The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Forum / Numero Uno?? What’s top of your polyglot pops?

Numero Uno?? What’s top of your polyglot pops?

by 119 Comments

On Saturday afternoon, we were driving home to Stockholm from our holiday cottage on Öland and listening to one of my mega driving playlists. The drive usually takes about seven hours, so we need a lot of music.

One of the tunes that was a big favourite was Utras Horas, that wonderful track from Senegal’s finest. Pan-African band, Orchestra Baobab. It’s from their first album, Pirates’ Choice and has been a personal favourite for many years,

I saw the original line up live a couple of times. The superlatively fluid guitar playing of Barthélémy Attisso (1945 – 29 August 2021), Togo’s answer to Jerry Garcia, was one of their trademarks.

With rather low expectations, a year or two back, I went to see the new version of the band with my teenage daughter at the Stockholm Culture Festival. I enjoyed it a lot. She was over the moon.

Anyway, as I listened in the car, it struck me. I didn’t know what they are singing about. And I didn’t even know what language they are singing in.

That inspired me to start this thread about pieces of music that we enjoy that are not sung in English
.
A wee investigation to discover.. How many of your favourite pieces of music are sung in a language other than The King’s English?

It’s genre-neutral.

Classical, pop, goth, madrigals, folk, choral, rai, rock, ska, jazz, opera, K-pop, reggae, fado, bossa nova, flamenco…Anything goes.

I hope, for example that @locust will have a field day and will offer a few Swedish suggestions.

Other bloggers like ex-pat Italian maestro @gary, Francophile, @fentonsteve, and Aussiephiles @mikethep, and @Junior WellS may have some interesting suggestions.

My good pal @duco01 once told me that he could enjoy music where he could understand every word and music where he did not understand a single word. It was the stuff where he could understand only bits and bats that were problematic.

How do you all feel about this?

From Gaudete and other Latin hymns of the Middle Ages to the K-POP of the 21st century, via Opera hits like Nessun dorma and Donna e mobile, there is a lot of opular Non-Anglophone music to talk about.

I’m keen to hear about those songs where you don’t have a Scooby about the meaning, but which you enjoy nevertheless.

0

Comments

  3. The Gaelic would be the obvious one, as I have dozens of records in that tongue, and in the related languages of Irish, Welsh, Manx, Breton and, thanks to Gwenno Saunders, Cornish. But I’m always posting them so how about some Belgian:

  7. One of the attractions of world music for me is that I do not understand what the singer is going on about, which adds to the overall sense of mystique – of strange music from strange lands. Maybe this Malian singer is lamenting the loss of his cows, or that Zimbabwean vocalist is bemoaning his wife’s infidelity (or vice versa). I don’t need to know.

    Incidentally, you say that Pirate’s Choice was Orchestra Baobab’s first album. I may be wrong but the recording date for Pirate’s Choice is given as 1982 and the orchestra was releasing albums a full decade before then. Their recordings are all excellent. My favourite, though, is Mouhamadou Bamba from the 1980 album of the same name. The guitar playing is exquisite, the vocals are beautiful (and, no, I haven’t a clue).

    • Thanks for correcting me there @Munster. I got my facts vey badly wrong. I should have read Wikipedia more carefully as their article on the band is excellent.

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

      During the 70s they released a whole series of albums in Senegal. Wiki provides some background

      By the end of the 1980s, world music had become one of the newest trends in the European and American music industry, with albums such as Paul Simon’s Graceland selling millions of copies. This prompted specialized music labels to seek African recordings and reissue them on CD. One of such labels, World Circuit, run from London by Nick Gold, released Orchestra Baobab’s 1982 sessions in 1989 under the title Pirate’s Choice, a reference to the many bootleg releases of such songs.

      I did some research on Utrus horas and this reddit page was very useful.

      "Utrus Horas" Song Lyrics Translation [Wolof/Portugese Creole/Unknown > English]
      byu/LoveBitingShark intranslator

      The song is sung in mixture of Wolof and Creole. It is a remake of an earlier song by Jose Carlos Schwarz of Guinea-Bissau He titles it Lua Kata Kema (The Moon Does Not Burn).

