When you hear song lines in a language other than English, do you think: what does it all mean and why did the band make that choice? Yes, I ponder these sorts of questions too. They keep me up at night, in fact.
I want you to think back to the early nineties if you can (if you’re old enough to remember the early 90s...) to that hit song by Beck called "Loser?" The chorus went: I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me. Remember that? By the way, even if you were just barely born in the 90s, you’ve probably heard that song at some point--it was a mega hit for Beck. Okay, now think about the chorus again, to that one line that's not in English. I remember the first time I heard it, I thought—what the heck is he singing? I couldn't figure it out and it kept nagging at me. It was only after asking my girlfriend at the time--who spoke Spanish--did the question get resolved. She interpreted the line for me: Soy un perdedor. Spanish for, “I’m a loser.”
What relief to finally know!
Mother Mother's new single, "Cry Forum," ends with some lines spoken in Dutch. They're actually taken from a poem written in 1895 by English poet/novelist, Rudyard Kipling called "If." You can find the Dutch translation here and the English version here.
What is your favourite English-language song that features lines in another tongue?