Thank Finnerty it’s Friday.
It’s another warm summer weekend, so that’s our cue to spoil you lovely BS readers with another music competition.
This week the theme comes courtesy of regular reader Capernosity & Function, who writes:
“For this week’s “Win Nick’s Golden Voucher” competition, to mark the quadrennial/quintennial gathering of European footballing nations across the continent I am suggesting a favourite song sung in a language other than English/Gaeilge.”
Good call.
Here’s mine.
Reply below to be in with a chance of bagging yourself a €50 Golden Discs voucher
The winner will be chosen by my online translator.
Please include a video link if possible, thanks.
Lines MUST close on Saturday 2.45pm.
Nick says: Good luck.
Last week’s winner: Scottser!



Always loved this song from Mexican band Café Tacvba
The song is Volver A Comenzar from the album Sino
https://youtu.be/NnLYxp4K9Mc
And live
https://youtu.be/u-qgYznLyYA
Super up-beat Latin rock/pop and guaranteed to get you in a good mood…
Hungarian prog-psych-rock, still on the go. Banned for being subversive to the authorities at the time. Given todays situation with big Vic, its a reminder that the arts are often the most efficient and effective manner of capturing or changing the hearts and minds.
Omega – Gyöngyhajú lány
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGt-rTDkMcM
Have a great weekend y’all.
The girl with the pearls in her hair. Great song, great band.
Given the football loveliness this weekend seems only fit to suggest a song describing a football match.
umbabarauma by Jorge ben. Soulfly have a rather heavy version of it too.
https://youtu.be/GEo27HLd79Q
Football? Foreign language? Its got to be ‘Roger Milla’ by pepe kalle
https://youtu.be/w3bK7Nw4vOs
Like it.
Ukrainian madness from Los Colorados
Although it’s in English so not up for consideration. Check out there version of Du Hast. Epic!
https://youtu.be/ySGY-_TCOW0
How about one sung in Cornish (not sure if Cornwall qualified for the Euros…)
Gwenno “Tir Ha Mor”
https://youtu.be/-rCeygWexyA
ofra haza- Im nin alu
https://youtu.be/ZRnzTTYk7_Q
And one actually written for the Euros (Euro 2016 though)
Super Furry Animals reverting to their native Welsh for “Bing Bong”
https://youtu.be/fqXpWvEW3ZU
They wrote this for a 90’s tournament they didnt qualify for, then re-released it. But god knows why, its dreadful. I actually entered this a few months ago – but cant remember under what criteria.
Must have taken about 5 minutes to write, and even less time to film the video.
it’s not their greatest song, granted.
Les Rita Mitsuoko, C’est Comme Ca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGZRVGlGZ6A
It’s a song that always made me wonder if my French was really that bad, and eventually I discovered that actually it’s just very hard to follow.
I was hanging around earlier to see if my theme would be picked (thank you Nick). Time was passing and I had to go out and do the big shop. Lo and behold I come back to find the song I was going to pick already here. Damn your britches but applaud your taste.
Aw.
Distemper, a Russian ska punk band, which sounds fearful, but it’s actually pretty fly.
https://youtu.be/rpdX4pF-ExY
That’s great, thanks! Although I’d say its part punk, part ska maybe?
You tell em, they look scary.
True! Great song all the same.
Ibrahim Ferrer, Qué Bueno Baila Usted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-BnxUNL6vk
Try to sit still while listening.
I know I’ve posted this before but, hey, it’s just brilliant. The Dopeness, Japanese fast food adoration. https://youtu.be/Ir8xLSoz8VI
Dedicated to all the Broadsheet comment section…
The pool party starts here!
TYPEWRITER TIP TIP TIP – KISHORE-ASHA – BOMBAY TALKIE(1970) – SHANKAR JAIKISHEN
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c4xySoqJLRA
Grace Jones – La vie en rose
https://youtu.be/q1IYUvrn8gk
Lars Vaular with Nonsens. The video alone is worth an Oscar. Enjoy.
https://youtu.be/dgCJN-Sx16E
where did my earlier entry get off too?
