For the Portuguese version of this history, click here.

It is the most complete history I ever heard of Lambada. It was written 
by a guy named Chico Peltier. He's a regular writer at the brasilian 
Ballroom dancing web-list. Many thanks to him. 

...(the notes in brackets ( ) are mine, in an attempt to explain to a 
foreigner like you and others, things well known to brasilian people) 

Here it goes... 

The Lambada History 

This is a quite interesting story since it is made of lots of 
contemporaneous tales. It's quite difficult to get the same one
 version from anybody since everyone seems to pull out the thing 
to it's own favour. 

I had the fine opportunity to start dancing around Brazil very before
 the explosion of the so called Lambada, hence I had the chance to
 follow the ascension and decline of this rythm in Brazil and in other
 countries. 

I have been in Pará (this is the brasilian 2nd greatest state located 
at the north part of the country, very near to the south Caribeen
 isles with a local and secular typical style of culture, food and
 dancing) and other states down the north-eastern coast of Brazil 
ending at the Bahia state, researching for this story throughout. 

Hence I couldn't resist and wrote these lines to you... 

The ORIGINS - The "CARIMBÓ" 

Since the time Brazil was a portuguese colony (which happenned 
between year 1500 a.c. till 1822 a.c.) there was a common dance 
in the north part of the country called Carimbó. It was a loose 
and very sensual dance in which the woman tried to cover the man
 with many spins and rounded skirts. The music was played mainly 
among beats of drums made of trunks of wood, thinned by fire. 

As time passed by, the dance changed as did the music itself. It
 had many influences from the caribeen music due to its geographical
 proximity, and a reminder of this is that even today one can listen
 to caribeen radio stations when at some north states of Brazil like 
the Amapá state. This strong relation also generated some new rythms 
like the Sirimbó and the Lari Lari, and so it changed forever the way
 the Carimbó was danced. 

The NAME and The FATHER 

After a while, a local radio station from Belém (Pará's capital city)
 started to call these new type of music as "the strong beated rythm"
 and "the rythms of Lambada" (Lambada is another word in local 
language for a strong hit). This last name "Lambada" had a strong
 appeal and began to be associated with this new emerging face of
 an old dancing style. 

Then the Carimbó dance started once more to be danced in couples, 
in a 2-beat style, something very close to the Merengue, but with 
many spins. I once danced this kind of music back in 1983, in Belém
 and Macapá (Amapá's capital city). I also bought some LPs (long-play
 disks) from a guy called Pinduca, who is a very well known singer at
 the north of Brazil for it is strongly believed he is the true father
 of Lambada, although he never got to be known anywhere else. 

The fusion between the mettalic and eletronical music from Caribeen 
brought again a new face to the Carimbó, which started to be played
 throughout the north-eastern region of Brazil (a place well known 
for its touristic approach), although this new Carimbó went with the 
name of Lambada. 

The LAMBADA FROM BAHIA - The 1ST BOOM 

As the Lambada travelled through the coast until reaching Bahia 
(the elder brasilian state) it started to recieve some influences 
from the Forró dance (another strong beated and old brasilian style
 of dance), and finally it became a 4-beated dancing style, in which
 we can definitly say it was different from the original Carimbó. 

The way of dancing this Lambada was with arched legs, and the steps
 were done from one side to the other, and never from front to back.
 This was also the time in which the tight skirts fashion were up, 
and both things (the dance and the fashion) got too close to one 
another. Still today, at some places like the Lambar (a night club
 in Sao Paulo) this match of a girl in a tight skirt and a man in 
long trousers still has it appeal on an outdoor. 

During these years the Carnival from Bahia was begining to increase 
in popularity, and so every summer a new kind of dance aroused, only
 to disappear during the year due to lack of tourists, and the 
arising of another dancing style and rythm on the following summer.
 A few years before the Lambada, we had the Fricote and the Ti-Ti-Ti 
among others dances, which truly disappeared to never be remembered 
anymore. 

Among with the "Trio-eletricos" (Big movable trucks covered with 
speakers, on top of which musicians play during the Carnival in Bahia)
 the Lambada started to become popular in Bahia, and estabilished 
itself in the city of Porto Seguro. Still, in this first boom of 
the Lambada, the south-east region (the most economical evolved 
region of Brazil) despised the rythms which came from Bahia on a
regular base (those were believed to be only summer hits). 

