RIO DE JANEIRO was a Scandinavian sailor's song. In 1846 August Blanche borrowed the melody and chorus for his Swedish song SKÖNASTE PERLOR (The most beautiful pearls), which appeared in the comic play RIKA MORBROR (Rich maternal uncle). The lyrics to Blanche's song were printed at first as a broadside ballad and years later in songbooks. Almost certainly there are versions of the song in Norwegian and Danish.

In 1853 the Norwegian editor Ditmar Meidell wrote the lyrics for OLEANNA and set them to the melody of RIO DE JANEIRO. Blanche's song, which used the same tune, may have influenced Meidell's lyrics.

SKÖNASTE PERLOR appeared in the 1981 book EMIGRANT VISOR which was published in Stockholm, Sweden. This book is listed at WorldCat.

NOTES: The song reflects the racist attitudes of the time. In the interest of historical accuracy the offensive lines have not been censored. Andrew Carnegie was only eleven years old in 1846. The addition of his name must have come in later versions of the song.


SKÖNASTE PERLOR

Skönaste perlor
ur hafvet kan man fiska
tolftusen slafvar
de dansa för min piska
På Rio, Rio, Rio de Janeiro.

Jag har negrinnor —
den äldsta heter Martha —
Säkert fem tusen,
och alla ä' di svarta, På Rio etc.

Der växer socker
och snus och kaneler,
Der har jag öfver
hundrade kameler,
På Rio, etc.

Der utaf russin
och sviskon kan man lefva,
Gå kostymerad
som Adam och Eva, På Rio, etc.

Silfver ur bergen
man der kan taga gratis,
Guld växer der på åkern
som potatis, På Rio, etc.

Der är hvar torpare
rik som en Carnegie,
der äter boskapen
färsk spenat med ägg i,
På Rio, etc.

Ja, Rio de Janeiro,
det är land, som duger
Och ta mej tusan,
jag står för er och ljuger, På Rio, etc.

August Blanche 1846


THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PEARLS

The most beautiful pearls
you can fish from the sea,
twelve thousand slaves —
they dance to my whip.

In Rio, Rio, Rio de Janeiro.

I have Negro women —
the oldest is called Martha —
at least five thousand
and all are of them are black.

Sugar grows there
and snuff and cinnamon,
there I have over
one hundred camels.

There one can live
on raisins and prunes,
and go costumed
as Adam and Eve.

Silver from the mountains
you can take for free there
gold grows like potatoes
in the fields there.

There every sharecropper
is rich as a Carnegie,
there the cattle eat
fresh spinach with eggs

Yes, Rio de Janeiro,
that's a country that suits me,
and the devil take me
if I didn't stand before you and lie.

August Blanche 1846