How many languages in your music collection?
I’m not what you would call a fan of world music, but I just counted the number of languages used in my music collection and came up with nine:
- English - Most of the songs
- Spanish - Manu Chao, Pixies, others…
- French - Manu Chao, Amelie soundtrack, Dealership, others…
- Japanese - Yoshinori Sunahara
- Portuguese - Seu Jorge (his Bowie covers from The Life Aquatic)
- Icelandic - Sigur Ros
- German - Nena (99 Luftballoons), Kraftwerk
- Latin - Chant (you know, that ubiquitous Gregorian chants CD from the mid-90s)
- Galician - Mano Chao
Seems like there should be some Italian in there as well, but I can’t find any right now. And I didn’t count Hopelandic, which is a made-up language that Sigur Ros uses in some of their songs. How many languages can you find in your music collection? Post your list or a link to your blog post in the comments.
Reader comments
JeffJun 07, 2005 at 12:03PM
English and Spanish. Does African American Vernacular English count? : )
JasonJun 07, 2005 at 12:09PM
That Sigur Rós is language is called Hopelandic... That said, I've got all the language you've got, and Italian. And Hopelandic :-)
TerenceJun 07, 2005 at 12:14PM
You may like to add Serge Gainsbourg or Nouvelle Vague in the French category.
SparticusJun 07, 2005 at 12:20PM
-English
-Hopelandic & Icelandic
-Portuguese (Nelly Furtardo)
-Spanish (Pixies)
-French (Bits of live Jeff Buckley Stuff and some Air stuff (which I'm guessing is French but is kinda mumbly)
Which amounts to a pretty pathetic list. However can I get bonus points for having someone speaking in tongues on an mp3? Theological / General Belief issues aside it's gotta count for something.
MiguelJun 07, 2005 at 12:26PM
Jason, it´s portuguese.
cbooneJun 07, 2005 at 12:27PM
If you have Manu Chao's Clandestino, then you can add Galego to your list of languages...
Alper CugunJun 07, 2005 at 12:30PM
Oh, man, this is a cool one.
of course:
English
Dutch
and then:
Turkish - our precious Sertab but also more traditional stuff
French - Brel, Camille and lots of chansons
German - Rammstein, Wir Sind Helden
Norwegian - Kari Bremnes
Portuguese - fadista Dulce Pontes and Madredeus
Brasilian - party fantastic Ivete Sangalo
Italian - various brands of Italo and the latest hit by Luca diRisio
Spanish - Caetano Veloso, Shakira
Arabic - Cheb Khaled, Natacha Atlas and arabic singing legend Oum Kalsoum
Uzbeki - Yulduz Usmanova
Mongolic - some strange monastery chants
Japanese - Flower of Carnage
Malian - Habib Koité
Azeri - a couple of tracks by Aziza Mustafa-Zadeh
Frysian
Russian
DannyJun 07, 2005 at 12:33PM
Blonde Redhead has songs in Italian from the Melody Citronique EP.
jkottkeJun 07, 2005 at 12:37PM
Jeez, the spelling errors are killing me...that's the third one already today.
And thanks cboone, I'd never heard of Galego before.
DarienJun 07, 2005 at 12:40PM
Some of these are a stretch, but... English, Spanish, Japanese, Hebrew, Portuguese, Vogon (the Hitch Hiker's Guide radio scripts), 'a language I don't understand', and quite possibly a few others, but I don't think so.
R J KeefeJun 07, 2005 at 12:42PM
To the lists given, I can add Basque (I Muvrini), Turkish (an anthology), Romanian (the Numa Numa song, and also some oldies from the Thirties), Pakistani (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan), Putonghua (Yao Li), Hawaiian (Mahi Beamer), and Greek (Karl Zero).
And plenty of Italian (I Muvrini, Zero, Mozart, Verdi). Even more German (Schubert, Wagner, Strauss).
