Bilingual and Multilingual Music

[lea_hazel]

I'm trying to put together a music mix of bilingual and multilingual songs. However, I'm a little limited in my familiarity and I don't want to over-represent the two languages I do speak. Of course, I'm also interested in discovering amazing new music.

Does anyone have a favorite bilingual or multilingual song? One of my favorites is this version of La vie en rose in both Hebrew and French, by Corinne Alal, translated by Ehud Manor.

Note to mods: Please let me know if this post is outside the community's scope, or if I tagged wrong or broke any of the rules.

Comments

Okay...

[ysabetwordsmith]

One of my favorites is "Iron" by Elvendrums, bilingual in English and Quenya elvish.

[calvinahobbes]

Both Rufus Wainwright's "Complainte de la butte" and "Rebel Prince" have both English and French stanzas.

[snakeling]

Singer Noa (Achinoam Nini) sings in Hebrew, English and French in Babel.

[hagar_972]

...yes I know we have the same language exposure, but Alma Zohar is awesome and relatively not well known. Nitzchonot (Victories) is Hebrew/Arabic.

[needled_ink_1975]

Does the SA national anthem count? Five languages.
Then there's Johnny Clegg and Jaluka and/or Savuka– a mix of English and Zulu. Probably their most famous outside of SA, because Peter Gabriel got on board for one version, is Asimbonanga.

–N

[mayireadtoday]

Does the SA national anthem count? Five languages.

Dude, I just started laughing. I don't know why I think it's so funny. N, shows up to rep SA!

Plus you forgot Paul Simon's Graceland. I'm adding it.

[monksandbones]

One of my longtime favorites is Cheb Khaled's bilingual French-Arabic version of Aïcha.

[monksandbones]

Also, in the realm of Canadian folk music, the Rankin Family sang at least one song in both Scottish Gaelic and English: Mo Run Geal Dileas.

[birke]

Another favourite of mine is Siuil a Run, sung in English with an Irish chorus.

[birke]

That's beauuutiful. <3 <3

[miss_lucy21]

Hm. Most the ones I know have Spanish and English, and they are definitely more English than Spanish, but there's some of both:

They Dance Alone by Sting has a Spanish stanza (and is about political upheaval and the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile). It's an older song, from his album Nothing Like the Sun, which is probably from the late 80s or maybe early 90s (I can't remember- we had the CD when I was in grade school/middle school).

Beck has several songs that have Spanish mixed in with the English (he grew up in a Latino neighborhood, apparently). The two that are coming to mind immediately are Loser (Soy un peredor) and Que Onda Guero, but I think there are others.

Shakira has some mixed Spanish/English songs on her later albums (I believe her earlier ones are mostly Spanish). The one that I know best is Hips Don't Lie, which has Spanish, English and some Haitian creole patterns in it, but I know there's many others.

That's what I can think of off the top of my head, at least. If I get the chance to do digging through my music collection in the next day or so, I'll keep an eye out for more.

[kaberett]

Both Western European, I'm afraid, and both by the Wise Guys, but: Paris (French/German) and Denglish (German/English).

[mayireadtoday]

From Paul Simon's Graceland, "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes" and "Homeless" English-Zulu sung by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Paul Simon.

Shakira's Ojos Así is Spanish-Arabic off of her album ¿Dónde Están los Ladrones? (1998). And she has a version where the Spanish is replaced by English "Eyes Like Yours" on her album Laundry Service (2001) so English-Arabic.

They're very commerical but Glee did an episode where all the songs were English-Spanish. All the music is here. My favorites are Sexy And I Know It and Bamboleo/Hero.

[birke]

Zap Mama has a number of bilingual songs, but I can't remember names off the top of my head. Def. look them up, though, they're beautiful. My favourites are the early songs.

[isis]

The German group Trio had quite a few. Da Da Da (a kind of terrible live version - the studio version's much better IMO) is probably the most well-known (it was a minor hit in the US).

