5 Hungarian songs that were sampled by well-known foreign artists – VIDEOS

Many Hungarian songs appear in world-famous artists’ discographies, as numerous artists have used their rhythm and melodies as inspiration for their hits.

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Sampling songs

Sampling is one of the most used methods in the process of making music. Reusing a portion of a sound recording, its melody, rhythm, speech or sound effects can be considered the foundation of hip-hop music, but other genres tend to do it, especially in the 21st century. There are several cases when world-famous musical artist have integrated Hungarian songs into their music, here’s a list of the best-known ones.

Gyöngyhajú Lány by Omega (1969) – New Slaves by Kanye West (2013)

The track Gyöngyhajú lány (Pearl-haired girl) is probably the best-known sample in the list. Unfortunately, the rapper used the band’s song without permission in his track New Slaves, so Gábor Presser, the songwriter sued him in 2016. Since then, they settled the case out of court. Gyöngyhajú Lány was not only a domestic success as it is one of the most well-known songs among Hungarians, it was a hit overseas as well.

Visz a vonat by Zsuzsa Koncz (1970) – We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches feat. Blood Orange (2020)

During her nearly sixty-year career, Zsuzsa Koncz became one of the defining personalities of Hungarian popular music. She was primarily known for his poetry albums and songs with political content some of them were even banned before the regime change. The track Visz a vonat was released in 1970 in the album called Szerelem (Love). The Australian music group, Avalanches released their song We Will Always Love You featuring Blood Orange in 2020, and the song contains a sample from Zsuzsa Koncz’s, and two other tracks as well.

Add már, uram az esőt by Kati Kovács (1972) – Woohoo by Christina Aguilera feat. Nicki Minaj (2010)

Add már, uram az esőt was performed for the first time in 1972 and became the winning song of the Táncdal Festival (literally Festival of dance music) in the same year. The track was released in English and German and won an award in Dresden too. Christina Aguilera used a sample of it in her song Woohoo featuring Nicki Minaj in 2010, and released it as a single for her album titled Bionic.

A Siker by Locomotiv GT (1982) – Breeze by Prodigy and The Alchemist (2013)

Locomotive GT (or just LGT) was one of the most influential bands of Hungarian rock music. They not only toured in several European countries but also performed at festivals in Japan, the UK and the USA. Their song A Siker (Success) was released in 1982. Prodigy sampled the track in 2013 on their album called Albert Einstein in the song Breeze.

Lehajtott Fejjel by Generál (1972) – Worlds to Run by Busdriver, Milo and Anderson .Paak (2015)

Worlds to Run, a track featuring the 8-time Grammy-winning artist Anderson .Paak samples Lehajtott Fejjel by the Hungarian band Generál, a defining musical group of the 70s. Strangely, Generál was more popular abroad than in Hungary, where they performed in stadiums in front of thousands of people at that time. In addition to the GDR and Poland, they also toured West Berlin and the Netherlands. The song Worlds to Run was written by Busdriver, an American rapper based in Los Angeles, and was released in 2015.

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