We've also got a small clutch of Putumayo CDs of African music that I haven't gotten to know well enough to identify the languages.
aaronJun 07, 2005 at 12:42PM
Off the top of my head....
Swedish - Dungen
German - Camping, Kraftwerk, Ellen Allien
French - Le Fly Pan Am, Amor Belham Duo
Bulgarian - Les Mystere Des Voix Bulgares
Welsh - Super Furry Animals (MWNG)
Japanese(?) - Pizzicato Five, Asa Chang And Junray
Spanish - Plastilina Mosh
If classical counts...
Russian(?) - Valentin Silvestrov (Silent Songs)
Polish(?) - Henryk Gorecki (Symphony #3, others)
vaskaJun 07, 2005 at 12:43PM
Caetano is not Spanish! He's practically a saint in Brazil. ;)
We've been digging Dr. Nico lately (African) - 60's Afropop.
I've been wondering when a Chinese 'Beatles' will storm the world...
Alper CugunJun 07, 2005 at 12:48PM
@vaska Oh yeah, my bad.
But I was looking in particular at his "Cucurrucucu Paloma" from the movie
J.D.Jun 07, 2005 at 12:52PM
I have several Bollywood soundtracks, so I'm sure I've got various Indian dialects floating around. Also various African languages from world music CDs. And with my one Celine Dion album, I've got some Canadian, too.
SwitchJun 07, 2005 at 12:55PM
Don't you have any music of the brilliant composer Ennio Morricone? He's Italian, and he's brilliant ;)
jeremyJun 07, 2005 at 1:10PM
If you're a fan of Pink Martini (and I am), you've got English, Spanish, French, Japanese, Italian, and Portugese covered on a couple of albums. Actually, most of those on a single album.
Also, much Italian, French, and Spanish gets repeated on several opera albums.
I've got several albums from South Africa, I think with some Zulu and also Xhosa. And the "Bend It" soundtrack has a bunch of great Indian music on it.
jeremyJun 07, 2005 at 1:11PM
oh, and german and latin, in the opera stuff, too.
yukoJun 07, 2005 at 1:11PM
Japanese : Checkers, Katamari Damacy sdtk, Utada Hikaru
German: Jeans Team, Kraftwerk
Portuguese: Favela on Blast (Diplo) and some bossanova songs (?)
Spanish: various artists singing "besame mucho"
Elvish: the lord of the ring soundtracks (does that count?)
Andrew E.Jun 07, 2005 at 1:13PM
Kobaian: Magma (RETROSPEKTIW)
;-)
JenaJun 07, 2005 at 1:14PM
Welsh - Catatonia
Portuguese - Seu Jorge
Swedish - Paola
Spanish - Paola, Spice Girls, Beck
Japanese - Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
Phil Collinese - Sussudio!!!
Tom DolanJun 07, 2005 at 1:15PM
*English (most)
*Irish (good folk + some contemporary)
*Spanish (lots of rock and hip hop en espanol)
*German (the odd Rammstein, Kraftwork, Faust, some opera)
*French (Plastic Bertrand and Serge Gainsborg plus more)
*Italian (decent amount of opera)
*Japanese (Zoobombs, Takako Minekawa, etc)
*Chinese (some obscurities)
*Assorted African (from Ladysmith Black Mambasu to Fela Kuti)
*Arabic (assorted Realword stuff, Nusrat)
*Icelandic (does Bjork count?)
*Portuguese (Brazil rocks the house)
Glen C.Jun 07, 2005 at 1:23PM
Unfortunately, I don't have enough "foreign" music (if music can be considered foreign now-a-days).
German- Rammstein
Japanese- I only have 1 true Japanese song and it identifies it self as 121. Princess BrideiKOTOKOj - Princess Bride! -Long Version. I've also got some Initial D songs and some crazy technopop from Japan, but both of those are in english.
Russian- Not enough. Only one song. Not sure what the actual name is but here is a (really odd) video
of the guys performing it.
