In 2007, Avril Lavigne released her hit song "Girlfriend" in 7 languages. George Ball chronicles how this might have been a harbinger for a larger trend.
I understand hardly any of the lyrics to Paulo Flores' music. He is an Angolan singer and I have been listening to his extraordinary music since the mid 1990's. Angolan music is my favorite African music.
Whenever this comes up, I always think of Scorpions, Germans who for decades did all their singing in English; as contrasted with Rammstein, who revealed the impact and fitness of German to sing heavy metal in.
While I have no doubt Klaus Meine could've made something cool (tho' different) singing in German; Till Lindemann's forays into English and Spanish in the Rammstein catalog ranged from awkward to embarrassing.
Here in Brasil it's quite common that a viral/hit song gains a BR portuguese version.
Sometimes it's parody, sometimes it's a good translation and other times the song is altered to another music genre like brazilian funk or forró or etc.
Just to be clear, "non amo tua ragazza" in the Italian version by Lavigne is grrammarly wrong: it's supposed to be "non amo LA tua ragazza", but I guess it didn't fit the topline so they thought, well, fuck it, no one's gonne pay attention to it anyway — and they were right: song was quite a hit here but no one knows that version in Italian. (Thank god. It sounds like bad ai)
Interesting. Mina, an Italian singer, did this in the 60s or 70s, not just with the Chorus but the whole song, even in Japanese. BTW, the above translation in Italian is incorrect, should be "non amo LA tua ragazza." We always put the article there ✌️
I understand hardly any of the lyrics to Paulo Flores' music. He is an Angolan singer and I have been listening to his extraordinary music since the mid 1990's. Angolan music is my favorite African music.
Whenever this comes up, I always think of Scorpions, Germans who for decades did all their singing in English; as contrasted with Rammstein, who revealed the impact and fitness of German to sing heavy metal in.
While I have no doubt Klaus Meine could've made something cool (tho' different) singing in German; Till Lindemann's forays into English and Spanish in the Rammstein catalog ranged from awkward to embarrassing.
Here in Brasil it's quite common that a viral/hit song gains a BR portuguese version.
Sometimes it's parody, sometimes it's a good translation and other times the song is altered to another music genre like brazilian funk or forró or etc.
Peter Gabriel, too, recorded full versions of his third and fourth solo albums in German.
Just to be clear, "non amo tua ragazza" in the Italian version by Lavigne is grrammarly wrong: it's supposed to be "non amo LA tua ragazza", but I guess it didn't fit the topline so they thought, well, fuck it, no one's gonne pay attention to it anyway — and they were right: song was quite a hit here but no one knows that version in Italian. (Thank god. It sounds like bad ai)
Here's Mina in Japanese: https://youtu.be/TgEnsuADyAA?si=sa45b1GpvDeotong
Interesting. Mina, an Italian singer, did this in the 60s or 70s, not just with the Chorus but the whole song, even in Japanese. BTW, the above translation in Italian is incorrect, should be "non amo LA tua ragazza." We always put the article there ✌️