A couple of mine are gone too…
Really fantastic ones
Mine too. I think we’ve crashed the internet with sheer brilliance. As with so much in life. Ay, me!
High five internet buddy!
Backatcha!
https://youtu.be/iPDCiHLsFMU
I could post up at least twenty great Kraftwerk songs sung in the original German, but I think this is my favourite.
Neon licht.
Or an absolute banger from 1978. An Armenian disco tune recorded in Tehran.
Hamlet Minassian Al Elnim
https://youtu.be/WX5J9mFgmM0
This includes nearly every opera song. Holy moly. Is it European language songs or the whole world? Asking for me.
The whole world
My word. Then this is admissible.
https://youtu.be/tmfw17L_Deo
I cried openly at the opera in Prague listening to this, and not for one second am I embarrassed about that.
Neyssatou & Likkle Mai – War
https://youtu.be/LPPmI7QFdGM
I am not likely to be making too many further posts today, I have just spent twenty three minutes searching the cranial archives for tunes I either like/love/listen to in a language other than English/Irish. There are scant few to choose from at first rummage at least. Happy Friday
some discordant Sonic-Youth-esque guitar rock auf Deutsch
Blumfeld “Jet Set”
https://youtu.be/JFcxzextK_c
From his last movie ‘Lucky’…
Volver, Volver – Harry Dean Stanton
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=77rJ8OSjhdM
“The life of a repo man is always intense”
Has to be nessun dorma …Sun memories of that glorious summer of 31 Yr ago.
I’ve posted this before but perhaps, given the passage of time, you will have matured sufficiently to realise its greatness and vote it to the top of the list. There is no need to flagellate or condemn yourself for not understanding its brilliance when first posted, we all mistakes right!? RIGHT?
Here, for the second and hopefully to a greater, appropriately merited appreciation is the Deutsche Divinity that is Trost and the rhythmic skew-blues that is “In Diesem Raum.”
I never want the lyrics translated – “through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder” as Paddy K said to me over pints and chasers in The Palace Bar, before we ended up bare-chested and brawling on Fleet Street many, many moons ago. Needless to say Paddy came out the worse for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8A6cOl3SFA
Well you win in my book for the pure iambic pentameter of that post. Whoopah!
That’ll do for me :)
Plastic Bertrand ‘Ça plane pour moi’, the irrepressible Belgian punk anthem, proved DIY rock was breaking out all over the globe in the year of Punk 1977, and it was only slightly spoiled in 2010 when it emerged in court that plastic punk Plastic Bertrand didn’t actually sing it! What’s French for Milli Vanilli?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln31raI2ezY
This stone cold classic from Flight of the Conchords?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X5hrUGFhsXo
And any excuse to listen to this is always welcome. Tshetsha Boys – Nwa Pfundla
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IXE6_j1N7o8
Brazilian psych rockers Os Mutantes had a cult hit way back in 1968 with the brilliant Portuguese sung ‘A Minha Menina’, which was later memorably covered by the Bees in 2002, and the latter was used to advertise Citroën and ended up on the soundtrack of Kick Ass 2. Os Mutantes, who are still going, were probably happy with the royalties.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIbJylD_c84
Quirky song sung in French and Swedish, I had completely forgotten it existed until this competition went up, so thanks!!
Le Punkrocker by Doktor Kosmos
I enjoy it, hope you will too.
https://youtu.be/oNZYAKKYEqE
Take an original Italian song, subsequently translate to English and let Dean Martin popularize it. Then translate it into Spanish and let the Gypsy Kings do their magic. I wooed the current Señora Gordo-Delgado to this many moons ago, and it worked. Thankfully :-)
Volare – The Gipsy Kings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmbx4_TQbkA
Ok, bear with me on this one, Mongolian throat singing heavy metal bikers.
It’s definitely not in English.
The Hu. Wolf Totem.
https://youtu.be/jM8dCGIm6yc
It’s not an everyday song, but it’s a bloody song.
Enjoyed that.