I've also got some rap that just might be considered another language. Wow, I have really odd taste in music.
JohnJun 07, 2005 at 1:27PM
Don't know of my personal exact count (I'm at work right now), but if any of you have Wyclef Jean's first solo CD Carnival, then you have a bit of Haitian Creole in there.
ChelseaJun 07, 2005 at 1:34PM
English: Pretty much everything
French: Pink Martini, etc
Czech: Krystof, various Czech musicals and artists that no one outside of the Czech Republic will have heard of.
German: Nena. Rammstien, Kraftwerk et al
Italian: Operas a go go
Spanish: Shakira (the shame!)
Russian: Tatu (more shame)
Chinese: Various Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou sountracks
Hungarian: Younderboi
Slovak:Folk songs
Galic: Ashley MacIssac
Icelandic: Isgur Ros and Bjork
Arabic: From various belly dance CDs
Latin: Enigma et al
I would add Elvish and Ewok, but do that might be pushing it a little.
RichardJun 07, 2005 at 1:38PM
Not nearly as many as some, evidently!
ChrisJun 07, 2005 at 1:39PM
I've posted my list with more extensive notations on my blog, but in summary:
English - Almost everything in almost every genre.
Spanish - Gypsy Kings, Plastilina Mosh, S.P.M., Cartel de Santa, Beck, Billy Bragg (one song), other incidental Spanish songs...
French - Scatterings of stuff.
Tuvan - Yat-Kha (Tuvan throat singing)
German - Falco, Kraftwerk.
Latin - Apparently Enya has some songs in Latin. I always thought she sang only in Gaelic.
Gaelic - Again Enya and Sinead O'Conner.
Portuguese – Nelly Furtardo
Hawaiian – A compilation of Hawaiian speaking bands from the year 2000.
African dialect – Fela Kuti, Ladysmith Black Mambasu
Haitian Creole – Wyclef Jean (thanks John)
Russian - T.a.T.u
Amey BhanJun 07, 2005 at 2:01PM
English
Hindi
Marathi
Gujarati
Spanish
Italian
French
Portugese
AndreaJun 07, 2005 at 2:06PM
English, German, Swedish (Kent), Italian (Puccini), Spanish and French (one song each). Also, Swahili and Sheng, which is a mixture of Swahili and English, sort of thing. And bits of Mohican and Cherokee (supposedly) in that one song from the "Last of the Mohicans" soundtrack. If that counts. And Latin, somewhere.
AugustJun 07, 2005 at 2:09PM
- Arabic
- Chinese
- Dutch
- English
- French
- Gaelic
- German
- Hindi
- Icelandic
- Japanese
- Latin
- Old English (a.k.a. West Anglo-Saxon)
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Punjabi
- Russian
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Turkish
I spent the last year as host of a radio program called "In Praise of Borders", in which I played 'world music' (but more like the hip stuff, as opposed to the folksy stuff). Before I started that show there would have only been maybe three languages on this list. :)
TheMattJun 07, 2005 at 2:41PM
Well, other than American/English, I have:
- Italian
- Spanish
- French (all on a Karl Zero CD, among others)
- Portuguese
- Mexican
- Senegalese (go N'dour)
- Japanese (I went to college, so I have Anime CDs)
- Gaelic
- German
- Latin (Masses, among others)
- Sleepyness (Kitaro seems to do that to me)
Maybe others depending on what composers spoke...
emilyJun 07, 2005 at 2:46PM
I'll add:
- Cape Verdean/Portuguese for Cesaria Evora
- Urdu for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
- Swahili for Ladysmith Black Mambazo
- Gitane/Catalan for the Gipsy Kings
- Yorta Yorta (Aboriginal dialect) for Tiddas
- Tuvan for the Tuvan Throat Singers and U.S. bluesman Paul Pena (check out Genghis Blues)
DanteJun 07, 2005 at 2:47PM
American English
British English
Spanish (Selena)
Greek (Eirini Merkouri, Anna Vissi)
Russian (The Soviet National Anthem)
I used to have some Portuguese as well, but it got deleted.
