Ocho Kandelikas

"Ocho Kandelikas" (English, Eight Little Candles) is a Jewish song celebrating the holiday of Hanukkah. The song is sung in Ladino, a Spanish-derived language traditionally associated with the Sephardic Jewish community, whose ancestors lived in Spain before the 15th century CE. The song is often performed in an Argentine tango-rhythm with accompanying accordion and violins. Despite its traditional-sounding tone, "Ocho Kandelikas" is a modern composition, written by the Jewish-American composer Flory Jagoda in 1983. The lyrics of the song describes a child's joy of lighting the candles on the menorah. The song has been recorded and performed by the Portland-based lounge orchestra Pink Martini, the multilingual rock group Hip Hop Hoodios, the London-based jazz flamenco group Los Desterrados, the female a cappella ensemble Vocolot, Hazzan Alberto Mizrahi ("the Pavarotti of modern Jewish cantorial music") and Yasmin Levy, an Israeli singer-songwriter of Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino) music.