Sat, May 11, 2013 page10

• BBC in hot seat as anti-Thatcher song climbs chart 反柴契爾歌曲登上排行榜　英國廣播公司頭大

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  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.

  

  An employee arranges a copy of a Margaret Thatcher biography at a bookshop in London on April 23. 一位倫敦書店店員四月二十三日在店內整理一本柴契爾夫人的自傳。

  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）

  For your information

  TODAY’S WORDS 今日單字

  1. hot seat n. phr. 尷尬局面；眾矢之的 (gan1 ga4 ju2 mian4; zhong4 shi3 zhi1 di4) 例: When the company ran into financial trouble, it was the accountant who found herself in the hot seat. (當這家公司陷入財務困境時，公司會計發現她成了眾矢之的。) 2. polarizing adj. 兩極化的 (liang3 ji2 hua4 de5) 例: The new leader’s polarizing policies have caused a public outcry. (新領導人兩極化的政策已導致民眾撻伐。) 3. coda n. 最終章 (zui4 zhong1 zhang1) 例: In a fitting coda to his career, he served as ambassador to China. (他獲任命為駐中國大使，作為他職業生涯的合適終點。)
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