It is worth to mention that there is a tale concerning about a 
prohibition to dance Lambada long ago, back to the 30's, but that
 is solely a plain confusion. What really became forbidden was a 
dance called Maxixe because of its spicy lyrics and movements. What 
really happened to Lambada was that in its peak it was mistaken for 
something of pornography, by people who knew nothing about the dance
 itself and tried to make "news out" over something which, at best,
 was a sensual way of dancing. The funniest part of all this, is 
that many years later, nowardays, there are some really-sexual 
related dances like the "dança da garrafa", like many other ones, 
and people don't seem to bother anymore about it. (The "dança da
 garrafa" is a kind of dance in which the woman goes alone, 
dancing and crouching down over straigh up bottle, trying to get
 the closer she can with her sex to the top of the bottle without
 touching it). 

Although it was reconized to have becommed a summer-fever, the Lambada
 was far away from having its true world-wide success. The many first 
lambaterias (a place to dance Lambada) which opened couldn't stand the
 low tourism of the winter station and all of them closed a few months
later, but this wasn't the end... 

AN INTERNATIONAL BEAT 

Meanwhile in Brazil the Lambada was being buried at winter, some people
 at Europe had other plans for it. 

At the end of that very summer, a couple of french business man came to
 Brazil and bought the musical rights of something like 300 lambada-music.
 They went back to France, and created the Kaoma Band, boosted up some
 serious bucks on Marketing, turning Lambada a world-wide known style,
 reaching even the far east of Japan in which Lambada is danced untill
 nowardays. 

THE 2ND BOOM 

The world-hit was so strong that brought something almost unbelievable: 
it came back to Brazil, but this time at the economicaly evolved 
south-east region (a region on which decades over, Brazil imported 
foreign music). This re-insertion of Lambada changed the way people 
danced, and for the first time in more than 30 years, since the 
Beatles, young couples started to dance together once more. If today
 we in Brazil have thousands of Ballroom dancing schools, a web-list,
 and plenty young happy people dancing together, we owe it to Kaoma's
 international success. 

This second wave I call the 2nd Lambada Boom. This was a far greater
 happenning which let us with strong new marks on our culture. Besides
 the fact that young people came back to the Ballroom dancing, the 
Lambada became internationally known as much as the Samba. 

A funny irony on this story is that the world most known Lambada music: 
"Chorando se foi" (which means: the one who left crying) is in fact a
 bolivian music called "Llorando se fue" (which has the same meaning).
 At the cover of that bolivian album, the title was Lambada, and here 
goes another tale: that Lambada had its origin in Bolivia, which definitly
 is a great mistake. 

THE CHANGING 

With world repercution, the dance reached far distortions. Due to a lack 
of fine Lambada dancers to make films and shows, most professional dancers
 started changing the way it was danced. Rock spins and steps were added
 (like those from Jive and East coast swing) , and also some acrobatical 
movements became more common-placed. 

Just to make a point, I myself remember to have watched to a Lambada 
contest at "Lambateria UM" (a place of Lambada) in which the contestants 
were to be eliminated if ever they became separated during the dance. 

Among with the Lambada music playing in every radio station, some musician
 tryed to follow the trend and recorded some songs who became real hits. 
Some of these guys were like Sidney Magal and Fafá de Belém. Soon enough 
although, these well-known singers showed themselves as just a few guys 
wanting to make some easy money and were forgotten as a reference on 
Lambada music. 

THE DECLINE AND THE NEW MUSIC 

After these up's & down's the Lambada composers were starting to fade 
away. The music and dance lost its strength, and let hordes of millions 
of fans all over the world helpless. 

Some very resistent dancers started to use other music styles to keep on
 dancing this so early discovered pleasure before it died forever. 

This way, people gathered the habit of using many of the caribeean music 
like Soca, Merengue, Salsa and Zouk to dance the Lambada. (During 
that time...) There was also another band which sold plenty discs in 
Brazil associated with Lambada: the Rumba band called The Gipsy Kings. 

Finally the dance recovered most of its original way and style, with 
less acrobatical moves, smoother, intimate and closer contact. 
Unfortunatly as stated by some people like Israel Szerman (a brasilian
 teacher), nowardays the dance changed its name to Zouk (on most parts
 of Brazil), mainly because of our orphanage. 

After all I inquire myself wether it is indeed so wrong the dance 
should now be called Zouk. One way or the other Zouk is a kind of 
step-father or even an adoptive-father to our Lambada dancing style. 

This issue seems to philosophical to me. The main pourpose on bringing 
this text to you is to contribute on a history which I had the luck and
 opportunity to live along, and so try to record the truth as it did 
really happen. 

Happy shall be the people whose country has a so rich culture in which 
one can choose its own national rythm. 

And even happier shall be the people who can take care of its own 
culture as it shall never die. 

A great hug to all "Lambadeiros" and "Zoukeiros" 

Chico Peltier - Sao Paulo - Brasil (sorry folks, this last one goes
 with a S) 

Translated by Claudio Falcao of Rio de Janeiro