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The Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland Lyrics

Girl from Ipanema goes to Greenland
Girl from Ipanema goes to Greenland

Witch-doctors are screaming
Nymphs are dreaming
This girl's lost someone
Who is that someone
She's leaving

Girl from Ipanema goes to Greenland
Girl from Ipanema goes to Greenland

Hot latitudes, cool atitudes
She's leaving
Moon in her mirror
Chasing northern lights
She goes. Ahhh

Girl from Ipanema goes to Greenland

Remember wherever you go
There you are

Girl from Ipanema goes to Greenland
Girl from Ipanema goes to Greenland
(Repeat)
Song Info
Submitted by
ice On Jul 04, 2002
3 Meanings

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Cover art for The Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland lyrics by B-52's, The

This song seems to have two meanings. First, it's about the Girl from Ipanema, who keeps walking past all the guys. She hasn't found anyone worth staying for, so she leaves for the opposite of Ipanema, which is Greenland, But she can't escape her own pickiness in men.

It also speaks to how much the world has opened up. That you can be in Greenland and listen to "Girl from Ipanema" because of technology means you can have an experience that doesn't necessarily coincide with your location. It also means that you can't escape songs like this no matter where you go.

I never thought of it that way. But what about the part where she's lost someone? Where does that fit?

Cover art for The Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland lyrics by B-52's, The

I don't know if I'd consider it a good companion song to "The Girl From Ipanema", but all by itself this is a fun song.

Cover art for The Girl from Ipanema Goes to Greenland lyrics by B-52's, The

I see the song as a response to "The Girl from Ipanema". In that song, she's always walking past everyone, her beauty causing everyone to sigh ("they go aaah") as she passes, but where is she going? Why is she passing by all those people?

This song feels like it's answering that question. The Girl is not happy in her fantastical Brazilian homeland - "Witch doctors are screaming, nymphs are dreamin....Hot latitudes, cool attitudes". She also seems to have lost someone important to her. Thus, she leaves Ipanema and goes north to Greenland, where she herself "goes aaaah".

I don't suppose there is anything specifically symbolic about Greenland. However, it does serve as a stark contrast and opposite to what the Girl already knows from her current life. In that case, maybe the song is about how opposites attract, or how we want whatever we don't have?

Or, it could just be a song with nonsense lyrics, made more for the music and the fun than for the meaning of words.

 
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