The band Toto was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1977. Throughout the years they have had many changes to their lineup but the original members were Steve Lukather (vocals, guitar, piano), David Paich (keyboard, vocals), Jeff Porcaro (drums, percussion), Steve Porcaro (synthesizers, vocal), David Hungate (bass guitar, guitar), and Bobby Kimball (vocals, keyboard). In the late 70's and throughout the 80's they enjoyed great commercial success. They are best known for the Top 3 hits: "Hold the Line", "Rosanna", and "Africa".
Africa is a song about a man who has to chose between the country (Africa) watching a late-night documentary about the what horrible deaths and sufferings going on with the people in Africa at that time. He had never been to Africa before writing the song.
Toto did not expect the song to become as popular as it did. It was just a song written to close off the album "TotoIV".
The music video for Africa is very conceptual with interesting imagery and an abstract storyline. The video is very much open to interpretation. I have attached a link of the music video below.
https://youtu.be/FTQbiNvZqaY
Source:
"Africa by Toto." Song Facts. Songfacts. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3009>.
Choir Comment 3
ReplyDeleteAt first when I heard that song (that I never heard before) I didn’t like it and thought it was weird but since I heard the story of the song I now know its going to be fun. I also know see why its called Africa with the rainforest rain in the beginning. I excited to see how it ends up like. I’m a little sad to find out that we had no words but doo and the men doo get words but that’s okay. See what I did there hahaha. I’m so excited to do the classical concert and excited for all the songs everybody’s doing and especially the song africa which will soon be my favorite like every time in choir.