      Here are the original lyrics plus a translation into Portuguese.

      https://lyricstranslate.com/en/lua-kata-kema-lua-n%C3%A3o-queima.html

      The Reddit blogger, DearEdison, even went to the trouble of translating them into English.

      Sometimes I want to follow the sun, but the sun does not know me.

      Make no mistake, the moon is ours.

      We get close to the moon and the moon does not burn us.

      The moon is ours, the moon is ours.

  8. Here’s my favourite track where I haven’t got a Scooby what they are saying, but don’t really care, as it’s a fantastic swirling melody with a bass line to die for:

    Challenge you not to move your feet and feel the sung passion as you listen.

    It’s a chimurenga classic – sung in Wolof I believe – you can find it on the album ‘Gwindingwi Rine Shumba’ which came out in 1981 in Zimbabwe. It got a UK vinyl release on Earthworks in 1986, which is the copy I have.

    • Good choices. I love Mapfumo’s music. I think he sings mainly in Shona and occasionally Ndebele, though, which are two of the main languages of Zimbabwe. I looked up Wolof and see it is a ‘West African language primarily spoken in Senegal, The Gambia, and Mauritania’. There would no reason for Mapfumo to use it.

      This is my current Mapfumo fave. Banning Eyre, who wrote a good book about the singer, says this of the track: “This richly layered anthem was the lead track on Mapfumo’s 2010 release, Exile. It expresses the sadness Mapfumo feels at being separated from the land and people he loves. It also demonstrates Mapfumo’s more ambitious approach to studio recording during his years in exile. Much time was taken in creating, arranging and mixing this track. For all that is going on within it (including rhythm guitar by Banning Eyre, and multiple leads by Gilbert Zvamaida), you can hear every detail.”

  10. I’ve mentioned Italian/multinational polyglots Agricantus before, probably on one of KFD’s previous polyglot threads. Their album Taureg is phenomenal. Here’s the track Hala Hala. I’m not sure what languages are being used, but I see some German in there. The lyrics are:

    Hala hala
    Dheli dhewa
    Henederazum dhewa
    Danezura

    Komm wir gehen durch den Wind
    Komm, komm wir gehen im Sand
    Wasser, Feuer, Himmel, Wind
    Komm, komm wir gehen
    Unvergesslichkeit

    Veni un omu, veni un omu
    Veni un omu nno scuru
    Mi cuntava ri viaggi menzu a fati e maari
    Luna china ntunnu ammira e spadi lucenti
    Terra, focu, celu, ventu
    Veni un omu, veni un omu
    Sutta un velu nno scuru
    Veni un omu nno scuru
    C’havi occhi r’amicu
    Era dda ca mi parrava cull’occhi tagghienti
    Mi cuntava ri viaggi menzu a notti stiddati

  14. I’ve mentioned Italian singer-songwriter Fabrizio di Andre before, probably on one of KFD’s previous polyglot threads. His album Crêuza de mä is my and David Byrne’s favourite Italian album. The album is all in Genovese dialect, completely unintelligible for anyone not from Genoa. Invite your Italian friends round, stick this track on in the background, look super cool. Here’s the title track.

    Crêuza de mä
    Umbre de muri muri de mainé
    dunde ne vegnì duve l’è ch’ané
    da ‘n scitu duve a l’ûn-a a se mustra nûa
    e a neutte a n’à puntou u cutellu ä gua
    e a muntä l’àse gh’é restou Diu
    u Diàu l’é in çë e u s’è gh’è faetu u nìu
    ne sciurtìmmu da u mä pe sciugà e osse da u Dria
    a a funtan-a di cumbi ‘nta cä de pria.
    E ‘nt’a cä de pria chi ghe saià
    int’à cä du Dria che u nu l’è mainà
    gente de Lûgan facce da mandillä
    qui che du luassu preferiscian l’ä
    figge de famiggia udù de bun
    che ti peu ammiàle senza u gundun.
    E a ‘ste panse veue cose che daià
    cose da beive, cose da mangiä
    frittûa de pigneu giancu de Purtufin
    çervelle de bae ‘nt’u meximu vin
    lasagne da fiddià ai quattru tucchi
    paciûgu in aegruduse de lévre de cuppi.
    E ‘nt’a barca du vin ghe naveghiemu ‘nsc’i scheuggi
    emigranti du rìe cu’i cioi ‘nt’i euggi
    finché u matin crescià da puéilu rechéugge
    frè di ganeuffeni e dè figge
    bacan d’a corda marsa d’aegua e de sä
    che a ne liga e a ne porta ‘nte ‘na creuza de mä.

