Island Songs - Nostalgia

"It comes as no surprise that islands (especially the tropical kind) and songs are exquisitely bound in a heavily nuanced, romantic, and bucolic embrace that the marketing industry has sought to capitalize, captured, for example in the exotic nostalgia of Harry Belafonte's "Jamaica Farewell" (1956)". Island Songs, A Global Repertoire, edited by Godfrey Baldacchino, The Scarecrow Press, 2011).

I suppose that Harry Belafonte's "Island in the Sun" could also have been mentioned as an example.

I have recently been suffering from a bout of island nostalgia (islomania?), not always for islands that I have ever visited, but a kind of generalised xeniteia regarding islands everywhere, big or small, tropical or Northern European, in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Baltic Sea or Pacific Ocean. But I wouldn't call it "exotic nostalgia", and I don't blame the marketing industry...instead let's praise the talented singers, songwriters, musicians, and all the people who created those that are traditional folk-songs.

Some of my favourite island songs (and the interpretations I prefer, not all on YouTube or Spotify):

"L'Isola Blu", Benito Merlino (CD, D'oro E Di Sangue - another great song) - a very different image of an Aeolian island from that given in Rossellini's film masterpiece "Stromboli" (highly recommended).

"Island Home", Christine Anu

"Yo te Canto, Puerto Rico", Guillermo Portabales

"Lamento Cubano", Guillermo Portabales

"Petit Pays", Cesaria Evora

"Nha Cancera Ka Tem Medida", Cesaria Evora

"Ξεκινά μια ψαροπούλα", Sotiria Bellou

Κέρκυρα - Όλα σου είναι παραδείσια - Θανασης Σπινουλας

"Γιαλό, γιαλό" - traditional kantada

"Σαμιώτισσα" - traditional

Στα νησιά τ' ουρανού - Αλίκη Καγιαλόγλου

"Tora pou i zoi mas stenevei
k'olo kleinei yia mas..."