August, can you tell me what the Anglo-Saxon songs you have are? I'd love to hear them!
MattJun 07, 2005 at 3:17PM
English - practically all of it
German - Nena, Beethoven's 9th, some Bach chorals
French - Sam Roberts
Japanese - Gorillaz (Left Hand Suzuki Method)
Quenya/Sindarin/Old English - Lord of the Rings soundtracks
Spanish - Mars Volta (or is it Portuguese??)
JustinJun 07, 2005 at 3:25PM
Spanish - Los Lobos
Portuguese - Os Mutantes
Welsh - Super Furry Animals
French - Serge Gainsbourg
German - Beatles ("Sie Lieb Dich")
Twi, Ewe - Ghana Soundz I & II comps
Yoruba, Hausa - Nigeria '70 & Afro Baby comps
MikeJun 07, 2005 at 3:28PM
I'm a big world music fan, so I have lots :)
English: lots of artists
Spanish: lots of artists
French: lots of artists
Icelandic/Hopelandic: Sigur Ros & Bjork
Portuguese: lots of artists
Hindi/Punjabi/Urdu: XLNC, Panjabi MC, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Asha Bhosle, & others
Irish Gaellic: Enya, Clannad, Maire Brennan, etc.
Latin: Enya, Libera
Adiemus with their own made-up language
Malagasy: Tarika
Wolof: Youssou N'dour, Orchestra Baobab, Jimi M'baye and others
Yoruba: Fela, King Sunny Ade, Chief Dr. Barrister, I.K. Dairo
Zulu: Johnny Clegg, Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Malinke & others: Salif Keita, Ali Farka Toure, Oumou Sangare
Lingala & others: Kanda Bongo Man, Franco, Tabu Ley
Arabic: Cheb Mami, Khaled, Rachid Taha, etc.
Hebrew: Ofra Haza
Breton: Alan Stivell
Various other African languages: Angeliqu Kidjo, Thomas Mapfumo, Oliver Mtukudzi, Baaba Maal & others
SunnyJun 07, 2005 at 3:32PM
Well I think I might be able to add a few that aren't in here yet:
English of course
Spanish (juanes, shakira, various salsa/flamenco music)
Portugues (nelly furtado)
French (celine dion.. from a good 10 years ago, let me add)
Phillippino (from Apl. from Black Eyed Peas)
Italian (articolo 31)
Maori (from anika moa... and for those who don't know what maori is, or who the maori are, they are the indigenous culture of New Zealand)
Hawaiian (Cazamero Brothers)
Hindi (Sting I think)
and music from Zimbabwe
Joost SchuurJun 07, 2005 at 3:46PM
It's been a while since I've lived there, but I have some great Turkish/German hip hop/jazz fusion stuff that Die Fantastischen Vier did on their Jazzkantine album. A lot of German Turks grew up bilingual and it fascinates me how they switch languages mid-sentence.
They went on to do some great metalcore/rap stuff as 'Megavier' too. Also have some German punk (Wizo).
I enjoy some Japanese tunes too (B'z, Ai Otsuka, Shiina Ringo) and used to be quite into French rap (MC Solaar).
I have a couple of random Russian techno tracks and T.A.T.U. songs (guilty pleasure) too.
Lastly, I've got some Middle Eastern electronica and Palestinian rap (the name escapes me right now).
NewfredJun 07, 2005 at 3:50PM
I have the CD of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and since it contains mention of the Babelfish, and thereby, its immanence, I contest that I win. I have a CD capable of being any language whatsoever. Beat that.
FlaviaJun 07, 2005 at 4:15PM
If anybody's interested in the meaning of any particular song lyrics in Portuguese, I'll be happy to help! :)
Alex S.Jun 07, 2005 at 4:34PM
How many of them are covered by Thievery Corporation alone?
