Brought my good friend Albertina with me to the Timbuktu concert on Saturday to show her what I consider one of the absolutely best Swedish bands out there. She liked the music enough to invite them to guest her music programme on Mozambican TV, despite not understanding a word of what they were singing about. “The beats were so great!”

So I set up the connection, and on Monday we went to the studio. It was random, improvised and great fun – the guys got to dance, answer questions, and freestyle some beats and songs on live TV. Suddenly one of them made the weirdest move when dancing, and the TV presenter picked it up, forcing everybody to do the move again and again, I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. Now I am just waiting to spot “The Swedish dance” in a Maputo nightclub.

We took cabs to the fish market where we had prawns, fish, squid and drinks. Sea food seriously doesn’t get better than here and the guys were very happy. We ate, giggled, spoke a lot, and appreciated questionable art. And then we continued/went home/what?

I found myself in hotel Cardoso as one of the guys had “met this really cool Brazilian girl” the other night. I wasn’t sure what that meant or what my role was in the set up but I was already having a good time and decided to join when invited. “It’s great that you are here, maybe you can help us communicate!” We went up to a suite where Flora and her great friends welcomed us warmly. E took his computer and gear out, went “I’ve made a beat for you!” and they started listening, improvising, and making magic. Music that is – because Erik is a great musician who also makes beats, and apparently, Flora Matos is the biggest female MC in Brazil. And I wouldn’t doubt it for a second, the girl was extremely talented. E’s sounds, Floras beautiful Brazilian accent, looping over and over again – until we got two extremely catchy tunes, loads of content smiles, and a blurry group photo.

I’m voting for all my Mondays to be this random and fantastic.

Here are two small video insights.

Timbuktu and his band Damn! made it from Sweden all the way to my beloved Maputo. They were playing in the FEIMA park right after a really happy and nice Stewart Sukuma concert, all organized by the Swedish Embassy.

People all ages danced and sang along, for me it was a wonderful feeling to get to sing in Swedish and hop around to songs I’ve known for years right after a very traditional Mozambican marrabenta show. It was all there, at the same place! The audience chanted “En gång till!” which is “one more time” in Swedish, and we made Timbuktu and the band jump, dance and sing for us until it was completely dark.

We moved on to an after party at the Scandinavian school where we had drinks and talks before taking the band with us to show them Maputo by night – concert, street party, local bar, clubbing – some even managed to hang in there until early morning, the way we do it here in Mozambique!

For those of you who don’t know any of the musicians, here are two old videos from Youtube to give you a sense of what they are like.