Copyright? Que?

So, I'm not currently allowed to have an opinion about Nicaraguan politics, in accordance with the Peace Corps' goal of being seen as apolitical. This is not a post in which I'm endorsing one Nicaraguan political party or another.

Nevertheless, there is going to be an election here in November (right before I leave!), and I feel it is my right, nay, my duty as a guardian of intellectual property rights to point out that both major parties are guilty of blatantly stealing the melodies from pop songs and putting their own lyrics to them.

Let's start with the ruling Sandinistas (FSLN), led by Daniel Ortega. This is their current anthem that's blanketing the airwaves down here, which borrows the cadences from Ben E. King's Stand By Me (made popular down here by the recent Bachata version in Spanglish) and Sting's Every Breath You Take, called "Nicaragua Triunfara" (Nicaragua will win!):



This is their second most grievous melodical robbery, following their previous repurposing of John Lennon's Give Peace A Chance, where they change the words to "What we want are jobs and peace; together let's talk about conciliation!" and insert random rapped verses:



The liberal party's anthem is heard quite a bit less often, but I was actually stirred to make this update when I heard the PLI (partido liberal independiente)'s shameless repurposing of The Black Eyed Peas' I Got a Feeling (made popular down here by a scandalous Spanish version) coming out of the back of a truck last weekend. It is glorious. Some highlights: There's a section in which the lyrics devolve to almost exclusively shouting the candidate, Fabio Gadea's first name, and then "Vote! Vote! Everybody's going to vote!; Change! Change! We're going to change what's bad!" and in the last bit, instead of the days of the week, they chant the departments (states) of Nicaragua. See for yourself, it'll have you hearing "Fabio, Fabio, Fabio, con Fabio, con Fabio voy con Fabio" in your head for days:




So there you have it! Everybody's a winner when you repurpose pop songs into political anthems!