    • Excellent contribution @Gary. I’m now looking for a translation into English.

      During that process, i found this rather interesting page with different versions of the song.

      https://www.antiwarsongs.org/canzone.php?lang=en&id=46496

      From a site that looks at different anti-was songs.

      Wiki provides some useful background info on the song…

      “Crêuza de mä” is about the hard working life of sailors and fishermen in Genoa, but also displays their serene mood when gathering together for dinner. The lyrics mention various traditional Genoan dishes (as well as some unrealistic, invented ones), which are allegedly served in “Andrea’s house” [i.e. a tavern] – Andrea being a fantasy character “who is not a sailor”, possibly representing De André himself[c] as someone who is extraneous to the sailors’ world, and in whose world the sailors view themselves as misfits. The instrumentation featured in the song is mostly ethnic, with Pagani playing a recurring riff on a violin plucked with a guitar plectrum, referred to by the invented name of ‘ndelele; the chorus, built on a polymetric structure of three bars (respectively of 5/4, 6/4 and 4/4), is sung by De André and Pagani using meaningless words (eh anda, yey yey anda, yey yey yey anda, ayo), sounding more like Sardinian (another favourite language of De André’s) than Genoese, and the song ends with chants and hollers by fishmongers and seafood vendors, recorded live by Pagani in the Genoa fish market. In Dentro Faber, Pagani said he felt lucky for the fact that all vendors sang in a perfect D major key (the key of the main song), most of them without having the faintest idea of what a key is.
      Translation of original Genoese lyrics to “Crêuza de mä”

      The opening line, defining the mood of the whole song, reads: “Umbre de muri, muri de mainæ / dunde ne vegnî, duve l’è che’anæ?” [“Shadows of faces, faces of sailors / where did you come from and where are you going?”] As already mentioned, the Ligurian expression crêuza de mä, in the Genoa area, defines a path or mule track, sometimes made of steps, which usually defines the boundaries of private property and connects (as indeed do virtually all roads in Liguria) the hinterland with the sea. The literal translation is therefore “sea lane”. The lyrics are about sailors who, returning from the sea – poetically described as a place where the moon is bare (i.e. not shaded by hills, plants or houses) and where the night points its knife to men’s throats – go to eat at Andrea’s tavern, they drink at the fountain of doves in the stone house, and think of who they might find there: people from Lugano, people whose faces resemble those of pickpockets (“mandillä” in Genoese) and who prefer eating “the wing of the sea bass” (since fish obviously don’t have any wings, this part doesn’t seem to make much sense but it may a subtle metaphor: according to some interpretations the fish would symbolise Jesus [in fact the sign of the fish, also known as “Jesus fish” or Ichthys, was the first symbol of Christianity] and the words “preferiscian l’ä” [“they prefer the wing”] sound a lot like “preferiscian Allah”, therefore the meaning would be that those people prefer Allah to Jesus and thus they must be Islamic sailors in disguise, probably Moors from Sicily or southern Spain, which were frowned upon and fought by the Republic of Genoa during the Middle Ages. This interpretation was never confirmed though, so it’s just speculation). At the tavern they also see some well-born girls of easy morals “whom you may stare at without a condom” (it’s rumoured that De André had initially planned to write “beciàle”, a vulgar expression which means “to shag / screw them” but had to change it to “ammiàle”, namely “stare at them” in order to avoid censorship by the record label and radio stations; the reasoning makes sense since it’s obvious that one doesn’t use a condom to stare to people, thus the possibility of a sexual intercourse is clearly implied in those lyrics). The lyrics then focus closer on the figure of sailors and their lives as eternal travelers, and more precisely on a night return of sailors to shore, almost as strangers. De André talks about their feelings, about their experiences on their skin, about the rawness of being at the real mercy of the elements; in the following verse, an ostentatiously joking distrust emerges, which can be seen in the assortment of food imagined, acceptable and normal (or nearly so, for a true sailor), as opposed to other dishes, such as lamb brains, or a sweet-and-sour hash of “hare of tiles” (i.e. the cat, passed off as a sort of rabbit), decidedly and deliberately less acceptable; these are evidently quoted to ironize about the reliability and steadfastness of Andrea (about whom it is stressed that he is not a sailor) and, perhaps, of a whole world to which they know they do not belong.

