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.
-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.
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
And thanks cboone, I'd never heard of Galego before.
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.
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)
We've been digging Dr. Nico lately (African) - 60's Afropop.
I've been wondering when a Chinese 'Beatles' will storm the world...
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.
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?)
;-)
Portuguese - Seu Jorge
Swedish - Paola
Spanish - Paola, Spice Girls, Beck
Japanese - Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
Phil Collinese - Sussudio!!!
*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)
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.
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.
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
Hindi
Marathi
Gujarati
Spanish
Italian
French
Portugese
- 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. :)
- 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...
- 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)
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!
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??)
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
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
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
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).
- Danish (as I'm Dane, this is not that weird)
- English (of course)
- Spanish
- Urdu
- Arabic
- Norwegian
- Finnish
- German
Navajo - Douglas Spotted Eagle
Ancient Egyptian - Philip Glass's opera "Akhnaten."
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.
French
Spanish
German
Icelandic
Portuguese
And possibly others...
-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)
-German
-Spanish
-Italien
hmm odd bunch :S
Would 'Coraçao e sexo' mean 'heart and sex' or 'heart is sex'?
- French (Air)
- Icelandic (Bjork & Sigur Ros)
- Hopelandic (Sigur Ros)
- Norwegian (Ulver)
- Spanish (parts of various songs)
Telugu
Hindi
Chinese (warriors of heaven and earth)
Finnish (Vartinna)
Few English albums
Irish folk music
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
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.
LOVE IT
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.
But, thank you for showing me that there is music in languages where I really did not know there were languages
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.
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
Australia - Yothu Yindi
Germany - Kraftwerk
French - Hector Zazou
Marocco - Jarring Effect
New Zealand - Oceania
Switzerland - Yello
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!
"é" means "is"
"e" means "and"
So, 'Coração e sexo' means 'heart and sex', and 'Coração é sexo' would mean 'heart is sex'
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 :)
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
* 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 :-).
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.
inglês /english: Frank Sinatra, Abba
português/portuguese: lots of artists
nice to see a lot of people here that enjoys brazilian music :-)
French - MC Solaar, Bams, Alliance Ethnik, Jean Leloup
Danish - Østkyst Hustlers
Canadian - The Rheostatics
Spanish - Lila Downs, Manu Chao
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!
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
plus examples of both glossalia and xenoglossia
intitutuk (what inuit speak, can never spell it)
and mongol
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.