Jonathan HolstJun 07, 2005 at 4:36PM
As far as I can figure out, I have the following languages:
- Danish (as I'm Dane, this is not that weird)
- English (of course)
- Spanish
- Urdu
- Arabic
- Norwegian
- Finnish
- German
DnashJun 07, 2005 at 4:40PM
Listing only the ones I don't think I've seen metioned by others:
Navajo - Douglas Spotted Eagle
Ancient Egyptian - Philip Glass's opera "Akhnaten."
AliciaJun 07, 2005 at 4:58PM
I have twenty, without going into storage and digging out the cassettes. My main contribution to the effort is the only non-human, non-fictional language: Humpback.
Eric LindbloomJun 07, 2005 at 5:02PM
Cheating I know, but I have several compilation discs of international music that has a whole bevy of different languages - Arabic, Swahili, Portuguese, Chinese, Hindi, Mong, Thai, Chinese, Yiddish, whatever language Buddhists chant in, etc, etc.
Aside from that I have I have "regular" music that includes: English, Spanish, Gaelic, Latin, Swedish, Norwegian, German, French, Japanese, Italian and Creole.
Is whale a language? I have whale songs too.
OliverJun 07, 2005 at 5:15PM
English and Mandarin. Both about 50/50. It's kind of weird though, having music of different language mixed in the same playlist.
Ruben ArakelyanJun 07, 2005 at 5:21PM
Wow. I just had a look at all of my songs and I can't believe how many of them are in English. I never knew I was so poor in terms of diversity! I've got one Romanian (the Numa Numa song as R J Keefe put it), one Irish (Saltwater by Chicane) and a couple of Armenian albums on there, which i believe are the first Armenian songs here :)
AdamJun 07, 2005 at 5:23PM
English
French
Spanish
German
Icelandic
Portuguese
And possibly others...
AnilJun 07, 2005 at 5:29PM
-English
-Hindi (a gazillion Bollywood songs, and hindi ghazals)
-Urdu (Ghazals by Ghulam Ali etc)
-Tamil (Mostly songs by that genius A.R. Rahman)
-Malayalam (mostly because of family and friends)
DaveJun 07, 2005 at 5:33PM
-English
-German
-Spanish
-Italien
hmm odd bunch :S
DanteJun 07, 2005 at 5:52PM
Does "é" in Portoguese mean 'is'or 'and'?
Would 'Coraçao e sexo' mean 'heart and sex' or 'heart is sex'?
MartinJun 07, 2005 at 6:51PM
Something not mentioned yet - Latvian. I've got a lot of Latvian in my playlist :)
KristenJun 07, 2005 at 7:54PM
- English
- French (Air)
- Icelandic (Bjork & Sigur Ros)
- Hopelandic (Sigur Ros)
- Norwegian (Ulver)
- Spanish (parts of various songs)
CalichefJun 07, 2005 at 8:20PM
Dealership sings in Japanese, too. "Tetsuo" and "Nerdy Girl."
ManojJun 07, 2005 at 8:22PM
Tamil (A.R.Rahman and Ilaiyaraaja)
Telugu
Hindi
Chinese (warriors of heaven and earth)
Finnish (Vartinna)
Few English albums
Irish folk music
TerenceJun 07, 2005 at 8:51PM
This was a good exercise, I didn't realize i had this many:
English - and this is from almost every english-speaking country from Canada to Ireland to New Zealand
Spanish - Pixies, duh, and also Los Lonely Boys, Beck, Bobby Hutcherson
Japanese - The Pillows, Yoko Kano, Sambo Master
French - Air, Arcade Fire
Swedish - Dungen
Icelandic - Sigur Ros
Arabic - part of an anime OST, oddly enough
German - Ellen Allien
TerenceJun 07, 2005 at 8:54PM
PS - Very interesting how a lot of the examples listed above are similar! Air and the Pixies and Sigur Ros showed up a LOT. Surprised Dungen hasn't caught on with this crowd - they(he) rock.