      https://www.antiwarsongs.org/index.php?lang=en

      Definitely worth exploring.

  15. Some mid-twentieth century Chinese pop. Gary Lucas’ The Edge of Heaven gives a modern spin on some classic Chinese pop tunes, with titles in English but, thankfully, the vocals in original dialects. It’s good fun, but not particularly easy, chasing down the originals.

  16. Various ‘Orchestra’ bands litter my album shelves, the aforementioned Baobab, Makassy, Super Mazembe, (Orchestre) Jazira amongst them, and they all have tracks where the lyrics may be indecipherable, but the groove rules. Here they are in respective order:

    I can’ t help hearing some cross-fertilisation between the Makassy boys and Talking Heads at around the same time. The Jazira lot were trans-continental, but didn’t last long, though they did eventually contribute notable members who migrated across to the 3 Mustaphas 3. I nicked this extra info from Instagram: “Orchestra Jazira were a short-lived, London-based Anglo-Ghanaian band that were at the forefront of the UK world music explosion in the early 80s. Comprising Kwadwo Oteng, Opata Azu, Ben Mendelson, Jane Shorter, Sofi Hellborg, Nigel Watson and Colin Bass.”

    • I have a nice album by the Orchestra Marrambenta Star de Moçambique. A friend of mine interviewed David Byrne many years ago and gave him the album as a pressie. Never heard from him again, the ungrateful so and so.

      • Mambo Bado was one of the records that got me into African music. Rip Rig and Panic always had DJs playing interesting music. At one of their gigs the DJ played only African music. I had to ask him what song it was. I bought the 12″ the following Saturday. Having heard a record that good, my interest was never going to stop there.

  17. Despite living in Spain I must admit I don’t listen to much Spanish music. I don’t particularly like how Spanish sounds when sung. French on the other hand I bloody love, particularly when sung by women, even though I’m probably getting 30% of it at best.

    And recently I’ve been listening to whole host of women doing contemporary pop, indie, folkie or electronic takes on French chanson all of which sounds even better to me than many English language equivalents, simply because it’s sung in French. A small selection.

    Zaz – a proper pop star in France. A bit too prone to fairly generic Euro pop tbh, but what a voice, and when she’s good she’s very good, as she is here.

    Clio – melodic electro-pop crossed with nouvelle vague cinema and just generally wonderful all round. I think I might be slightly in love.

    Clou – I suspect she’s my favourite singer currently. What a voice.

    Berry – the most timeless of the lot, but none the worse for that. No album for 13 years now which is a bit of a shame. I might also be a bit in love.

    Zaho de Sagazan – electro-pop, completely bonkers, brilliant.

  18. I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for bonkers French proggers Magma, whose songs are written in Kobaïan, an entirely made up language. I can rarely make out most of the lyrics of even what I consider to be my favourite songs at the best of times so there’s something quite soothing about just giving in and not even trying to figure out what’s going on.

    Circle also invented a language – Meronian – for their first album. I’ve no idea whether they sing exclusively in Meronian though, as they might well be singing in their native Finnish and I’d never know the difference.


