but in celebrating Ibiza for itself (i.e. as the clubber's destination of choice) it both underestimates and misunderstands the original to serve up a flattened cover of no discernable personality (though bizarrely, it keeps in the "I don't wanna be a bus driver all my life" line - just how long were they intending to stay?).Being Europop, then perhaps it doesn't need to do any more to succeed, and to be honest I'd have a lot more time for this had the tune been original. But it's not, and the appropriation of Ibiza (or, as Kim Sasabone sings it, 'Eebitza') as a generic, one stop shop representation of hedonistic dance culture is lazy. Bad enough by itself, but then selling it as such to suburban office workers on a rainy Friday night at their local 'nightspot' is as patronising as Kay Starr taking the piss out of her square parents for trying to dance to the new fangled rock and roll they were clueless about. Cultural gap/generational gap - somebody here doesn't have a clue either, but I fear this time the joke is on the listener. If only they knew it.
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