Opponents of the late Margaret Thatcher are taking a kind of musical revenge on the former prime minister, pushing the song Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead up the British charts in a posthumous protest over her polarizing policies.
The online campaign had propelled the Wizard of Oz song to No. 1 on British iTunes and into the top five of the music chart used by the BBC to compile its weekly radio countdown.
The unusual campaign has caused a headache for the BBC. With the ditty near the top of the charts, the broadcaster faced the prospect of airing the words “The Wicked Witch is Dead!” on its Sunday countdown show, just days before Thatcher’s funeral.
Photo: EPA
照片:歐新社
The controversy, which made the front pages of many national newspapers, serves as a strange musical coda to Thatcher’s time in office. The woman known to many as the “Iron Lady” was in power for 11 years, during which she wrenched Britain from the economic doldrums and successfully retook the Falkland Islands after Argentina’s 1982 invasion.
Many still resent Thatcher for her uncompromising stance against the country’s labor unions and what they saw as her inhumanity toward the working class. The campaign to send Ding Dong! to the top of the charts began soon after she died of a stroke at London’s Ritz Hotel.
(AP)
已故英國前首相柴契爾夫人的反對者正對她採取一項音樂復仇行動,讓《叮咚!女巫死了》這首歌登上英國熱門單曲排行榜,在柴契爾死後抗議她曾推動讓國家陷入貧富兩極的政策。
這項網路運動已讓音樂劇《綠野仙蹤》裡的這首插曲成為英國iTunes音樂排行榜第一名,更打進BBC排行榜前五名,BBC每週都會在電台節目中播放榜單上的熱門歌曲。
這項不尋常的運動讓BBC非常頭痛。由於這首歌排名已接近榜首,BBC面臨可能必須在柴契爾葬禮舉行數天前,於週日流行音樂排行榜電台節目中公開播出「這邪惡巫婆死了!」等字眼的難題。
這項爭議已成為許多全國性報紙的頭條新聞,更替柴契爾首相任內政績譜出古怪的音樂終曲。以「鐵娘子」外號為人熟知的柴契爾任職首相長達十一年,曾經大力扭轉英國陷入蕭條的經濟,也曾在阿根廷一九八二年入侵後,成功奪回福克蘭群島。
許多民眾至今仍憎恨柴契爾堅決不向英國工會讓步,以及對勞工階級冷血無情的態度。柴契爾因中風在倫敦麗池飯店去世後不久,就有人在網路上發起把《叮咚》一曲送上排行榜榜首的運動。
(美聯社/翻譯:俞智敏)
South Korea’s famous kimchi is falling victim to climate change, with scientists, farmers and manufacturers saying the quality and quantity of the napa cabbage that is pickled to make the ubiquitous dish is suffering due to rising temperatures. Napa cabbage thrives in cooler climates, and is usually planted in mountainous regions where temperatures during the key growing summer season once rarely rose above 25 degrees Celsius. Studies show that warmer weather brought about by climate change is now threatening these crops, so much so that South Korea might not be able to grow napa cabbage one day due to the intensifying heat. “We
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