[dhobikikutti]

As an ex-mod just seeing someone post to the comm is great, and your post is totally the kind of stuff this comm was meant for!
I don't have the resources to find links, but 'Mumbhai' by Jaaved Jaffrey from the film Bombay Boys, and '4 baj gaye par party abhi baaki hai' from the film... (er, I forgot) are excellent examples of Hindi film lyrics that have a significant about of English words in them.

Do share your playlist here when its ready!

[lea_hazel]

I absolutely will. :)

[wildforce71]

Try Heartland, by Celtic Thunder. English, with Irish Chorus. Or, same group but harder to find, Mho Ghuile Mar. Also English with Irish Chorus, but a more complex chorus. Or, Damian McGinty who is a memeber of Celtic Thunder, Come By The Hills; first verse in Irish, the rest in English. He does a version completely in Irish, too.

[emei]

Manu Chao for Spanish/English/French, Me gustas tu comes to mind, and Welcome to Tijuana.

Behrang Miri, Swedish/French/Arabic, Jalla dansa sawa (which is kind of silly compared to most of his stuff, but best vid quality).

Simone Moreno, Brazilian Portuguese/Swedish Vi drar till Malmö (Vem pra Bahia) (feat. Timbaktu).

Vienna Teng's No gringo, mainly English but some Spanish.

Regina Spektor's Après-moi for more English/French + Russian.

[pameluke]

I've got a couple! They're pretty much all over the place genre-wise though.

There's Holiday in Spain by Counting Crows and Blof. Dutch/English.

There's the great 'A Jalalabad' by I Muvrini ft MC Solaar. Couldn't find a youtube link alas, but it's French/Corsican and it's awesome. I Muvrini has a couple of cooperations that resulted in multi-language songs, another one of my favorites is 'Noi' with Laïs. That's Corsican/Dutch/English.

Tinariwen has a great song in both Tuareg and English Tenere Taqqim Tossam (feat. Tunde Adebimpe & Kyp Malone of TV On the Radio)

A song I have very much Youth Sentiment about is Alegria by the Cirque du Soleil cast, featuring Italian, English and Spanish.

Daan plays with this in Promis Q wherein French, German and English switch rapidly and are combined utterly incorrectly :)

I actually prefer the original Italian only version better, but Cose della Vita by Eros Ramazotti and Tina Turner couldn't be missing from a list like this. Italian/English.

In the same vein I prefer the original German only one, but I guess this one is fun too. Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann by Nena and Kim Wilde. But seriously, the original 80s version video is deliciously 80s and worth it only for that.

A Belgian classic from Raymond Van Het Groenewoud is Je Veux de l'Amour . It's 95% Dutch, but there's some French in there.

Don't Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas) by Regina Spektor is awesome too. French/English and not to be confused with the French Only Classic song by Jacques Brel, Ne Me Quitte Pas. Inluded simply because it's a beautiful song.

I think the price for most languages in a song might actually go to Sorry by Maddona, but since it's also obviously Google Translated (she doesn't sing what she thinks she's singing), I'm not linking to that :p

[yiduiqie]

Girls Generation has a few, the one that springs to mind is 'Love and Girls'

Laure Shang sings in French, English and Mandarin. I can't check specific songs right now but can come back and update later if you want?

Zee Avi - 'Kantoi' is in English, Malay and Manglish

夏天的告白 by 宇珩 is in Mandarin and English

'You Love Me' by Peggy Hsu is Mando and English

门 by 曹方 is Mando and English

SHE has a few Mando + English songs, like Superstar, but they're mostly like 95% Mando with a key word or phrase in English. Sandy Lam's cover of Better man, for example, is mostly Mando and then maybe three words in English (with two of those words being 'better man'

[yiduiqie]

Oh you want FAVOURITES. Well the songs I've named are some of my favourites, so that's all good! :D Particularly Kantoi, it's one of my favourite songs ever.