    (Think that’s one’s in Finnish, or at least the title is anyway)

      • Oh, good call! I’d forgotten them – sandwiched between Deacon Blue and Kiki Dee – those lovely 4AD covers – 16th century Catalan songs, Italian 14th century songs and the rest. Bosch and the Amazon from space. Terrific band.

    • I’d also thought of Magma but it was impossible to find a short clip which featured just the vocals. The band’s mass chanting in Kobaïan is something to behold (or, rather, hear).

      Magma’s music is categorised as Zeuhl and I wondered if Circle also fell under that label. Apparently it doesn’t.

    • On further reflection, fado is a perfect example of not needing to know what the words mean, because all the melancholy and emotion is conveyed by the sound of it – the voice and the backing give you what you need.

    • Oh, and why not have some Tuva singing as well which is fascinating. Danny Baker used to chuck this on from time to time when he did his Breakfast Show on GLR. I think there’s a similar style of singing found in Sardinia too.

  24. The tenth album in the excellent Ethiopiques series was titled ‘Tezeta: Ethiopian Blues and Ballads’ and here is a track from it. I don’t understand a word of what is being sung but am still moved by the fine voice of Mahmoud Ahmed – and the sax smokes. Tezeta apparently means nostalgia or longing.

    Staying in the region, but moving swiftly on to Somalia, and there is this fine compilation ‘Sweet as Broken Grapes: Lost Tapes from the Horn of Africa’. Here’s the opening track. Exotic and sad.

      • A fantastic song. I attended the 2018 concert at Glasgow Hydro which was a tribute to Martyn Bennett who passed away in 2005 aged 33. What a loss. The concert which was a performance of the Grit album by the fabulous Grit Orchestra conducted by Greg Lawson featured about 100 musicians and included folk, jazz & classical performers. It also featured the cyclist, Danny McAskill who normally cycles along mountain ridges and the like. This song and others from that concert can be found on Youtube

  27. This is a song that first blew my mind in 1998: To the Spring by the Hindustani vocalist Shweta Jhaveri (from the album Anahita). The title may be in English, by the lyrics are in Hindi. Some incredible singing here.

  28. Musica Dispersa ( 1970) are apparently singing in Catalan in defiance of General Franco. Is that true? They sound very old.

    Lilliput( previously Kleenex) were Swiss- German, yet this is a possibly made up language.

  33. Here are a couple of NYC salsa greats. The subject matter is irrelevant.

    Here are the mighty Fania All Stars from the gig which was part of the Ali Foreman Rumble In The Jungle.

    Eddie Palmierei sadly died recently. He was a major talent. Vamanos p’al Monte was a favourite of mine.

  34. @kaisfatdad – hm, but I do understand Swedish lyrics, so do you want me to suggest Swedish songs for the rest of you to not understand, or do you want me to post tracks in languages that I don’t understand? 😀

    I’ll meet you in the middle and post some Swedish songs with lyrics I can’t understand, for different reasons.
    First Alf Hambe, who would invent words and sprinkle them in between the Swedish words – you understand them emotionally and through context:

    Then there is Lena Willemark (with Anders Jormin & Karin Nakagawa) from the album “Trees of Light” , and the titel track “Lyöstraini” – she sings in a Swedish dialect/small language called “Älvdalska”, and for a non-speaker very few words are understandable (although reading it makes slightly more sense to a regular Swede):

    And finally, a big hit in my youth using only nonsense words and phrases (as did all of the songs on the album), and impossible to refuse to sing along to; Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot by Caramba (the video has nothing to do with the original track, but it’s well-made):

      • She (Anita Lindblom) also made a version of “A Hard Day’s Night”…

        And wait for it…how about “The Girl from Ipanema” with a Swedish lyric about “getting a Beatle for Christmas”? Of course you want to hear it!

        (Apparently it’s from some film I’ve never heard of)

  38. An enormous thankyou to all of you who are contributing to this thread. What an embarrassment of riches. Keep them coming, i feel as though my birthday came round early this year.

