Hallo Bandoeng

{{Infobox song

| name = Hallo Bandoeng

| cover = Derby-single-Hallo Bandoeng.jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Willy Derby

| album =

| A-side = Hallo Bandoeng

| released = 1929

| recorded =

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| venue =

| genre = Levenslied

| length =

| label =

| writer = Willy Derby

| producer =

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}}

"Hallo Bandoeng" is a song by the Dutch levenslied singer {{ill|Willy Derby|nl|Willy Derby}} (real name: Willem Frederik Christiaan Dieben, 1886-1944). It was released in 1929 and sold more than 50,000 copies, an astronomical number for that time.{{cite web |title=Geschiedenis van Levenslied |url=http://www.muziekencyclopedie.nl/action/genre/levenslied |website=Muziekencyclopedie |publisher=Beeld en Geluid |accessdate=2016-07-18 |location=Hilversum, The Netherlands |language=nl |editor1-first=Gijs |editor1-last=Kimenai |editor2-first=Ruurd |editor2-last=Blom}} It was one of Derby's songs that became part of Dutch culture.{{cite web |url=http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/bwn1880-2000/lemmata/bwn5/diepen_w |title=Dieben, Willem Frederik Christiaan (1886-1944) |last1=Leenders |first1=Ben |date=2013-11-12 |accessdate=2016-07-18 |website=Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland |language=nl |publisher=Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands}} The phrase "Hallo Bandoeng" was well known at that time, as the usual opening used by Radio Kootwijk when establishing a connection with Bandung (in Dutch: "Bandoeng"), one of the most important cities in the then Dutch East Indies.{{cite news |url=http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2011/10/27/hallo-bandoeng-hier-radio-kootwijk-a1469381 |title=Hallo Bandoeng, hier Radio Kootwijk |newspaper=NRC Handelsblad |accessdate=2016-07-18 |date=2011-10-27 |first1=Kester |last1=Freriks |language=nl}}

Narrative

The song tells the story of an old woman, who spends the last of her money at Radio Kootwijk so that, for the first time in years, she can hear the voice of her son, who lives in Bandoeng with his "little brown wife" and their children. In the refrain, the son greets his mother and, with a sob, she greets her dearest boy. The son asks how she's doing ("How are you, old woman"), but her answer is only that she misses him so much.

When the woman asks about his wife, her son tells her that they talk about her every day and that the children pray for the grandmother they've never met each evening and kiss her portrait before going to sleep. In only four more years, he would return to the Netherlands and hug her. He then tells her that his youngest son is with him and the boy greets her: "Dear grandmother, tabe, tabe" (a greeting in Indonesian, now chiefly regional). Upon hearing this, the woman thanks God for allowing her to have heard her grandson's voice and collapses crying.

The last version of the refrain is modified. The son calls his mother again, but only hears a sob. The last sentence has the woman dead and the child calling "tabe".