This is in Swedish, by a legend called Ken Ring, who is a friend of ours and an all round hero. He also has Irish roots, from Kildare.
https://youtu.be/lw1PfZ964qs
An homage to his child, Kelian.
I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Sorry for bogarting this, but
Onkel P.
Styggen på ryggen.
The ugly on my back.
Anyone who’s ever suffered addiction or someone who has, the small, daily, constant things they have to go through to get through.
https://youtu.be/rUvzx73-cCY
leaving aside such Eurotrash guilty pleasures as “Joe Le Taxi” ( Vanessa Paradis) & “Der Kommissar” by the leading exponent of the German Austrian rap crossover movement Falco (come to think of it eh its only exponent) I’m torn between torn between 2 ditties featuring France’s letch in chief (& that’s high bar) Serge Gainsbourg. The first features himself with Jane Birkin & if you listen closely you can hear where those naughty boys from Air “borrowed” the whole of Moon Safari from ! “Ballade de Melody Nelson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxAPy0m2D4c
Secondly tune is Serge avec the iconic Brigitte Bardot. “Bonny & Clyde” from 1968. It’s both visually delicious & aurally stunning, a ground breaking recording. A true cult classic in a world of debased coinage & one for the connoisseurs of all things gallic. Magnifique
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa7wjr1NwhA
Cornershop- 6am Jullandar Shere
https://youtu.be/8-7VNsmWW0I
Om. Turn on, tune in, drop out.
Excuse the “Eurotrash” label.
Falco – Rock Me Amadeus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVikZ8Oe_XA
The late lamented Falco sadly died at the age of 40, in a car accident. However this songs reminds me of a GREAT weekend spent in Llandudno in the mid 80’s. It was played everywhere and easier to understand than the English spoken by the locals with their impenetrable accents. Luckily that was all that was impenetrable.
Kraftwerk – Tour de France
https://youtu.be/rTe7U92ecX8
Comfortable in German, English and French. This brings me back to the highlighta shows with Jimmy Magee in the days of Kelly and Roche.
Tricarico – Io Sono Francesco
https://youtu.be/Jt2fv7ort_g
This brings me back to my days teaching English in Milan at the turn of the millennium.
“English/Gailge”?? Was it for this?
So I am off in a huff and will go to the sunny climes of the Dalmatian coast for the lady Alka Vuice and Lazi Me (Lie to me)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwe0RSlVyGc
Manu Chao – Me Gustas Tu
https://youtu.be/rs6Y4kZ8qtw
I bought all his music to impress a senorita I was mad about. She is long gone, Manu is still with me. The epitome of the continental musical polyglot.
Pizzicato 5 – Twiggy Twiggy
https://youtu.be/j_F49QSHuDE
Japanese pop culture loves to put its own spin on Western styles. Here is a typically quirky take on 1980s sophisti-pop.
Einstürzende Neubauten – Nagorny Karabach
https://youtu.be/hd-6WweqD0Y
There was a time when MTV played music. It was called MTV Europe and it played songs like this.
Going to go with Ukrainian artist Onuka. I would describe her of a ukranian Bjork (the 93-98era, before she got all arty). She released her 3rd album last week but before that half of her songs are in english.
Picking one of her songs from her second album, Mozaïka.
Wasn’t overly gone on the song before the video but its contains powerful images of a world filled with rubbish. The version of the song is also slightly different from the album version, a minute longer. Much better and its now one of my favoutites.
Here’s Strum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh-Tmh7NuDY
Didnt know it until 6 months after the fact but she was the inverval act from the Ukrainian Eurovision a few years ago.
As a dyed in the wool Rammstein fan this is torturous as I can’t decide! I’ve just spent half an hour looking at their videos on YouTube and have landed on Ich tu de weh (I hurt you) a song that was misunderstood and ended up getting the band added to the German equivalent of the sex offenders register and they were banned from even playing an instrumental version. This was because it was wrongly believed to promote sadomasochism, which is quite believable if you know the band. They eventually had the decision overturned by the courts and Germans were able to enjoy this absolute banger along with the rest of the world.