    And we still haven’t had a song in Welsh.. The magnificent LLAREGGUB BRASS BAND will help put that right.

    http://www.llareggub.net/

    Dylan Thomas fans will recognise the name of the town in Under Milk Wood.


    .
    A song from the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway

    An old fave from 1980. I don’t understand Norwegian but I’m always spellbound by this tune.

    And we’ve had no songs in Sami! This was the first hit in the Sami language in Norway. Strange to believe today but it was very controversial at the time and was released on a radical left-wing record label.

    Time to call in Mari Boine.

    Quite mesmerising.

    Kieron, one of my pals here in Stockholm was telling me about the exchange student his teenage daughter is hosting this week.

    In my day, exchange students were from Calais or Dijon. This girl is from the very far north of Northern Finland. Cross the Arctic Circle and then keep driving.

    Now that is exotic.

    View post on imgur.com

    Take a look on Google maps. And I used to think Pinner was a bit off the beaten track.

  41. Something from the Afghan Elvis maybe?

    This was on an Adam Curtis documentary years ago & It took an age for me to track it down (shazam was linking to another song!) & it is sadly no longer on Spotify. This is a proper desert island disc track for me though, it is gorgeous. The guitar sound is lush

  43. Some utterly joyous soukous. I think the band name means “hips” but after that I am lost.

    some lovely melodic but crunchy Japanese shoegaze

    Niger’s Mdou Moctar is probably the most thrilling guitarist I’ve ever seen live

    back to Japan for a scorching psychedelic freakout

    and calm down with some nice folky pop

    • What a wonderfully varied selection @kid-dynamite. very enjoyable.

      I was particularly happy to hear guitar maestro, Diblo Dibala, making an appearance of the soukous track.

      I never tire of this song.

      Who wouldn’t want to wiggle their buttocks with joyous fervour.

      Dhidalah make a stupendous noise1
      .

  44. How about some Chinese….

    Starting with Cantopop singer Faye Wong, who had a few collaborations with the Cocteau Twins in the 90s.

    This is the title track of the album Random Thoughts which is basically “Bluebeard” with Chinese lyrics.

    And from the next album, “Fracture” which was contributed by them.

    Next up, my wife’s favourite singer and one of her favourite tracks of hers – Stella Chang. Not exactly my cup of tea, but the voice is superb….

    Finally, I guess I better post something from here in Singapore – Stefanie Sun – who is probably the biggest star here and recently sold out concerts here and Beijing

  45. i’m really enjoying dipping into your list of French singers @guiri.

    It says a lot about the enormous range and quality of French pop that they were all new names to me. It’s a language that inspires some great song-writing.

    here are a few of my favourites….

    Let’s start with Californian duo, Pomplemoose, who have a great job of exploring the Great French Songbook..@mikethep introduced them to the AW-

    Hardy

    Brel

    Brassens

  46. A few more French faves, @guiri.

    My daughter’ dance teacher often plays this at the start of the lesson to get them in a good mood.
    Magnificently melancholic.

    I have a soft spot for Amelie-les-Crayons and her rather poetic texts.

    Amina adds a little of her Tunisian heritage to this..

    If you want lyrics, Fatso here is the man….

    Here’s some help from Hannah Sandersson who does rather a decent job,

    • Many thanks for these @Kaisfatdad. I’m flying solo with my exploration and discoveries so it’s great to have a few recommendations. I’ll look forward to listening to these.

      To pay you back here are a few more from my recent listening – as you say there’s just so much of this stuff.

      Constance Amiot. Proof that a sort of laid-back country rock sounds great when sung softly in French. Her album 12ème Parallèle is lovely.

      Lonny. Gorgeous gothic folk, coupled in this case with a Misommery style video. Her album Avril Exile is highly recommended.

      Iliona. Timeless pop, worthy of Francoise or Jane back in the 60s.

      PR2B. Some Christine & the Queens influence here and I like it.

      Marie-Flore. A pop banger. She has many.

