At the Wave Hill gallery Sunday I explained Teena Marie to an artist from Portugal. Why? Be-cause, Teena Marie sang the Portuguese Love song ! I told her, “Teena Marie was a white American who sang like a black woman and she was a very popular R&B artist in the black community. She went to Portugal and fell in love with it, and with this guy and she wrote this song.” I sang with my eyes closed in passion and played air guitar to illustrate: Come on in Por-tu-guese. Say you love me baaaa-by. Come on in Por-tu-guese, say you love meeeeee… Saaay it to me, say it to me, say it to me, say you love me ba-by, Por-tu-guese love…
“Ohhh…,” she says when I finish. “Yeah she really loved him, and on the beach and everything,” I told her. We talked about other things too, but what started me on Teena Marie was our discussion of the Portuguese landscape. I thought of Teena Marie on the beach with this sexy Portuguese guy playing his guitar. By the way, I don’t think Teena Marie plays the guitar in this song. I just played air guitar in my version, plus everybody knows Teena Marie did play the guitar anyway.
The artist was really friendly. Her artwork by the way was kick-ass, photographs of trees completed by her sketch imaging. She was intrigued by Teena Marie, so she got a pen and a piece of paper. In her heavy Portuguese accent she asked, “How do you spell the first name?” “Oh yes, it’s T-e-e-n-a,” I said. I’m thinking, Holy shit! She’s really gonna listen to it?! I’m sure my fine air guitar and song rendition had everything to do with it. I wonder what a woman from Portugal would think of a song about Portuguese love written by a white woman who sings like a black person…
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