"Mambo No. 5" is an instrumental mambo and jazz dance song originally composed and recorded by Cuban musician Dámaso Pérez Prado in 1949 and released the next year. German singer Lou Bega sampled the original for a new song released under the same name on Bega's 1999 debut album, A Little Bit of Mambo. Lou Bega version German singer Lou Bega recorded a cover of the song and released it in April 1999 as the first single from his debut album, A Little Bit of Mambo (1999). His version became a summer hit during 1999 in most of Europe. Later that year, it experienced success in the United Kingdom, North America, and Oceania. In France, it set a record by staying at number one for 20 weeks. The song reached number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 on 2 November 1999, giving Bega his only top-40 hit in the United States. Critical reception Elisabeth Vincentelli from Entertainment Weekly rated the song with an B minus, adding, "All of a sudden, mambo is hot again, and the unlikely city of Munich is on the Latin-music map. For this we have to thank the Ugandan-Italian Bega and his German producing team, who have hit pay dirt by tacking new lyrics onto an old Perez Prado song. While purists scream murder, the upbeat tune and bouncy, '80s-style synthesizers will rule weddings for months to come." Copyright dispute The song became the subject of a seven-year copyright trial between Prado's estate, the music publisher Peermusic, and Bega's producers. Bega had only used riffs (which by German law cannot be registered for copyright) from Prado's original and written the entire lyrics, so Bega's producers went to court in order to gain access to all the song's proceedings from Peermusic representing Prado's estate. However, after seven years the Federal Court of Justice of Germany ruled in favor of Peermusic and Prado's estate in 2008, based upon the fact that Bega's producers had sought a royalty agreement with Peermusic prior to releasing the song. Because of Bega's significant contributions to his version, the court's final ruling declared it a new song co-written by Prado and Bega. Music video The accompanying music video for "Mambo No. 5", directed by Joern Heitmann, features Lou Bega singing and dancing with flappers. An alternate music video aired on Disney Channel, featuring clips from various Disney films and television series, with