Last night I dreamed I was at the finals. I was dressed in full Oranje regalia with a cheese wedge hat. With an hour to go before the finals, nerves at all three Martin-Verhoeven camps are high and I keep getting random bouts of the goosebumps. I’ve been practicing my Roger Milla-inspired goal dance (with the hopes that I will be calling upon it at least once this afternoon) and am so hopped up on coffee I can’t quite complete a sentence. The final day of the cup is here and, although I clearly want my Dutch peeps to come out on top, it’s just a thrill to watch them fight for the chance.

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Algerian raï, Congolese soukous, Senegalese mbalax: the music of Africa is as diverse as its people, climate, food – as diverse as, well, Africa. The tie that seems to hold the continent’s music together lies in its ability to hypnotize, to start your legs moving before you realize they’re doing so, to make joy rise up and provoke a sing-along regardless of the fact that you don’t speak a word of Swahili or Bambara. Here are my African favorites of the decade – each of which represents rich memories of celebration and dancing as those were the times that I turned to these oeuvres: daily dance-a-thons rituals with my brother to Mariama by Pape & Cheikh, coasting through the Atlas mountains of Morocco with Tinariwen leading the way… Just a few more hours and we will be turning the page, welcoming a new year, a new decade – I can’t wait to see what the world of musicians have waiting in the wings for us all! Tracks after the jump!

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