Are there any artists who have written original lyrics in languages they don't speak?

Question

And no, I don't mean Pitbull saying "Uno, dos, tre, quattro".

I'm wondering if there have been any instances of songwriters writing most or all of the lyrics to an original song in a language or dialect they aren't fluent in, perhaps even an extinct one. They don't necessarily have to be the singer, though.

Aside from Pitbull, I don't need any suggestions for non-Black rappers using AAVE. Sorry, Vanilla Ice fans.

Ideally, there should be at least 50 words in the foreign language per song.

Any suggestions from the music fans?

An interesting question, but it is difficult to imagine a songwriter composing in a language they are not fluent in (for a reasonable definition of fluency). — , May 21 '20 at 06:50
The closest that I can offer is Sanskrit: it's improper to call it a dead language, but it's not really spoken in the sense of two people having a conversation (except in a unique village in India), but it's the language of many shlokas that are chanted even today in many households. So, if a musician composes in Sanskrit then that might fit your criteria, but I don't know if it's what you're looking for. — , May 21 '20 at 10:40
@Brahadeesh Sanskrit is a cool language, but do you have any examples of musicians composing in Sanskrit if they aren't from the one village that speaks it? — Micah Windsor, May 21 '20 at 13:10
Yes, I can list many Indian classical music composers, even contemporary ones (and not from that village), with compositions in Sanskrit. Let me know if you'd like me to make an answer along those lines :) — , May 21 '20 at 14:19
@Brahadeesh Please feel free! Also, in response to your first comment, in Grade 9 I had to write a short song/poem in French and I could hardly have been called fluent. — Micah Windsor, May 21 '20 at 14:21
The British band Kula Shaker were quite successful in the 1990's. Many of their popular songs had elements of Sanskrit in them, I can't remember what the typical English/Sanskrit balance was, but the hit "Tattva" certainly had Sanskrit lyrics in the main hook. — Lefty, May 21 '20 at 15:13
Do you mean meaningful lyrics? There's a whole world of songs in made-up languages, e.g. Prisencolinensinainciusol. — default locale, May 21 '20 at 16:01
@defaultlocale Yes, I am looking for actual languages. However, that is really interesting and I thank you for sharing! — Micah Windsor, May 21 '20 at 16:10
@Lefty If you'd like to add an answer, you will have my upvote. They are very talented. — Micah Windsor, May 21 '20 at 16:18
@Brahadeesh are these newly composed Sanskrit texts or just newly composed music using old Sanskrit texts? The question asks about songwriters writing lyrics, which I presume means new texts. — phoog, May 26 '20 at 06:03
@phoog Excellent question, thanks for asking that. :) These are all newly composed songs, not musical adaptations of old Sanskrit texts. — , May 26 '20 at 06:05
I know that one of the soundtracks for The Matrix series uses the Sanskrit shloka Asatōmā Sadgamaya — that would be an example of using old Sanskrit texts for new music. The examples in my answer are not of that sort, though. — , May 26 '20 at 06:07
Quite a lot of artists have written English lyrics even though they were far from fluent in it... — Amarth, Dec 12 '22 at 21:03
What do you mean by a "language they don't speak"? Because to me, "can't speak it" is very different from the "far from fluent" mentioned in other comments. — WGroleau, Jan 15 '23 at 01:01
Don't know whether these singers wrote the songs or just covered them; nor do I know whether they can speak French, but … https://frenchly.us/11-english-songs-with-french-lyrics/ — WGroleau, Jan 15 '23 at 01:16

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered May 21 '20 at 18:41

5

The Police: Hungry for You (J'aurais Toujours Faim De Toi). Written mostly in French, apparently with the help of Trudie Styler, with whom Sting was having an affair at the time.

Reference: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-police/hungry-for-you-jaurais-toujours-faim-de-toi

answered May 21 '20 at 18:41

jrw32982

153
3

1

Yes! The Police are great! Any idea why he wrote it in French? Was it simply because it's a "romantic language"? Doesn't seem to say in the link. – Micah Windsor May 21 '20 at 18:49
2

Sorry. Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe he just thought it was cool and sexy? I immediately thought of this song when I read your question but I thought maybe Sting spoke French (although his French doesn't sound very French to me). The linked post indicated otherwise, so I posted my answer. – jrw32982 May 21 '20 at 23:37

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered May 22 '20 at 07:19

Expanding my comment above into an answer as requested by the OP.

This is an interesting question! The closest that I can offer is: Sanskrit. It's not really spoken any more in the sense of people carrying conversations in it (except in a unique village in India). It is, however, the language of many shlokas that are chanted even today in many households, so it's improper to call it a dead language. Though it doesn't fit the letter of your question, I believe it does fit the spirit.