Michael JonesJun 07, 2005 at 9:22PM
What a great question.
Mostly English, French (a healthy dose of Bottine Souriante, a few others, mostly Quebec artists) and Spanish (Fulanito and Ska P mostly...I guess the Pixies count, eh?)
Andean pan flute music by Ynka Nan (http://ynka.com/). Not entirely sure what the language would be.
Some Ladysmith Black Mambazo, so Zulu.
A couple of bhangra mixes, so I'll assume Punjabi.
Even a couple of Gregorian chants, so Latin, I guess.
Some unnamed dance tune that's likely Eastern European but beyond that, no idea. No name on the track either. Random download, I guess.
And Cirque du Soleil, which is another Hopelandic-ish language of sorts.
michaelJun 07, 2005 at 11:14PM
everything in my collection is sung in the language of love.
spygeekJun 08, 2005 at 1:31AM
Portuguese, French, Japanese, a few others. I guess the most unusual is Indonesian/Malay, but I can't claim that as my own taste, I got it in a mix from a CD swap.
simonJun 08, 2005 at 1:36AM
VILLAGE PPL & HOMOPHOBIBIAN ..
LOVE IT
Tom OakesJun 08, 2005 at 1:42AM
I think it's great that an American band from Boston (the Pixies) are listed often here for Spanish content. Indeed, that's the only Spanish I have in my library, with the exception of the intro to Ritual de Lo Habitual. And a couple of jazz artists doing "Besame Mucho", etc.
African - Art Blakey
Portuguese - I was recently introduced to this one from Joao Gilberto and Stan Getz, which has completely altered my view of jazz. Largely Portuguese, lyrically.
German - "Die Fantastischen Vier" is a great German hiphop group I got into when I lived there. They're Germany's Beastie Boys, complete with a couple of ripped-off lyrics that translate almost verbatim. Rammstein.
French - Karrin Allyson, "From Paris To Rio".
Hebrew - While I haven't read all 60 (!) comments for this post, my search tells me that nobody mentioned Matisyahu - an unbelievable Hassidic Jewish reggae artist.
Rasta, baby - Bad Brains
Hopelandic/Icelandic - Sigur Ros & Bjork
Russian - TaTu. Just kidding.
This is a great topic.
Rajen PrabhuJun 08, 2005 at 2:43AM
You really should get yourself some Hindi. Any collection that has Sigur Ros and does not have Asha Bhosle is a seriously depleted collection in my opinion.
But, thank you for showing me that there is music in languages where I really did not know there were languages
darrenJun 08, 2005 at 3:17AM
pretty much the same as a few people before me:
english (a large marjority)
finnish (where i live now, so lots of local music)
icelandic (sigur rós, björk and a few others)
hopelandic (sigur rós)
swedish (kent, bob hund, håkan hellström and others)
welsh (super furry animals)
french (air and some others)
and then the odd song from a few other languages
btw, i co-run the sigur róssite, so its good to see lots of people in here as fans! they are going to do an american tour in september, dates are here. (details of other parts of the world are here.
happosaiJun 08, 2005 at 4:48AM
Coctau Twins' Elizabeth Frazier has both a place and a unique language in my collection. And of course, Swedish, but I recomend Freddie Wadling rather than Håkan Hellström.
pheloxiJun 08, 2005 at 4:56AM
Indian - Sheila Chandra (UK) - Dhol Foundation - Shweta Jhaveri
Belgium - Natacha Atlas
Dutch - Doe maar - De Dijk - MAM
France - Jean Michel Jarre - Nomads
Japanese - Yellow Magic Orchestra - Ryuichi Sakamoto
South Africa - Johnny Clegg & Savuka - Ladysmith Black Mambazo
UK - Jocelyn Pook
Uzibekistan - Sevara Nazarkhan
not in one country
Abdeli, a Berber musician with music from Cape Verde to Azerbijan, but also from Burkina Faso and Magreb.
