What songs do you like that are in a language which you don't speak?

ngvx@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 174 points –
201

I was just gonna say this. I'm learning German and it felt cool being anle to losten to it in the original

1 more...

So many. I like music and I like languages so when there are lyrics there's a good chance it's not English.

There are so many more. I didn't even touch Caribbean patois or Arabic or Polynesian languages etc. I'm very big on global music though, especially with a strong beat and lyrical themes on anti-colonialism...

I got really into German punk a few years ago. Some of my favorites.

Die Ärzte Schrei nach Liebe

Wizo Raum Der Zeit

Die Toten Hosen Hier kommt Alex

Die Ärtze are cool. I like many of their songs, but I DO speak (some) German so I couldn't list it here.

My German is limited to what I remember from taking high school German nearly 30 years ago (basically cursing and asking how much the calculator costs), so I figured it was safe for me to post them.

Eivør - Trøllabundin

I have listened to it so much that I know the lyrics perfectly, and it's even possible my pronunciation is close to correct, yet I don't speak a word of Faroese.

The entire sound track for FLCL by The Pillows.

When that show was new, I could sing them all. Kinda. I certainly had no idea what the words were, but I listened to them enough that I could fake it lol

Just rewatched the first season this past weekend, the soundtrack for that show is absolutely incredible

France Gall - Ella, Elle L'a

Anything by stromae really. In some of his songs you can even hear the emotion he conveys without understanding any French

Stromae - Papaoutai (I found out it existed because Pentatonix did a cover of it)

That guy's also got some other interesting songs, with quite a bit of social commentary: carmen, Fils de joie, tous les mêmes, Santé

Kind of a joke but the song is catchy.

Salsa Tequila

The guy is a Norwegian comedian I think & he bet his friends that he could get a dumb song into the Billboard top 10 or something. I believe he succeeded in a few European countries.

The song is absolutely ridiculous considering he doesn’t speak Spanish, but it’s just a funny story.

Nier Replicant & Nier Automata soundtracks

All in chaos language (a.k.a. pure gibberish).

yes, I am obsessed with songs with non-language lyrics! I know of four sources (including Nier) that does it and I just love it

All of Warduna and Heilung. Don't understand a single word but love the music.

Yes!! I absolutely adore all of their stuff! Heilung has been on repeat the past few years.

I think that would describe half my catalog :-/

  • Finnish Iskelmä
    • Stig - Puumaa mä metsästä
    • Arttu Wiskari - Sirpa
    • Lemon - Nainen Tummissa (cover of Lady in Black)
  • Thai
    • จ๊อบ บรรจบ - ดูเธอทำ (Job 2 Do - Doo doo doo)
    • Soreng Santi (สรวง สันติ) - Kuen Kuen Lueng Lueng (cover of Iron Man … sort of)
  • most versions of Bella Ciao (except La Casa de Papel for some reason)
    • Bella ciao cantata dal coro R'Esistente del Pratello
  • the “fun” stuff coming out of Ukraine
    • О.Пономарьов М.Хома Т.Тополя Є.Кошовий Ю.Ткач П.Чорний - УКРАЇНА ПЕРЕМОЖЕ
    • Andriy Khlyvnyuk x The Kiffness - Ukrainian Folk Song ARMY REMIX
    • Cвітоглядець - Bayraktar

I'm a Eurovision Song Contest fan, though I only came to it in the last few years, so I have a ton of good songs for this question!

ESC 2021

ESC 2022

ESC 2023

ESC 2024 is in National Finals season now, where each country chooses their entry, usually with a reality show contest. The semi-finals are 7 and 9 May and the Finals will be on 11 May. You can stream on Peacock, or hop on a VPN and watch the live feed from Sweden or Denmark or somewhere.

@clay_pidgin

@ngvx

Not a huge ESC fan usually, but I did love the 2021 edition for the proprtion of native language songs, both in total and among the top spots

It makes me happy to see songs in their natives languages, but since the rules changed to allow more English songs, we see countries sending them with the assumption that they'll get more attention from countries other than their own.

The most important rules change to me would be to revert the 2020(?) loosening of recorded vocals restrictions. In the last two or three years we've noticed lots of countries where the recorded "background vocals" include the lead part to cover up bad live performances. Heck, I'd even support live instruments too.

Dragostea Din Tei (aka, the "Numa numa" song) is always a hit.

All of Sigur Ros. Makes me want to move to Iceland and be confused all day long.

I loved Sigur Ros when they first broke the scene around 1999. I thought it was so beautiful, and angelic, and weirdly transcendent. I wondered what beautiful poetry was being sung in this mystical Icelandic language I did not speak. Then, I learned that it’s not Icelandic. It’s not anything. It’s a made up language that means nothing. It shouldn’t really bother me, but I felt like I had been tricked, and haven’t been able to get past it.

It depends on the song. Many of their songs are Icelandic and a few are even in English.

I recently found this song, Kai Tangata, by Alien Weaponry. They're a New Zealand band, and the song features a lot of Maori warriors and the entire song is sung in Maori. Really amazing imagery in the video, shows off a lot of combat and Haka.

Basically anything Sigur Rós does.

Though, half of their music is in a "language" nobody speaks.

"Prisencolinensinainciusol" by Adriano Celentano. I don't know if we could really say what language it's in, but I definitely don't speak it.

https://youtu.be/-VsmF9m_Nt8

I have shown this to so many people. I guess it's not harder to learn nonsense words than words in a language you don't know.

I listen to a lot of K-pop. I don't know more than a very small handful of Korean.

My playlist of Armenian music is inappropriately huge. You will regret asking this question.

I have many, MANY more. I am not remotely Armenian, just a huge SOAD fan who fell down a youtube rabbit hole one day...

Surprised there are no mentions of BTS more generally, lol

Although I guess for most they are a bit of a "gateway drug" to the K-pop genre.

My favorite song by BTS is probably Spring Day (although I'm not really a massive kpop listener)

Äppelknyckarjazz by Movits! Such a great album.

I quite like stromae on occasion. And I'm a fan of rammstein, but while I don't speak German I do understand it reasonably well so I'm not sure that counts

Not sure how Stromae relates to Rammstein...But I guess I like both in their own way.

There are a lot of operas that I thoroughly enjoy that are largely in Italian that are just incredibly moving. Pavarotti singing Pagliacci is insanely moving, as one example.

Omg Dakhabrakha’s baby is one of the most powerful songs I’ve ever heard. The lyrics are in Ukranian but can be vaguely understood from Russian and damn they hurt. You might’ve already seen but here is the English translation

searched for Elis Regina - Aguas de Marco before I posted it, glad to see it's here. such a beautiful song

Cocteau Twins. I'm pretty sure she just gave up using actual words entirely at some point.

Great thread - I'll throw in a few although I'm late to the party.

Gaspar Nali - Abale Ndikuwuzeni

Anything from the Afro-Cuban All Stars or Buena Vista Social Club albums

Orchestra Baobab - Sey

Mory Kante - Yeke Yeke (Hardfloor mix)

Lexicon Avenue - Here I Am (Rutabaga mix)

I can't barely converse in Spanish, but I've been playing Buena Vista Social Club for like the last 15 years, such great music.

Yeah, it's wonderful. If you like that definitely check out the Afro-Cuban All Stars one I linked, more great stuff.

The entirety of NieR and NieR Automata's vocal tracks. Most of them are actually just gibberish.

Asilos Magdalena by Mars Volta

I like all their stuff, but that’s the only one I can think of that is completely in Spanish

I would normally just go with an Infected Mushroom tune (there are a few in Hebrew like Lost in Space which also has Arabic at the end), but I challenged myself to think beyond my regular playlist, and Disko Partizani was the first that came to mind (partly in English, but otherwise in Romanian, I'm pretty sure).. Great tune and it's been ages since I gave it a listen, so thanks for the reminder!

I'm sure there are more examples, but my mind is drawing a blank right now.. This is going to bug me all evening lol

There's a bunch of hardbass I like that's usually in Russian or some other slavic language Mostly listen to Uamee

I've got quite a bunch, in multiple languages and genres. Here are a few. Let me know what you think.

Culcha Candela x HBz - Hamma 2k22
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q9fD6UA4xs

Tacabro - Tacata
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqFtayBRdfs

Shiva - Auto Blu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGlWbPR6SjA

t.A.T.u. - Malchik Gay

Blümchen - Heut' ist mein Tag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXay1pdfQpI

G-Dragon - Butterfly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98qqghzKAMM

I liked t.A.T.u. 's album with Malchik Gay. I found it as a teen and thought "hot (fake) lesbians" but the music is still really good as I've matured (slightly).

