Pink Martini has twelve instrumentalists (and sometimes travels with string sections), and performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Australia and New Zealand and North America. Pink Martini made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998 under the direction of Norman Leyden. Since then, the band has gone on to play with over 30 orchestras around the world, including multiple engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Boston Pops, the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center and the BBC Concert Orchestra in London. Other appearances include the grand opening of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, with return sold-out engagements for New Year’s Eve 2003, 2004 & 2008; two sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall; the opening party of the remodeled Museum of Modern Art in NYC; the Governor’s Ball at the 80th Annual Academy Awards in 2008; and the opening of the 2008 Sydney Festival in Australia.
Lauderdale met China Forbes, Pink Martini’s lead vocalist, at Harvard. He was studying history and literature while she was studying English literature and painting. Late at night, they would break into the lower common room in their college dormitory and sing arias by Puccini and Verdi – and the occasional campy Barbra Streisand cover –thus sealing their creative collaboration. Three years after graduating, Lauderdale called Forbes who was living in New York City, where she’d been writing songs and playing guitar in her own folk-rock project, and asked her to join Pink Martini. They began to write songs together for the band. Their first song “Sympathique”– with the chorus “Je ne veux pas travailler” (”I don’t want to work”) – became an overnight sensation in France, and was even nominated for “Song of the Year” at France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards. Forbes, though fluent only in English, sings in 15 different languages.
Pink Martini’s debut album Sympathique was released independently in 1997 on the band’s own label Heinz Records (named after Lauderdale’s dog), and quickly became an international phenomenon, garnering the group nominations for “Song of the Year” and “Best New Artist” in France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards in 2000.
In October 2004, the group released its second album, Hang on Little Tomato.
In May 2007, it released its third album, Hey Eugene!.
A fourth studio album, Splendor in the Grass, followed on October 27, 2009.
Sympathique, Hang on Little Tomato and Hey Eugene! have all gone gold in France, Canada, Greece and Turkey; collectively, Pink Martini's records have sold more than two million copies worldwide.
On New Year's Eve 2005, Pink Martini performed live at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon. This performance was aired live on National Public Radio's Toast of the Nation, and in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting was recorded for a live DVD and later broadcast on US public broadcasting and French television.[citation needed] The DVD has been rereleased to retail as Discover the World: Live in Concert, featuring not only the full concert, but several vignettes and a short documentary of the band's history.
The band has collaborated and performed with Jimmy Scott, Carol Channing, Henri Salvador, Jane Powell, Chavela Vargas, Georges Moustaki, Michael Feinstein, DJ Dimitri from Paris, clarinetist and conductor Norman Leyden, Hiroshi Wada, DJ Johnny Dynell and several drag queens from New York City, among others. On June 1, 2007, the band appeared on the long-running BBC Two Later with Jools Holland TV music program. On June 14, 2007, Pink Martini performed on Late Show with David Letterman, performing "Hey Eugene".
Pink Martini played Walt Disney Concert Hall on New Year's Eve for the first two years it was open (2003/4 and 2004/5). They returned to play NYE there again in 2008/9.
In May 2009, the band recorded three concerts with the Oregon Symphony under the direction of Carlos Kalmar for the band’s fifth album … a symphonic record which is slated for a 2011 release.
Pink Martini songs appear in such films as In the Cut, Nurse Betty, Josie and the Pussycats, Tortilla Soup, Shanghai Kiss, Mary and Max, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith and have been used on television shows such as Dead Like Me, The Sopranos and The West Wing, among others.[citation needed] Their song "Una notte a Napoli" is an integral part of the Italian movie Mine Vaganti (2010), by the Italian-Turkish director Ferzan Özpetek. The song "No Hay Problema" is included as background/setup music for Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 and was also used as the background/setup music for an early build of Windows Longhorn, now known as Windows Vista.[citation needed]
In February 2011, the group's lead singer, China Forbes, recorded a video greeting to the European Space Agency's Italian astronaut, Paolo Nespoli, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri, on board the International Space Station. The astronauts were preparing to oversee the docking of ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo vessel, Johannes Kepler, which took place at 17:08 CET on 24 February. The greeting was set to the sound track of Dosvedanya Mio Bombino - one of Pink Martini's signature songs - and was mixed with footage of the actual docking.
In November 2011, they played at the Balboa Theater with the Bonita Vista High School band, Club Blue.
