Favorite song in a language you don't understand? Spanish for example...

plus rein it’s by a band called les cowboys fringants

I don’t have a song but I think Portuguese sounds beautiful, especailly a lot of the tropicalia stuff like Os Mutantes.

i agree with peedub, i know a lot of bad things in Portuguese and even they sound nice… i also fancy French, it wasn’t voted the language of love for nothing!

Check out the old songs by Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Patachou, Charles Aznavour, and Georges Brassens for dozens of reasons to learn French.

the Spanish song at the end of kill bill 2 was great.

Staralfur by Sigur Ros is amazing.

I agree with jams staralfur is beautiful so is Sven g englar both by Sigur Ros the second was in vanilla sky

Neunundneunzig Luft Balloons by Nena.

Stella Maris by Einstürzende Neubauten is also very moving (to Me.) and most of the work Seu Jorge puts out is great. As for French, what an amazing language! It’s a shame most of the girls I know from France are such snobs. Musically, YELLE is good, if more pop-ish than melodic. Serge Gainsbourg and Benjamin Biolay both sound great. Oh and Sabastien Tellier.

Okay sorry, I’ll stop

Hate to say Sigur Ros again, but…

Sigur Ros- Med Blotnasir, Andvari, Untitled #4

Rafi Malkiel- Guajira Con Trombon

Maybe this could be one of my favorites.

Manu Chao!

me gusta manu chao!

@peedub: i would have taken you for more of a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGMwWIg3pE8

OMG, I’m in, man.
In with this too.

@shockvalue that fintroll song was awesome up until the point they started to sing.

Sigur Ros is soooo good. Seaglopur is my favorite of theirs

And I don’t think anyone clarified but Sigur Ros is Icelandic

La Camisa Negra by Juanes – fun
Peut etre t’il reve by Raphael – heartbreaking

@CameraObs
@curtaincall
@uberbatman

If you’re really into Sigur Ros check out this trailer for a film they’re making/made “Heima”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpQ6m2Qf918

La Donna E Mobile and Carmina Burana

Gotta love the airplane-shots…... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzDHQl5v2Ls

The Flower of Carnage by Meiko Kaji its on the Kill Bill sound track.

Seconded on Manu Chao…also add to that Cesaria Evora (Cape Verde Portugese-love her!), Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Fela Kuti (Although mostly sings in English), and Ali Farke Touré are all amazing IMO.

Santa Lucia in Italian

Anyone who’s in to strange scandinavian troll bands and the likes, might also get a giggle out of these guys (although I happen to like them, but they’re from back home and sing in my native language, so…)

Sympathetique, by Pink Martini. They have a lot of songs in a lot of different languages. The girl’s voice is fantastic.

Molinos de Viento, of Mago de Oz. spanish song. but I wasn’t understanding it before, but now I’ve been speaking spanish for 2 years so it’s over! :P

@ The_Englishman ~ I can’t find The Flower of Carnage on the soundtrack. I did see Kill Bill vol. 2 has a song by the same artist called Urami Bushi and a hidden track, Black Samba

Can you help?

@ above Manu Chao fans ~ what’s good by them?

@mcbealer: Only thing I can tell you is it is track 13 on the volume 1 soundtrack. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kill-Bill-Original-Soundtrack/dp/B0000D8HSN/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1208542617&sr=1–1)

Gasolina

not sure my favorite song but I like when their in French.

malanina in Spanish

Marieke, in Flemish, sung by Jacques Brel.

@mcbealer: Me Gustas Tu is a great song by manu chao. Frankly all his stuff is great, but bongo bong is overplayed (if only because it is so fun to listen to.)

@uberbatman: hah, I’d have to agree. Norwegian folk metal is erm… interesting, to say the least.

@ shockvalue ~ darn, it’s not on iTunes

‘Mi Pequenito’ by Roberto Pulido y Los Clasicos or ‘Parlez Nous A’ Boire’ by the Balfa Brothers ( the song that’s playing in the village at the end of ‘Southern Comfort’)

“young girls with eyes like potatos…..........la isla bonita”

I really love the song “Ajab si” from the bollywood movie Om Shanti Om.

Sometimes I think not knowing what it means is better, so I more appreciate the music and melody itself.

Does Arab Strap count, his Scottish accent is so thick I need translation

Kothbiro sung by Ayub Ogada on The Constant Gardener soundtrack

Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s voice and music. I love his album, Alone in IZ World

99 Luftballons, though since I’ve also heard it over and over in English I can’t really say I don’t understand it.

I like a lot of Spanish music. When I started listening to it a few years ago I didn’t understand it. Though I understand most of what I hear now, due to working on my Spanish.

@ironhiway, like you, I also don’t understand Lena’s song. And I gotta tell ya, knowing the lyrics in both german and english doesn’t really seem to help. ;-)

-

You and I in a little toy shop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we’ve got.
Set them free at the break of dawn
‘Til one by one, they were gone.
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, Something’s out there.
Floating in the summer sky.
99 red balloons go by.

robmandu, years ago when the song came out I bought the album.
All the other songs are only in German. Her voice is beautiful.
99 balloons is about the early warning system being fooled by the balloons in the sky and everything gets destroyed.

oh… cool!

Oh noes, now I gotta come up with a different example.

One of my favorite songs happens to be in French: “Mao Boy!” by Indochine. A great song about getting the *(&# out of Dodge and leaving your crud behind you.

@poser – The lead singer of Pink Martini, China Forbes, has released a solo album – you might check it out.

Cool, thanks!

i see this question is old buuut i love the song “II n’y a pas d’amour heureux” by francoise hardy, obviously french (which i WISH i understood—i’m working on it).