Afro Celts (a.k.a Afro Celt sound system)
a fantastic mix of Celtic and African music with influances from around world.
one world, one voice - a bbc project (1990) with Kevin Godley
one giant leap - thank you, palm pictures for free dvdd/cd
pheloxiJun 08, 2005 at 5:23AM
I forgot
Australia - Yothu Yindi
Germany - Kraftwerk
French - Hector Zazou
Marocco - Jarring Effect
New Zealand - Oceania
Switzerland - Yello
LodeJun 08, 2005 at 8:17AM
Off the top of my head:
English: most of i
French: Arno, Gainsbourg, Brel, Nouvell Vague, Bowie (Nous sommes les héros), Sandra Kim, ...
German: Matthias Reim, Nena, Bowie again (Dan sind wir Helden, nur fur ein Tag), some song contest stuff (Ein bisschen Frieden, anyone?), Kraftwerk, some operas
Dutch: a lot of Belgian and Dutch songs, some 'good ones' (De Mens, Gorky, ...) and some very very wrong/cheezy ones (Andre Hazes and the likes, for you Dutch-speaking readers)
Icelandic, apparently (Sigur Ros here as well)
Italian: Angelo Branduardi, Andrea Boccelli, Toto Cotugno (Insieme 1992)
Spanish: Julio and Enrique Iglesias (only a few songs, I swear :)), and of course
The Macarena, the Ketchup Song and 'Bailando' by Paradisio, Manu Chao, Gabriël
Rios (some songs from Ghostboy are in Spanish)
Spanglish: a remix of Madonna's 'Don't cry for me Argentina'
Arabic: mostly Khaled (Aïcha, Didi, ...), Cheb Mami
and a lot of one-song-per-language, mostly courtesy of the Eurovision Song Contest:
* Turkish - Sertab
* Swedish - Carola: Fångad av en stormvind
* Yugoslavian (don't know which language) - Riva: Rock me baby
* Hebrew - Izhare Cohen & Alphabeta - A-ba'ni-bi (not a lot of lyrics in this one, though)
* Russian - tATu
* Frysian - a one hit wonder from a few years ago, don't even recall the name of the band
More than I tought, actually. Nice post, Jason!
temyJun 08, 2005 at 8:38AM
Schubert and Schumann lieder in German, some Hungarian pop (yes, I am), arias and operas in Italian, otherwise English.
João NelasJun 08, 2005 at 9:22AM
Dante,
"é" means "is"
"e" means "and"
So, 'Coração e sexo' means 'heart and sex', and 'Coração é sexo' would mean 'heart is sex'
BarbaraJun 08, 2005 at 10:37AM
Uhm...for some italian music apart from opera check out:
Franco Battiato La cura, Shock in my town, Tra sesso e castità, Strani giorni, Centro di gravità permanente you can listen to some clips here Official site
Ligabue Balliamo sul mondo, Urlando contro il cielo, A che ora è la fine del mondo (this one is a cover of REM' It's the end of the world), Hai un momento Dio?, Il giorno di dolore che uno ha Official site
Subsonica Abitudine Video, Colpo di pistola, Liberi tutti, L'errore Official site
Hope it helps. I like the sound and the lyrics, I don't know if they make sense to you but they're good. At least to me :)
hermanJun 08, 2005 at 10:48AM
English: U2 etc...
French: Megadeth, their song "A tout le monde" from Youthanasia.
Afrikaans: Brasse Vannie Kaap, excellent South African Hip Hop Act.