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Pink Martini Lyrics
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That it's a simple fact
It's better to be opposites
In order to attract
So easy to believe
Still I disagree
Because they don't know you
I'm a song
You're the dance
I'm the fancy
You're the pants
The Paris in my France
Let's be friends
You're the glitz
I'm the glam
You're green eggs
And I'm a ham
Happy as a clam
Let's be friends
Why hold your horses?
Let's join forces!
Racing in a surrey down the avenue
You'll never need another
When you got each other
As natural as the sky is blue
You're the beans
I'm the rice
I'm the sugar
You're the spice
We're twice as nice
Let's be friends
Why hold our horses?
Let's join forces!
Racing in a surrey down the avenue
You'll never need another
When you got each other
As natural as the sky is blue
Boo boo pee doo
You're a pea
Just like me
In a pod so happily
It's our destiny
Let's be friends
I'm the chit
You're the chat
You're the rabbit
In my hat
It's so magical
It's so mystical
Irresistible
Let's be friends
I'm the dreamer
You're the dream
We should be on the cover of a magazine
Where's our limousine?
Let's go make a scene
You know what I mean
Let's be friends
The lyrics of Pink Martini's song "Let's Be Friends" explore the idea of two people who are seemingly opposite, coming together and forming a strong bond. The song starts with a nod to the scientific theory that suggests that opposites attract. However, the singer goes on to disagree with this notion, implying that there is more to a relationship than just being opposites. Despite this, the singer acknowledges that they and their partner are different and have complementary qualities, which is why they should be friends.
The singer uses metaphors in the song to describe the dynamics of their relationship. They describe themselves as a song and their partner as the dance, with each element complementing the other. The singer also compares themselves to fancy and their partner to pants, glitz, and glam, and green eggs and ham. These metaphors highlight the playful and quirky nature of their relationship.
The chorus of the song emphasizes the idea of two individuals coming together as a team. They encourage each other to let go of their inhibitions and join forces, and they compare their relationship to racing in a surrey down the avenue. The singer implies that the strength of their bond will make them not to need anyone else in their lives.
Line by Line Meaning
Scientists will tell you
That it's a simple fact
It's better to be opposites
In order to attract
The conventional wisdom is that opposite attracts, supported by science.
So easy to believe
Still I disagree
Because they don't know you
And they don't know me
Though most people believe in this conventional wisdom, I disagree with it because scientists don't know who you and I are.
I'm a song
You're the dance
I'm the fancy
You're the pants
The Paris in my France
Let's be friends
You and I complement each other perfectly. I bring the melody, and you have the rhythm. Together, we are whole. Let's be friends.
You're the glitz
I'm the glam
You're green eggs
And I'm a ham
Happy as a clam
Let's be friends
You are the showy, glamorous one, while I am the quieter but essential one. You are like green eggs and I am like ham. We work so well together. Let's just be friends.
Why hold your horses?
Let's join forces!
Racing in a surrey down the avenue
You'll never need another
When you got each other
As natural as the sky is blue
Why wait and take things slowly when we can team up to do amazing things right away? We could ride in a carriage together down the street without a care, knowing that we only need each other, just as natural a fit as the blue sky above. Let's join forces!
You're the beans
I'm the rice
I'm the sugar
You're the spice
We're twice as nice
Let's be friends
It's like we're a part of a meal, with you being like the beans and I am like the rice, or me being sweet like sugar and you being the spicy hot chili. Independently, we are great, but together we are even better! Let's be friends.
Boo boo pee doo
This is a vocalization and has no meaning.
You're a pea
Just like me
In a pod so happily
It's our destiny
Let's be friends
We are so alike that we could be peas in a pod, and being friends feels so natural, like it was our destiny. Let's be friends.
I'm the chit
You're the chat
You're the rabbit
In my hat
It's so magical
It's so mystical
Irresistible
Let's be friends
You complete me, like you are the chat to my chit or the rabbit in my hat. It's an amazing feeling. This synergy between us is not just logical, but magical and mystical. It's irresistible, and we should be friends.
I'm the dreamer
You're the dream
We should be on the cover of a magazine
Where's our limousine?
Let's go make a scene
You know what I mean
Let's be friends
You and I both dream big, but together, we can achieve more than we ever thought possible. We should be on the cover of magazines as successful friends. Let's limousine and make a scene because we are meant to be together. Let's be friends.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Thomas M. Lauderdale, Jim Bianco, China Forbes
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind