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Numero Due!! More of your polyglot pops – live footage

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KIDS numero uno post caught fire with lots of clips of non-English language songs that AWers know and love. It’s a broad remit, and at over 100 comments and counting, he wisely called it a day – its hard to load now.

So this is to take up the slack and continue the shared pleasure of foreign language music.

I’ll post a bit of Lebanese singing in the first comment. If I can make one request – where possible, can you post live footage? It makes the music more impactful if you can see the singers and musicians. It’s not essential, though.

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Comments

  3. Hurrah! Another chance for me to inflict the Afterword with somewhat dated Hungarian pop music.

    I’d blame @kaisfatdad if I was you – not for the fact that my choices are dated but for the fact that I post them in the first place. It’s all because of his encouragement at the end of the last thread *smiley face” (thanks!).

    My choices are dated because I am too.

    Here’s Zsuzsa Varga – acoustically …

    Nerdy fact: the guitarist on the far left is Róbert Bérczesi from Hiperkarma.

    • Now there is a blame that i am delighted to shoulder, @Pajp. Keep them coming.

      Thanks for kicking off POLYGLOT POPS Volume Two @salwarpe.

      I have no doubt that we are in for all manner of musical treats.

      This afternoon i got to wondering which was the most beautiful language to sing in.

      Many seem to think it is Russian.

      That got me thinking about the great Russian bard, Vladimir Vissotski.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Vysotsky

      A year ago I was browsing around a wonderfully overflowing antique shop in Arvika, a one-horse town in Värmland here my son was attending their very famous adult education college.

      To my delight I found a magnificently obscure, Russian bootleg by Vissotsky.

      When the old bloke who was manning the shop saw what i had chosen, he launched us into a wonderful discussion of the great singer, his songs, his wives etc.

      After that we got chatting about the Roskilde Festival and the now defunct Arvika Synth Festival.

      How wonderful that must have been.

      i could have stayed in that shop all day,

  4. One genre which featured significantly in the previous thread was French pop, not least due to the contributions of @Guiri..

    Time to take that even further. And who better to start with than the magnificent LEJ, a trio from Paris who have been making a lot of waves.

    Their medleys, which mix French and EnglisH language hits are a treat.

    Here’s a full concert

  5. Each year, I try to get recommendations from the COP I attend. Last year it was Baku (Muslim Magomayev, Russo-Azerbaijani opera/pop):

    This year it’ll be Belem, (Gaby Amarantos, tecno brega), though it’ll be the first time in a decade I won’t be going:

  6. From Catalonia, the wonderful voice of Maria del Mar Bonet.

    I have no idea who these two lasses are. But YT nudged me in their direction and they can really sing.

    Maro clearly has a lot of heavyweight fans who love her moo-sic.

    November ultra has no bovines but she does get to pay for Stephen Colbert

    Respect1

  8. I’m very late to this party, and have mentioned them repeatedly on other threads (I know KFD is a fan). How about Brazil’s Bala Desejo? Here’s a live version of an absolute banger.

  9. Three rather excellent German language songs from inclusive bands:
    Blumenstrauss, who I was fortunate to see live – great energy

    Wellen.Brecher – Berlin-based techno

    Station 17 – Hamburg-based experimental/motorik rock

  10. Have we covered Okinawa yet? Here’s the legendary Shoukichi Kina at the Great Music Experience concert in 1994, with Ry Cooder, Jim Keltner and a couple of Chieftains (and Bob Dylan watching from the wings). Wait for the 8 min. mark when all hell breaks loose!

  11. I believe this was intended for the Francophile market but was never released there becoming an extra on a Sandy cd.

    A friend had bought several acetates from engineer John Wood one was marked Female vocal French. He played it for me in the record shop he runs, he was of course very pleased when this song played.

  12. Veering wildly from my recommendations on the previous thread – young French women – let’s start with a young Canadian woman… singing in French.

    Coeur de Pirate is a proper pop star in the French-speaking world and it’s not hard to see and hear why.

    Returning to actual French people here is the incomparable Clio channeling the 80s on her translated cover of Jeanette’s Spanish-language 70s European enormo-hit Porque te Vas?

    And here’s gothic-folk chanteuse Lonny with a gorgeous live version of Comme la Fin du Monde a song so good I posted it on the other thread too.

    And finally the lovely Berry who somehow manages to channel both Iggy Pop and Francoise Hardy … at the same time.

    • Amazing! I’m so glad everyone has tried to stick to live footage in the clips. That was an extraordinary performance, so tight, so effusive, and the bit around the 8 minute mark was quite explosive.

  16. Oh you lucky, lucky people – there’s a new album out from Systema Solar! One of the world’s greatest bands:

    They should be so much better known then they are.
    With “FUTURX PRIMITIVX,” Systema Solar not only delivers an album, but also forges an artistic proposal that breaks with conventional structures. It carries a powerful message about rural identity, the essence of community life, the urgency of maintaining natural balance, and an unwavering respect for the roots that sustain us. Ultimately, “FUTURX PRIMITIVX” is a revolution with its own sound.

    “Seguimos en el combate / Ave Fénix” is the main song that accompanies the release of the new album. The focus track is a song of rebirth, searching, and resistance. With ancestral strength, Systema Solar takes us on an inner journey that crosses the crossroads of the soul and rises from the ashes of selfishness. It is an invocation to awaken, to break with pain and ignite transformative action. Each verse is a healing fire, each rhythm, a step toward the true path. A constant revolution that doesn’t wait for the ideal moment: it is lived every day, from Monday to Monday.

    It is a path to musical introspection, a cry from the origins and roots, a release of rhythm, memory, and resistance, where the ancestral drum merges with the electronics of the future.

    This sonic journey explodes the present with indigenous wisdom, Caribbean fire, and cosmic vision. It is a danceable manifesto that honors the earth, questions the system, and celebrates life in community. There’s no nostalgia here, just ancestral power activated.

    Wow!

  17. At the risk of trying the patience of the Afterword on matters Hungarian, here is Gábor Presser (ex of LGT, commonly said to be the Hungarian Beatles*) at a concert at which Mrs Pajp and I were present in 2001, with a pair of songs.

    First, “Engem is vigyél el” (or “Take Me Too”)

    Watch the end for the audience sing-along!

    Second, “Te majd kézen fogsz és hazavezetsz” (or “You will take my hand and lead me home”)

    * Not sure that LGT were the Hungarian Beatles really, but they were a band whose songs are universally known by Hungarians of a certain age. When I was there is the late 90s/early 2000s, you could not go to a party where everyone would sing heartily along to any LGT song that came on.

    • There’s a bit of a North African theme running through some of the clips posted. This reminds me of one of the most beautiful and powerful voices from that region – Mariem Hassan (also RIP).

      Who else can ululate like that? Utterly brilliant = she must have been so charismatic.

      • After that clip played, I was lured into watching the next one in the queue – and it was so worth it – wonderful musicianship from all the players. I watched clip after clip into the might, all so enjoyable. Here’s the playlist for Sona Jobarteh at Africa Festival Hertme 2018, the world’s first female griot and also a cousin of Toumani Diabaté:

  21. Great choice @yorkio–

    Caetano’s voice is so wonderfully distinctive,

    Here he is in an exquisite duet with María Gadu.

    It’s one of those songs where i want to know what they are singing about.

    https://lyricalbrazil.com/2012/01/12/o-leaozinho/

    https://lyricstranslate.com/en/o-le%C3%A3ozinho-little-lion.html-5

    Here’s a beautiful Swedish song by Mando Diao where I also wanted to understand the lyrics.

    Not least because last Sunday i visited the childhood home of the man who wrote them- Värmland poet, Gustav Fröding.

    https://www.letras.com/mando-diao/strovtg-i-hembygden/english.html

  22. Here is another song which is a poem set to music, this time performed by the Catalan singer Marina Rossell.

    I was in a hole.-in-the -wall record shop in Ibiza Town about 30 years ago and the shop owner recommended Marina and Maria del Mar Bonet, two fabulous singers who have been firm favourites ever since.

    The Music match site provides some background….

    Barca del Temps by Marina Rossell is a nostalgic invitation to a distant friend, using the metaphor of a boat through time to reconnect with shared memories and the Catalan language of Alghero.

    https://www.musixmatch.com/fr/paroles/Marina-Rossell/Barca-del-Temps

    and the lyrics

    https://lyricstranslate.com/en/la-barca-del-temps-boat-time.html

    As @Pessoa mentioned in the previous Polyglot thread, when posting Musica Diversa, singing in Catalan during the Franco era was an act of political protest.
    Marina has been a very political singer throughout her career.

    I wanted to know more abut her and this brief biography was rather useful.

    https://marinarossell.com/bio-en/#:~:text=High%20points%20of%20her%20international,%2C%20the%20Barcelona%2DSarajevo%20Festival%2C

    Here’s a quote:

    Marina was the voice of the country´s democratic transition, the voice of a generation in which there was no other singer of her range and depth. From 1976 to the present, she has recorded over twenty albums, a number of them distributed internationally in the US, France, Germany, the UK, Portugal, Brussels, and even Japan and South America.

    Commitment and solidarity with the world

    As a singer, she has made trips to show her solidarity, visiting Armenia, Bosnia, Colombia, Palestine, Israel, Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, Cuba, and even Baghdad only days before the outbreak of the war in Iraq. This has been a privilege that has allowed her to reaffirm even more energetically, if possible, her commitment to peace and to civil and individual liberties, making her a worthy recipient of accolades of great importance and substance, such as the Olof Palme Prize for peace.

  23. @Vulpes-vulpes and i were discussing our favourite Japanese bands.

    I just remembered another …. Minyo Crusaders who are superb live.

    NPR give this explanation…

    Min’yō folk music was originally sung by Japanese fishermen, coal miners and sumo wrestlers hundreds of years ago, and the Minyo Crusaders are on a mission to make these songs relevant to an international audience. For their performance, the Crusaders found a unique take for their desk: a “kotatsu,” which is a heated Japanese table traditionally used for gathering in the winter months.

    • I’m also very fond of the sound of the shakuhachi – the Japanese end-blown bamboo flute. Years ago I picked up a German issued LP by a chap called Richard Stagg that is full of lovely tunes like this one:

      I can’t find any live performances from that guy, but here’s a lovely rendition of a bamboo flute tune performed by Elizabeth Reian Bennet, another expert player:

      • I discovered the Japanese flute when I heard and then bought, this wonderful album by Kohachiro Miyata at the Multi Kulti record shop in Stockholm.

        It’s on spotify too but they make no mention of his name

        Here he is live

        • I’m too deaf to tell if the examples you guys have posted are the sort of thing I like, but I have an album of Japanese Music from the Edo Period that I used to love. It has three tracks – Edo Lullaby, Katsushika Hokusai and Cherry Blossoms – and was one of my most played albums, especially (but not only) to go to sleep to. The occasional note played on what I’m guessing is a kyoto interspersed with soft flute. Gorgeous. I can’t find it online, but I assume this is similar (same title). It’s easy to dismiss it as posey New-Age hipster restaurant music, but it’s traditional music and I love it.

          • Thanks a lot for that tip @gary.

            The clip you posted sounds excellent and, as you say, wonderfully meditative.

            I will investigate further.

            The YT comment are interesting and a good starting point,

  25. I don’t know how we have come this far without mentioning the remarkable Ndlovu Youth Choir’s isiZulu version of Bohemian Rhapsody.

    Not only is the singing remarkable, the costumes and set are magnificently OTT. They would go down a bomb in Vegas.

    Here is their take on Jolene.

    i suspect @Beany may also enjoy them.

    They were on America’s got talent somehow.

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