Zulu: Stef Bos, Paul Simon
Hopelandic: Sigur Ros
German: Rammstein
JuliaJun 08, 2005 at 11:36AM
So many CDs that Iforgot I had...I picked up a radom CD back in art school that was a burned copy of Cherry Filter. I'm not sure if they are Japanese or Korean. Everyhing else I have has been posted by others
tiffanyJun 08, 2005 at 1:44PM
I've got:
* English (including Jamaican patois ... a bit of a dancehall fan)
* Spanish and Spanglish
* Portugese (Brazilian and Cape Verdean... love Cesaria Evora)
* French (including Afro-French and Hatian Creole)
* Arabic
* Urdu
Now if we count individual tracks instead of albums, I also have music in Wolof, Amharaic, Arabic, Gaelic, Panjabi, Italian, Japanese (an interlude on De La Soul's "Buhloone Mindstate"), and possibly one other language spoken in Africa.
Amazing to see what other folks have. I have some sonic exploring to do :-).
PJJun 08, 2005 at 2:01PM
Me:
English
Italian - Callas, Pavarotti, Belleni, Donizetti
Tuvan - Kongar-ol Ondar [Genghis Blues w/ Paul Pena]
Spanish - Gipsy Kings, Azucar Moreno, Ozomalti, Perez Prado [****]
Patios - Culture, The Taxi Gang
Hindi - Bina Mistry, Bally Sagoo
Cool thread.
Roberlan BorgesJun 08, 2005 at 2:47PM
Eu:
inglês /english: Frank Sinatra, Abba
português/portuguese: lots of artists
nice to see a lot of people here that enjoys brazilian music :-)
Jason KnightJun 08, 2005 at 4:05PM
I have Mongolian Rap! Group called B.A.T. living in England now but from Mongolia.
David GorslineJun 08, 2005 at 6:08PM
My list.
druJun 08, 2005 at 8:33PM
Estonian - Vennaskond
French - MC Solaar, Bams, Alliance Ethnik, Jean Leloup
Danish - Østkyst Hustlers
Canadian - The Rheostatics
Spanish - Lila Downs, Manu Chao
markJun 09, 2005 at 2:05AM
This is the thread for me. Used to help out with a world music radio program! Spinning the CD racks I've got...
Arabic
Australian (aborigine)
Catelan
Chinese - Cantonese
Chinese - the other one
Creole (cajun)
Creole / patois (caribbean)
Dutch
English
Farsi
French
Gaelic
German
Greek
Hausa
Hawaiian
Hebrew
Hindi
Icelandic
Indian (American, unknown, tribal languages)
Italian
Japanese
Latin
Malian
Norwegian
Old English
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Scottish
Spanish
Swahili
Swedish
Tagalog
Tamil
Thai
Turkish
Tuvan
Urdu
Welsh
Whatever they speak in Sierra Leone
Ditto for the click-speak in southern Africa
Ditto for the pygmy tribes
Yoruban
Zulu (Bantu?)
If I go to the second rack I'll get some more. Might have to blog this since it's a great topic!
anthonyJun 09, 2005 at 6:26AM
italian
english
portugese (brazillian)
Tamil
French (Quebec and France)
Iroquis
Sioux
Ojibway
Japanese
Swedish
Scots Galeic
Catonese
Mandrian
Ecclestical Latin
Classical Latin
Hebrew
Yiddish
German
Dutch
Hindi
Finnish
Tagalog
Ukranian
Russian
anthonyJun 09, 2005 at 6:27AM
oh, and hawaiian
plus examples of both glossalia and xenoglossia
anthonyJun 09, 2005 at 6:29AM
and now that i look (im really sorry for this)
intitutuk (what inuit speak, can never spell it)
and mongol
anthonyJun 09, 2005 at 6:34AM
this is what happens whe i dont write shit down--zulu, yoruba, welsh and punjabi
poormoosavianJun 09, 2005 at 6:59AM
farsi/hebrew/assyrian/georgia/ armenia/kurdish/yidish/lori /arabic/moraco/french/german /espanish/italian/dutch/english /sweed/india/gujerat/bangal /panjab/
ralphJun 10, 2005 at 12:19AM
A fairly cursory look through my collection found 86 languages. I skipped looking through a number of compilations that probably would have pushed the number up over 100.
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.