What time is it???
Well we’re about to have that question answered in a very cheesy, disco-funk fashion. It is, it turns out, Chico Time.
It’s Chico Time, by Chico (his 1st and only #1)
2 weeks, from 5th – 19th March 2006
Yousseph ‘Chico’ Slimani had been a contestant on the previous year’s X-Factor, going home in the quarter finals as Shayne Ward went on to win. Yet despite finishing nowhere near the final three, Chico was the only other contestant from that series to have a number one. He was the season’s novelty act, the blueprint for later ‘comedy’ turns from the likes of Jedward and Wagner, and came out with the sort of debut single that most would have expected. In fact, he had performed it on the show the previous November, and it was pretty rare for X Factor contestants to be allowed, or to even have ready, an original song.
‘It’s Chico Time’ is nonsense – a complete novelty – but it’s not awful. It reminds me of a so many other songs; so many little bits nicked here and there that I can’t name all its many influences. The strongest whiffs, to my ears, and from a chart-topping perspective, are from ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’, and ‘Who Do You Think You Are‘. And ‘Uptown Funk’, despite that song not existing for another decade. Maybe Bruno Mars is a Chico fan…?
What Chico Time actually involves, and what activities one might take part in at this hour, is left largely a mystery. Until the middle eight, which is all over the place musically, but is also when this previously family friendly track gets a little saucy. Shake it naughty, Come on baby bump my body… It’s probably worth mentioning here that a pre-fame Chico had worked as a stripper… At its heart, though, this song is a lesson in foregoing self-importance. You can get delirious if you take life too serious… There are worse mantras to live by.
Despite the stage name, Chico was not Spanish. He had been raised in Morocco, but born in Wales! He joins Sir Tom and Dame Shirley in the ranks of chart-topping Welshpeople. That is a Pointless answer if ever I heard one. He had one further Top 40 hit, a cover of ‘D.I.S.C.O’ (with the lyrics changed to ‘C.H.I.C.O.’) which made #24, but little else. An attempt to resurrect his biggest hit as ‘It’s England Time’ for the 2010 World Cup thankfully went uncharted.
His post-‘Chico Time’ career is an interesting mix of charity causes: Prince’s Trust, Cambodian orphanages, and water charities in Africa. I had to do a double take at finding out that his single ‘Curvy Cola Bottle Body Baby’, in which he celebrated the larger ladies, was released to raise money for an eating disorder charity! He’s appeared at religious events singing traditional Islamic songs, and at anti-Covid vaccine protests. He had a stroke in 2018 but made a strong recovery. There is never a dull day, it seems, when you are on Chico time.
