As part of the release of the Insider's Guide to Ghana, we’re giving away two nights stay at Ko-Sa Beach Resort just outside of Elmina to the first reader who can find the titles of 20 pop and rock songs we’ve interspersed throughout the guide. The two nights will be in a private, thatch bungalow valued at 65 GHC per night. That’s 130 GHC or about US$95. Check out to see what we’re talking about.
Our contribution: We’ll take care of the payment for 2 nights room charge.
Your contribution: Identify the titles of 20 songs interspersed throughout the guide and email them to us. We don’t care if you number them or not—we just want 20 titles. Then turn up and enjoy three days and two nights on the beach just outside of Elmina on us.
A few hints. There are no single-word song titles. So, “RESPECT” is not included in the competition, nor is “Imagine”.
To make it a little easier, we’ll give you the first one now. This is, by far, the most obvious title. Excerpted from page 6 of the introduction:
“because the second most important survival attribute is (not an ability to spout useless 80s pop trivia but, rather) a Scooby-Doo-like, Dogged Determination. (By the way, if you’re under thirty, you’re probably not still singing “whoah-oh, living on a prayer-er…” Anyway, whatever age, you’ll be saying your prayers in Ghana—especially on the road.)”
So, the first title in the competition is Living on a Prayer. There is no need to give us the name of the artist, but you can if you wish. (eg. Bon Jovi.) We really just want the song title. The other 19 titles are interspersed throughout the guide. We’re not so mean as to have hidden them in the long lists of embassies or in the detailed visa information for investors (or anything most short-term travelers don’t need to read).
However, there is at least one in every section, several songs in some sections and only one song in others. You will have to read the whole guide (minus the lists of embassies, clinics, etc) to find them.
If you happen to find a song title that’s not included in our official list, but is a real song title of more than one word, we’ll allow it. If you can’t find all 20, send as many as you can. After 2 months of the release, we’ll contact the person with the highest number of titles. But we feel someone will identify all 20 pretty quickly. We’ll post about it so you know this is for real.
Now, one last tip, having a knowledge of 80s rock and roll and alternative music from the UK, US and Australia will help greatly. But keeping an open mind on 70s disco and a bit of country and western wouldn’t hurt either. In fact, about 90% is pre-1990, but a couple of tracks are recent.
OK, now this is really the last tip. When you read an odd sounding line in the guide, as if it was oddly phrased or superfluous, you might find a song title hidden in the words—even if you don’t recognize it as such. But googling that line might help uncover a song.
Right, so we’re off to Accra later today and have to post this now. I can’t wait to get on the road again. Looking forward to the emails.
Email all entries to either gayle@g-lish.org or gaylepescud@gmail.com .
We’ll print the winner (if they like) and all 20 song titles and location in the guide when we have a winner.