I’ve linked to the live version as the stage show for this song is something else. If you ever get the opportunity to see this band live do it, they put on an awesome show
https://youtu.be/6TR12QnOAzE
On behalf on Mr H I submit this toe tapping breakfast cereal selling crowd pleaser
Plastic Bertrand – Ça plane pour moi
https://youtu.be/Ln31raI2ezY
Here’s one for ye, an originally Arabian song, centuries old, a courting song, since used in Algerian, Moroccan, nearly all Middle Eastern cultures.
This is half French half Algerian, but you’ll get the gist.
It’s now known as a female liberation song in closed cultures as described above by female singers.
Aicha.
https://youtu.be/gzlHucbD76U
Sykurmolarnir – Ammæli
https://youtu.be/F6hGc7S8d88
More familiar than you think
The hypnotic rhythmic overlapping of voices and percussive elements form this prayer/chant from the…
Bushmen of The Kalahari – Xan Do Do (God Help Us)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sPAdGuw9bD4
It’s that time of the night for a little drink of your choice and maybe a jazz cigarette as we sit back to the laid back beats of,
Tim Maia – O Caminho Do Bern
Enjoy!
Maybe post before the said jazz cigarettes!!
Video attached,
https://youtu.be/hwUGJXm02ZQ
Still enjoy!
And my last two for our French friends who contribute to this wonderful competition and add to some brilliant playlists!!
I could have picked anything by the superb,
Carla Bruni,
https://youtu.be/EelX_LwPHbA
And an artist that I never really knew about until recently and now I can’t get enough of her,
The brilliant, Keren Ann – Que N’ai Je
Enjoy!!
In the words of Shaggy, ‘It Wasn’t Me’! Videos not attaching for some reason, here is Keren Ann (hopefully!)
https://youtu.be/nuc9jU4NuI8
O Mio Babbino Caro, by Amira Willhagen, a 12 year old Dutch girl with the voice of an old operatic soul.
Tell me if the hairs don’t go up on the back of your neck when you listen to this. I dare you.
https://youtu.be/qDqTBlKU4CE
Start at 1.44 if you just want the song. But you shouldn’t.
Jacques Brel – Ne Me Quittes Pas
https://youtu.be/0k63grkip5I
Often covered, never surpassed. There is no better reason to learn French than to be able to hear this song in its original form. No translation has ever done it justice. And the performance from Brel is astounding. Ne Me Quittes Pas (Don’t Leave Me)
Joe Dassin – Blue Country (1979)
The singing (which is in French) doesn’t start till about 1.45.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2GmOmUSWYk
Me likey.
So may classics to choose from Sigur Ros. I’ll go for the obvious one because simply it’s a masterpiece. And the video is a beautiful reminder no matter what age you are, always stay young at heart.
“Hopp í polla” is Icelandic for “Hopping into puddles”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZTb8WxEW78
I thought Sigur Ros songs were in a made up gibberish language?
Open to correction….
They’ve a song called gobbledigook but I think they’re all in Icelandic.
what language does jónsi sing in?
on von, ágætis byrjun and takk, jónsi sang most songs in icelandic but a few of the songs were sung in ‘hopelandic’. all of the vocals ( ) are however in hopelandic. hopelandic (vonlenska in icelandic) is the ‘invented language’ in which jónsi sings before lyrics are written to the vocals. it’s of course not an actual language by definition (no vocabulary, grammar, etc.), it’s rather a form of gibberish vocals that fits to the music and acts as another instrument. jónsi likens it with what singers sometimes do when they’ve decided on the melody but haven’t written the lyrics yet. many languages were considered to be used on ( ), including english, but they decided on hopelandic. hopelandic (vonlenska) got its name from first song which jónsi sang it on, hope (von). tracks 7-9 on takk are in hopelandic.
https://18seconds.sigurros.com/band/faq.php#07
Shake your tailfeather:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxNmFXihSq4
Danse à nouveau (Harramt ahebak) from Hélène Ségara.
