"Os Quindins de Yayá" is a famous Brazilian song written by the renowned Brazilian songwriter Ary Barroso

Ary Barroso

Ary Barroso was a Brazilian composer, pianist, soccer commentator, and talent-show host on radio and TV...

 and first released in 1941.
It gained international fame when it was sung by Aurora Miranda

Aurora Miranda

Aurora Miranda da Cunha was a Brazilian entertainer. Her sister was Carmen Miranda. Miranda began her career at the age of 18 in 1933...

 in the Disney film The Three Caballeros

The Three Caballeros

The Three Caballeros is a 1944 American animated feature film, produced by Walt Disney and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. The film premiered in Mexico City on December 21, 1944. It was released in the United States on February 3, 1945...

.

Meaning

A quindim

Quindim

Quindim is a popular Brazilian baked dessert, made chiefly from sugar, egg yolks, and ground coconut. It is a custard and usually presented as an upturned cup with a glistening surface and intensely yellow color....

 is a popular Brazilan baked desert that is typically yellow

Yellow

Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...

 and contains sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

, egg yolk

Egg yolk

An egg yolk is a part of an egg which feeds the developing embryo. The egg yolk is suspended in the egg white by one or two spiral bands of tissue called the chalazae...

, and ground coconut

Coconut

The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...

.
As is common with Portuguese words ending in the letter "m", the plural form of the word "quindim" is spelt with an "n", as it is in this song.
Yayá is a term of endearment that was originally used amongst Brazil's black slaves.
Yayá is an old fashioned spelling of the word and some versions of the song have spelt it as Iaiá instead.

Versions

The song has been recorded by a variety of artists including Ciro Monteiro & Orchestra, Nuno Roland with Simon Bountman e sua Orchestra do Cassino Copacabana,
Fernanado Alvarez with Regional,
Roberto Inglez,
César de Alencar & Emilinha Borba

Emilinha Borba

Emilinha Borba was a Brazilian singer and actress. She was named "Rainha do Rádio", "Queen of the Radio" in 1953. Borba endured for 30 years as a popular Brazilian radio singer and was noted for rumbas and sambas.- External links :*...

, Trio Irakitan with Conjunto Coral de Severino Filho,
and Bola de Nieve

Bola de Nieve

Bola de Nieve , born Ignacio Jacinto Villa, was a successful Cuban singer-pianist and songwriter, whose round, black face earned him the nickname by which he was always known....

.

Perhaps the most famous version of the song was sung by Aurora Miranda

Aurora Miranda

Aurora Miranda da Cunha was a Brazilian entertainer. Her sister was Carmen Miranda. Miranda began her career at the age of 18 in 1933...

 for the Disney film The Three Caballeros

The Three Caballeros

The Three Caballeros is a 1944 American animated feature film, produced by Walt Disney and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. The film premiered in Mexico City on December 21, 1944. It was released in the United States on February 3, 1945...

. In the film Donald Duck

Donald Duck

Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...

 and José Carioca

José Carioca

José Carioca is a Disney cartoon character drawn as an anthropomorphized parrot from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil . José was created in 1943 for the movie Saludos Amigos as a friend of Donald Duck, described by Time as "a dapper Brazilian parrot, who is as superior to Donald Duck as the Duck was to...

 travel to Bahia where they see a woman (Aurora Miranda) carrying a basket full of quindins that she is trying to sell and singing "Os Quindins de Yayá". A large group of men soon gather around her and join in the song.

On the official soundtrack of "The Three Caballeros", the song was sung by Nestor Amaral with Bando Da Lua and with Charles Wolcott

Charles Wolcott

Charles Wolcott served as a member of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme governing body of the Bahá'í Faith, between 1963 and 1987.Wolcott was born in Flint, Michigan, USA...

 and his Orchestra.

An instrumental version performed by Stanley Black

Stanley Black

Stanley Black OBE was an English Bandleader, Composer, conductor, arranger and pianist. He wrote and arranged many film scores and recorded prolifically for the Decca label...

 and his Piano Barroso was featured in the film Strictly Ballroom

Strictly Ballroom

Strictly Ballroom is a 1992 Australian romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Baz Luhrmann and produced by M&A Productions. The film is the first installment in The Red Curtain Trilogy, Luhrmann's trilogy of theatre-motif-related films; the follow-ups were Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!...

(1992).