  48. I enjoy the music of Tarika Sammy from Madagascar, who sang in Malagasy.
    Here they are from nearly 30 years ago, featuring lead vocals by Hanitra Rasoanaivo, ex-wife of Ian A. Anderson, former editor of Folk Roots/fRoots magazine:

      • Sadly, I never saw Tarika Sammy live.
        As you say, I did see D’Gary live at Stallet (on 25 April 2005).
        Before the gig, a very convoluted interview with D’Gary was taking place in front of me.
        A Swedish journalist was asking his questions in English. Another person then translated the questions into French. A third person then translated the questions from French to Malagasy, and then D’Gary answered the question. And then the process went all the way back in the reverse direction!

    • You are on a run @Vulpes-vulpes.

      This thread would just not be complete without the late, great Cesaria.

      In my book, she is up there with Billie Holliday, Elis Regina, Norah Jones, Celia Cruz, Stacey Kent, Ella Fitzgerald and Oumou Sangaré.


  50. Off to Brazil again for some Choro, a music primarily for dancing, with many variations on the instrumentation shown here. Possibly a clarinet would be used instead of the flute and/or a violin instead of the accordeon.
    First noted in the second half of the 19th century and still very much alive as a music form. Some more modern jazz touches present in this performance, towards the end.

    • @mike_h A pal of mine (Mike in the video) plays in a number of bands, choro and bluegrass outfits amongst others. Here’s a lecture given in Bath a couple of years ago regarding the story of choro music. Hope you enjoy it!

      • Incidentally, while you’re there, take a look at the other videos on offer from the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI) – there’s a Music playlist with a prog rock talk, one about the Trad Arr world, and a few from Ian Anderson of Tull fame, but that’s just the tip of an interesting iceberg of material.

  51. I have posted this here before (an OP about what makes us really happy … or something like that), but I am going to post it again because it is a song that I come back to again and again. I speak Hungarian after a fashion but this is too quick for me and I only understand snatches.

    This is Hiperkarma’s dystopian Amondó

    Starts at about 55 seconds in.

    There is also a version on YouTube of this song at (I think) the Sziget festival, Hiperkarma with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, which is also great.

    • Thanks a lot @Pajp.

      Hungarian Undergrund bands don’t grow on trees.

      Here’s a little info about Róbert Bérczesi , the driving force behind the band
      .
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B3bert_B%C3%A9rczesi

      i am very impressed that you understand a little Hungarian.

      It is related grammatically to Finnish which is an infernally difficult language.

      i lived in Helsinki for one whole year and at the end all i could say was Minulla on krapulla- I’ve got a hangover. It did prove to be a very useful phrase. the perfect ice-breaker at parties.

  52. There are so many foreign language songs whose words I don’t understand, yet their music captivates. It’s most of what I choose to listen to, these days.

    Here’s something from Latin America, 14 years old:

    From Kharkiv in Ukraine

    From Palestine

    Some 70s new wave punk from France

  53. In my typical johnny-come-lately fashion, I have thought of a few more foreign language faves.

    The first is Vanessa Paradis with Divine Idylle

    (See also: Dès qu’j’te vois)

    The second is Youssou N’Dour with Birima

    As @salwarpe just said, don’t understand but captivating nonetheless.

    The third is one that I do understand most of.

    Another Hungarian band – Kimnowak with Gyémánt (Diamond)

    • Thanks @Pajp. Some excellent additions to our list.

      I’m a great fan of Vanessa and Youssou but didn’t know those tracks.

      That Kimnowak track is exquisite. Let’ s have one more from them.

      • TIME, GENTLEMEN , PLEASE.

        LE TEMPS, MESSIEURS, S’IL VOUS PLAÎT.

        ¡ES HORA, CABALLEROS, POR FAVOR!

        It really is time for me close down this gargantuan mega- thread before it breaks the internet. Many thanks for all your contributions.

        Here is a playlist featuring many of the tracks that have been mentioned and several more polyglot favourites

        Enjoy.

        Yesterday I gave it a test-run when i drove the 423 kilometres from Arvika to Stockholm and it kept me awake rather enjoyably.

Leave a Reply