You can hear a ‘compare and contrast’ with Warda El Djazairia’s ‘Harramt ahebak’ here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zX19PvSmrw
The first gift he who broke my heart gave me was Christophe’s album ‘Comme Si Le Terre Penchait’.
I still love it, though the memories are bittersweet and I find it hard to listen to now.
They’re all beautiful songs and I hesitated between Elle Dit Elle Dit Elle Dit
https://youtu.be/T8GUGdMw9JM
and this one, Ces Petits Luxes :
https://youtu.be/A_1TuE9NbUI
Think I need to go and have a private sniffle now.
Neither link working for me, Lush. ‘This video is not available,’ il dit.
(binged that netflix doc Sophie last nite,in top 5 most watched in states,indescribable disappointment and despair,watching the level of dump ‘paddy’ incompetence)
https://youtu.be/Q-FoSNGGldg
The incompetence was epic alright, Johnny. I suppose they’d never dealt with a murder before and were clueless about the basics. I could have done a better job myself, based on tips picked up from the Famous Five. I’ll be watching Episode 3 tonight. Did you reach any conclusions?
Sorry Lilly.
They both work ok for me.
Look them up sometime.
Very nice! These worked:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sPEdLcgJ5gA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1bQOk2evNds
Thanks Lush, I did. Both gorgeous! I posted links that worked but disappeared into the ether for some reason.
Ex-militia fighters, who have the wildest back story of any band, possibly rivaling the great Fela Kuti in terms of near unbelievableness.
Tinariwen. Desert tinged, hypnotic ethno-folk with chanting and a soulful guitar leading the way.
https://youtu.be/PItnw3Z7WgY
Violeta Parra – Gracias a la vida
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIDD2Y9lMAA
A song nowadays associated more often with Mercedes Sosa. A ‘big song’ whatever.
Off Lee Hazelwood’s legendary Cowboy in Sweden album,which includes Leather and Lace,this is Lee and Nina Lizel -Vern Kahn Segla,like a lot things best enjoyed on a lazy sat morning with great coffee and some haze grown by the Cuban.
https://youtu.be/ZhFg_Qtu8p4
Serge Gainsbourg- Bonnie and Clyde-
“You loved the story of Jesse James? How he lived, how he died, you enjoyed it, you want some more? Well , listen to the story of Bonnie and Clyde…”
Before Jane Birkin there was Brigitte Bardot. With her, it gives us this awesome telling of the natural born killers story in a song that showcase his unique delivery and songwriting.
https://youtu.be/Wa7wjr1NwhA
If you like the story of Bonnie and Clyde try Papa Levi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVbdjAupql4
Just as a treat – Shakira and Je l’aime à mourir:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92tkZQB-Uj4
What about la Macarena?
https://youtu.be/Uv5zKd1rqcM
Enjoying a coffee in the sunshine there was a young gender fluid couple across from me, very much in love, and it set me thinking how far Ireland has come along in gentle tolerance over the last few year and what a good thing it is.
The French band Indochine had a number one hit ‘3e Sexe’, back in 1986, here is a wonderful version of it with Indochine’s lead singer Nicola Sirkis and the rather wonderful Héloïse Letissier of Christine and the Queens. it has a new title, ‘3Sex’, It’s a hymn to sexual tolerance with lyrics that address the liberation of gender. A song that couldn’t be more relevant today!
Some of the lyrics translated into English :)
We take each other’s hand
And we take each other’s hand
A feminine boy
A masculine girl
And we take each other’s hand
And we take each other’s hand
A feminine boy
A masculine girl
Beautiful lyrics, great music and a very creative and enjoyable video, enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ7H-INlclg&t=4s&ab_channel=indochineVEVO
Ca plain pour moi – Plastic Bertrand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDHjeiys3a0
I see it has already been suggested by H – good pick!
Late with this.
Kenny Rogers hit ‘She believes in me’
Sung by Andre Hazes, in Dutch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAc9opfAEYQ
For all the musicians here who (used to) stay out late and sing their songs