Malagueña Salerosa from the Kill Bill soundtrack.

Most things by Snow Tha Product - start with 'Butter' or 'No Cap In My Captions'.

Nearly all songs by Akatsuki Records, Ado, CrazyBeats, Hololive productions, MoeShop and some other japan based Artists.

Mostly songs from C. Tangana , especially the songs from his "concert" on TinyDesk.

Shchedryk (Ukranian original version of Carol of the Bells) comes to mind. Folk rhymes better with their original tongue in general

I think nobody posted yet this Finnish duo...This song slaps: Maustetytöt - Syntynyt suruun ja puettu pettymyksin I'm posting this link as it has both subtitles and you get to see them playing, but audio is better in the Studio version.

Since I'm at it...how about some Mongolian metal with throat singing? The HU - Yuve Yuve Yu. Comments on this video are hilarious too.

This video still cracks me up... Bomba Estéreo - Soy Yo

Japanese pop/rock overloaded with traditional instruments and general chaos...Wagakki - Kishikaisei

And...this. Namewee - Makudonarudo

El Pescador y La Luna - DJ Ignato

Dude so many! I'll link some favorites old and new.

All things Rammstein. I speak an elementary amount of German so maybe this doesn't count. If you only know Du Hast, you really should check out more of Rammstein. These are a few of my recent favorites. (each video is probably nsfw if you have a puritanical office.)

Sigur Ros

Sakanaction is a great Japanese band that a friend introduced me to years ago.

Tiziano Ferro (bit older song but I still dig it)

Las Ketchup (It got old fast for me but this was a huge hit at the time)

King and Jester

Hikaru Utada

Juli (Love her voice. One of my favorite voices)

Annenmaykantereit (Told myself if I ever learn piano this would be one of the first songs)

Mylene Farmer

Grand Corps Malade & Camille Lellouche (Had this one on loop for awhile when I first found it)

Passi

Panzer AG

That's a decent list of some of my favorites. (please excuse the wonky formatting. I can't get it to behave.)

September by Mariya Takeuchi.

I like a good amount of Japanese music but that makes my top five songs.

Rammstein, most of what eluveitie makes and inabakumori makes...

From the angel beats anime it's about the only non english track on my playlist. Actually got a few dif versions.

My soul your beats

I like most songs by Carla's Dreams (Romanian/Moldovan + Russian). From eurovision, Shum (Ukrainian) and My sister's crown (English+Ukrainian+Czech+Bulgarian) are pretty good. Slavic languages just sound nice in songs.

Also most pop in catalan (eg. La sortida, escriurem, Ara!).

For something rarer check out Pat Boy who sings in Mayan.

There's a really solid Country Roads cover in the film Whispers of the Heart from studio ghibli

Well I do speak some Spanish but Del Castillo Rios Misticos is such a banger whether you can understand it or not.

The song Inta Omri is gorgeous, look for a Um Kathoum version.

Na Laetha Geal M'Oige - Enya

Sidi Mansour (any version)

The Vietnam National Anthem

Voyage Voyage - Desireless

Xoris Esena - Despina Vandi

Epic of Gilgamesh

This Frederic song was on my feed one day. I had to hunt it down later that week and fortunately it was easy to describe because I found a thread of someone trying to find the same song.

Pretty much anything from Frontside, but especially their album 'Sprawa jest osobista". I have no idea what those poles are singing about, but you can just taste the thick sarcasm through kick ass guitar riffs.

Olivia Lufkin - Stars shining out

Any Song I listen because I don't like songs in my language. I don't know why.

Anything Jam Hsiao works, but I really like his song A Love Song For You. I also found out about a group called 製燥者StoryMaker and I absolutely love their song Sin of Sloth. I have so many different songs, mostly vocaloid and other related software, songs that I like that are in Chinese, Japanese, some in Korean, and even a song in Ukrainian that I like, but I ain't doing a super list of songs.

Kasa no Hone - Anathallo

Pretty much anything by Sigur Ros

White Tiger Field (Byakkoya) by Susumu Hirasawa