B-side "Whimsical Touch" Length 4:25 | Released 1986 | |
Format 7" single, 12" maxi, CD maxi Genre Hip hop, pop-rap, dance-pop Label Rush Records,
High Fashion Music | ||
"Holiday Rap" is a 1986 rap song recorded by Dutch duo MC Miker G & DJ Sven. The debut single of the duo, it was released in most European countries in 1986 and achieved success, topping the chart in France (it was the first number-one rap hit and the 591st best-selling single of all time in that country), Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. While a relative failure in the U.S., the single managed to reach the Top 10 in Canada in the spring of 1987.
Music and lyrics
Musically, the song is based on Madonna's 1983 hit "Holiday". DJ Martin van der Schagt had a home studio where he recorded the demo version of "Holiday Rap" using the original tape loops of Madonna's "Holiday". Not possible for a commercial release, producer Ben Liebrand figured out which instruments were used in the original and re-recorded the music from scratch as opposed to sampling the original, with different lyrics and new melodies. In the lyrics, both singers tell of their summer vacations in various towns, such as London and New York. The song also features an interpolation of the chorus of Cliff Richard's "Summer Holiday". Following the success of the "Holiday Rap", Russian Sergey Minaev, a pop singer of the mid-1980s, performed his cover called "DJ's Rap (Рэп дискжокея)", which gained strong popularity throughout the USSR in 1989.
The music video illustrating the song was named by MuchMusic as the worst video of 1986.