There are many composers in the tradition of Indian classical music with compositions in Sanskrit. A tiny list of them follows:

Muthuswami Dikshitar (1775–1835) is one of the trinity of Carnatic music and he composed mainly in Sanskrit. Around 500 of his compositions are commonly sung today. Some popular ones include:
- Mahā gaṇapatim (rāgam: nāṭa; tāḻam: ēka) - recorded by Maharajapuram Santhanam
- Vātāpi ganapatim (rāgam: hamsadhvani; tāḻam: ādi) - live recording of D. K. Jayaraman
Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar (1877–1945) is one of the most important composers of the 20th century in Carnatic music. He was a highly innovative musician, and he has composed around 400 songs in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Sanskrit. Some highly popular ones include:
- Ratna kañcuka dhāriṇi (rāgam: kāmbhōji; tāḻam: miśra cāpu) - rare recording of the composer himself
- Himagiri tanayē (rāgam: śuddha dhanyāsi; tāḻam: ādi) - live recording of G. N. Balasubramaniam
M. D. Ramanathan (1923–1984) was a Carnatic musician and composer, known for his unique vocal style. He left behind a corpus of over 300 compositions in Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit. Some highly popular ones include:
- Gajavadanā (rāgam: hamsadhvani; tāḻam: rūpakam) - live recording of the composer himself
- Gurucharaṇam bhaja mānasa (rāgam: kannaḍā; tāḻam: ādi) - live recording of the composer himself

That is really amazing! It's hard to imagine composing 400 songs in English, let alone other languages. Thanks for sharing! — Micah Windsor, May 22 '20 at 11:08

mayersdesign · Answer 3 · 2020-05-21T19:11:04.310

Bill Wyman (Rolling Stones of course) - (Si Si) Je Suis un Rock Star (1981) - Has various parts in French, and looking at the quality of those parts it's very hard to believe Mr Wyman is fluent!

Je suis un rock star
Je avais un residence
Je habiter la
A la south of France

Voulez vous
Partir with me?
And come and rester la
With me in France

In fact earlier in the song, he has a bash at Portuguese as well! Making this perhaps the only song written in TWO languages the author does not speak!

We danced to the music
At the Mardi-Gras
Then jumped on the Concorde
You're so lah-di-dah
Si, si
Si, si
Si, si

"Lah-di-dah" by the way is pure Cockney, so counts as three?! ;)

During research I found out he wrote it for Ian Dury - which makes perfect sense listening to it! He claims to have reluctantly recorded himself in "Cockney French" - Source

PS. Bonus points for "California Über Alles"? Just how many words does there have to be in this game?

Not quite what I had in mind, but that's hilarious. As to how many words there should be, I'd say at least 50 words in the foreign language. — Micah Windsor, May 22 '20 at 02:51

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered May 24 '20 at 08:30

As requested by the OP and with due respect to @Brahadeesh for making me think of it....

In the 1990's, British band Kula Shaker had a number of hits that were written with a substantial part of the lyrics in Sanskrit. Apparently, frontman Crispian Mills was somewhat obsessed with Indian culture.

Two of their 1996 Top 10 hits were called "Tattva" and "Govinder", which, for any non-English-speakers, are NOT English words!

Their album, "K" went to number 1 in the UK.

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered May 05 '21 at 15:26

A number of Swedish songwriters have made it big writing English-language pop songs, despite it not being their native language --sometimes with odd results.

One of my favorite groups, Roxette, became international stars on the back of a song that songwriter Per Gessle later admitted was made up of nonsense English phrases made up to fit the rhythm.

A few years later, their countrymen Ace of Base made it big with the decidedly non-idiomatic, but indelible lyric "all that she wants is another baby."

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 18 '24 at 09:58

German guitarist Farin Urlaub has recorded the song "Saudade" which is written completely in Portugese which is not his mother tongue.

Maybe a pretty exotic example: German punk singer Jens Rachut released a EP with his band Dackelblut where they have translated four of their songs to Japanese. So while he is singing in Japanese it probably cannot be completely understood by Japanese people as he does not really speak this language.

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 18 '24 at 19:27

0

Sigur Rós has a song on their debut album that's written in a made-up language. Since I couldn't tell it apart from Icelandic, I don't know (and the source where I read that didn't say) which song it was.

answered Mar 18 '24 at 19:27

Duston

236
1
9

Hopelandic (or Vonlenska). Was thinking about this as well as the question popped up (because of your answer), but since Jónsi made it up, it can be argued that if there is anyone fluent in it, it is him :) – Joachim Mar 18 '24 at 21:08

Are there any artists who have written original lyrics in languages they don't speak?

7 Answers7