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We are looking for a song (artist and title).

enter image description here


Other (independently solvable) puzzles of this type: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

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    $\begingroup$ Expecting more puzzles of this pattern. $\endgroup$
    – S K
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 16:36

2 Answers 2

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The song you are looking for is:

AFRICA, by the band TOTO

How? Well, first note that @legodude5000 (go upvote their answer!) has done a lot of the heavy lifting here and managed in the majority of cases to:

Identify which two countries' flags have been merged to form each of the combination flags in the puzzle. There are just a few corrections to be made (red text in the following image):

enter image description here

Now, note that these are all:

Countries on the African mainland

And if you:

Draw lines on a map of Africa connecting each flag-merged pair of countries, you get the following image:

enter image description here
Map courtesy of Google Maps

Hence we have:

The name of the band TOTO spelled out using pairs of flags from countries in AFRICA, which just so happens to be the title of one of their biggest hits!

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  • $\begingroup$ Well done, you get the check mark once again! $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 11, 2020 at 15:31
  • $\begingroup$ @sarsaparilla Thanks - I loves a good flags question, I do! $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Commented Feb 11, 2020 at 15:42
  • $\begingroup$ Good job! The title is also an hint for the solving process $\endgroup$
    – melfnt
    Commented Feb 11, 2020 at 17:07
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Partial answer because I'm not certain where to go from here, possibly because I've made some sort of error.

I noticed that

Each flag appears to be a combination of two flags from different African countries.

A graphic showing this:

Flag Combinations

And some observations:

  • Each country is used twice, except for South Sudan and Gabon, which are each used once on only the seventh flag.
  • Not every combination is set in stone; for example the ninth flag could also be Central African Republic + Namibia to fit the color scheme but not the pattern, or + South Sudan (though now Kenya would only be used once)
  • Some possible trains of thought were that the "chain of countries" between flags might be useful, in which case I have:
  • Egypt, Libya, Chad, Sudan
  • Mauritania, Liberia
  • Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya
  • Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Angola
  • South Sudan, Gabon [no wrap around]
  • Right now, the tags don't help with whether I should rely on word patterns between country names, geographic knowledge of where the countries are or what their capitals are, historical knowledge of similarities between these countries, etc. I'll leave it to someone with more knowledge and time than I to work from here unless I have an epiphany of some kind.

  • Later edit:

    I think the ninth combination might actually be The Ghana, not Kenya, but the colors are still slightly off enter image description here

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      $\begingroup$ I think your Benin should be rot13(Obgfjnan). $\endgroup$
      – Jens
      Commented Feb 11, 2020 at 13:03
    • $\begingroup$ That's a typo on my end! $\endgroup$ Commented Feb 11, 2020 at 13:08

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