“Bananza (Belly Dancer)” by Akon

By the looks of things, “bananza” is not an actual word but rather a term derived from bonanza and actually, as used in this song, alluding to the concept of ‘going bananas’. Telling someone to ‘go bananas’ is another way of saying to act crazy and get wild. And as implied by the title, who Akon is giving such instructions to is the female dancers in the house, more specifically urging them to freely “shake your body like belly dancer”.

The Lyrics

The first verse however is primarily based on Mr. Lonely kickin’ it to a lady who is so hot in his eyes, that he gets aroused just by looking at her. Apparently she has a boyfriend, but that doesn’t seem to stop the vocalist from successfully seducing her. And the passage concludes with the two of them ‘meeting at the hutter house’, which we will presume is perhaps Akon’s crib, while he basically sits back and watches her “shake that ass”.

Meanwhile, the second verse is set in what appears to be a dance club or obviously more to the point a strip club. And once again, the vocalist finds himself completely enamored with a lady’s body, with said lady evidently being a stripper. And she puts on such an effective show for Akon and his homeys that he ‘blesses’ her with cash accordingly.

Then the bridge further buttresses the idea that this is a dance-sex song. Indeed readers familiar with Akon’s career know that at times he has displayed, shall we say an unbridled sexuality. Or put more bluntly, Akon likes sex and isn’t afraid to let the world know it. 

And “Bananza” is one of those songs that helped him establish such a persona, as the bridge illustrates that he’s not interested solely in watching booties shake but also ‘grabbing a hottie after the party’, if you know what he means.

Facts about “Bananza (Belly Dancer)”

UMG, UpFront Records and SRC Records released this track on 21 June 2005. It came out as the fourth single from Akon’s classic debut album, “Trouble”. 

Akon produced “Bananza” himself. He also acted as one of its co-writers, accomplishing this task alongside the following:

• Lynval Golding
• Terence Hall
• Neville Staple

Actually there are three tracks sampled into “Bananza”. These tracks are – 

• Buffalo Springfield’s 1966’s “For What It’s Worth” (1966)
• Treacherous Three’s 1980’s “Body Rock”
• Fun Boy Three’s 1982’s “The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum” 

And more specifically that latter song was written by the aforementioned co-writers of “Bananza” besides Akon, i.e. the three musicians who made up the short-lived Fun Boy Three.

Shortly after “Bananza” was released, Akon came out with a remix of the song featuring Canadian rapper Kardinal Offishall.

Some parties may rather refer to this song as “Belly Dancer (Bananza)” as opposed to “Bananza (Belly Dancer)”. In any event the tune proved to be a notable success, going gold in the United States and peaking at number five on the UK Singles Chart.