“Originally from Taiwan and now one of California’s rising young jazz artists, here is Ponpon Chen and her quintet,” the announcer of US news program World News Now said as the credits rolled on a broadcast on May 9.
Fronting her band with an electric guitar, Taiwanese jazz musician Ponpon Chen (陳芃瑄) broke into her unique rendition of American musical comedian Barry Mitchell’s World News Polka.
“It’s late at night, you’re wide awake and you’re not wearing pants. So grab your World News Now mug and everybody dance,” Chen sang jubilantly as the rest of her quintet — Aaron Provisor on keys, Jim Jedeikin on saxophone, Lakshmi Ramirez on bass and Mark San Filippo on drums — backed her up with a boisterous “Hey.”
Photo: CNA
Originally commissioned by David Bohrman, the showrunner at ABC’s World News Now, the tune was supposed to be a one-off gag to irritate one of the program’s original anchors, Lisa McRee, who was known to hate the polka.
Mitchell was initially brought on to pen the jingle with tongue-in-cheek lyrics to run down the news of the week in a one-time deal before the popularity of the song saw the comedian record more than 100 versions with his accordion.
The jingle has been the news program’s Friday theme song for more than 30 years.
Recently, Mitchell invited artists to post their own versions on YouTube, with some to be chosen to air after the Friday taping, with Chen and her band among those selected.
With the appearance, Chen and her quintet joined a pantheon of prestigious duet collaborators and guest performers such as actor William Shatner, singer “Weird Al” Yankovic and Kermit the Frog.
“Have some fun. Be a pal. Every anchor guy and gal, do the World News Polka,” Chen sang before a resounding and tuney whistle followed by her signature improvized scatting.
The 23 year-old Los Angeles resident is based in the Studio City Sound recording studio, where she does most of her sessions and practice.
Not only has the facility been used by music legends such as Rod Stewart and Weezer, it is also the location that gave her the chance to meet her jazz idol George Benson, as well as Tom Weir, the studio’s Grammy Award-winning owner, who sat down with Chen on Thursday last week with the Central News Agency to talk about her ABC News debut.
Weir said that he met Chen six months ago in the hallway of the studio, and quickly recognized her talent and potential.
Weir complimented Chen on her one-of-a-kind vocal style, which mixes singing with whistling, as well as scatting, a unique sound most often used in jazz, with vocalists using their voice as an instrument to make sounds that go with the rhythm of their songs.
He also praised Chen’s guitar playing, adding that her unique vocal style “animates” her solos.
“It’s like an animated version of a guitar solo,” Weir said of Chen’s style. “There’s a million singers out there and a lot of guitar people. There’s very few people that combine it together with singing, scatting, whistling and that kind of stuff with true talent.”
Weir encouraged Chen to upload videos of her performances onto his YouTube channel, ensuring the Taiwanese musician that things would go well for her.
“I said, Ponpon, put your e-mail in the video because the videos had done so well and I bet someone’s gonna get a hold of you.”
World News Now came knocking in early May after ABC News’ production team saw the two videos of her playing in jazz clubs in Los Angeles.
On writing her interpretation of the jingle, Chen said that while she has had a lot of experience performing live in the US, the polka was the first time that she had to arrange a tune.
She said she spent three days without sleep before completing the version that was shown just two days after she and her band recorded the track on May 7, an arrangement that Weir said was “really, really special.”
“Tom gave me the idea” of the intro, she said. “He asked me whether or not I had watched ABC, which I really had not, so he hummed the rhythm and told me that Americans will automatically know the news is coming on upon hearing the opening.”
The 1 minute, 45 second clip had been viewed 1.2 million times on ABC News’ Facebook page alone, not counting other platforms, including YouTube.
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