Mambo Jambo

Mambo Jambo, commonly known as Mambo nights, is a theme clubbing night held every Wednesday in Singapore’s Zouk (club) and her sister club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Especially in Singapore, it is highly popular among the younger segment of the clubbing crowd and a Mambo experience is often regarded as an initiation ritual for many beginners into the local clubbing scene.

Origins and Development as a clubbing institution
While Zouk Club's vision was to introduce house music into Singapore, the concept of house music was not well-entrenched in the Asian clubbing landscape. Thus in order to make house music more appealing to the Singapore crowd, it introduced a blend of music which incorporated pop hits from the 70s and 80s with house music which were to be played every Wednesday night. Never seen as a long term plan, this retro theme night however became increasingly popular with the clubbing crowd and became one of the main highlights of the Singapore’s clubbing week event list. It eventually became the most well patronised weekday event in the Singapore clubbing scene.

Music Type
Mambo Jambo is a spin of the term mumbo jumbo which fittingly described the type of music peculiar to the theme night. It began with a somewhat unorthodox mix of 70s and 80s pop hits and house and over the years, it evolved and incorporated rock, dance and hit hop. A huge hit with the local clubbers, many imitators tried to follow the ‘retro’ theme formula with relatively lesser success. Zouk remained the standard bearer for this unique clubbing experience in Singapore.

Special Dance Moves
There are numerous songs that are well received by the clubbing club. However, the most popular are those that will rouse the crowd to making their pecuilar dance moves. These moves, usually restricted to hands and upper body movements, are usually expressed in sync with the songs' progression and lyrics. Some of these songs includes Bananarama's Love in the First Degree, Belinda Carlisle's Summer Rain and Rick Astley's Together forever.

Mambo Jambo- The Album
In 1998, Zouk Club together with Avex Trax Asia Limited produced a compilation of Mambo Jambo mix.

Track Listing
1. Let The Music Play- Shannon

2. Walking Away- Information Society

3. Bauhaus- Cappella

4. Ride on Time- Black Box

5. Theme from S'Express-S'Express

6. Tubthumping- Chumbawamba

7. Call Me- Spagna

8. Together Forever- Rick Astley

9. Love in the First Degree- Bananarama

10. Square Rooms- Al Corley

11. Batucuda- DJ Dero

12. Samba De Janeiro- Bellini

13.BG Tips, You should be dancing- E-Sensual

14.YMCA- Village People

15.Gimme Hope Joanna- Eddy Grant

16.Together in Electric Dreams- Giogio Morader & Phillip Oakley

17. Summer Rain- Belinda Carlisle

18. Here comes the rain again- Eurythumics

19. Magic Carpet Ride-Mighty Dub Katz

20. Lost in Emotion- Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam

21. Give it up- KC and the Sunshine Band

22. A little Respect-Erasure