Bali Ha'i

Album: South Pacific (1949)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Bali Ha'i" (also spelt "Bali Hai") has three things in common with "Over The Rainbow"; it is a song from a musical; it is about a mythical place; and its melody includes a jump of an octave and a descending major seventh at its beginning.

    With lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and music by Richard Rodgers, the song appears in the 1949 Broadway musical/1958 film South Pacific. Although Bali Ha'i is not a real place, it is based on Ambae, which is also known as Leper's Island, a name that unsurprisingly was not featured in the film, where it is sung by the Matriach of the island Bloody Mary to US serviceman Joseph Cable soon after his arrival during the Second World War. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England

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