Today's episode is all about music that exists in multiple languages. Join Scot on a journey of discovery exploring the ins and outs of some of some great examples of this phenomenon.  We talk The Beatles, Shakira, BoA, Encanto, Phil Collins, Avril Lavigne, Shania Twain, Johnny Cash, and more!

From all over the world find out about the artists that have done this strange yet impressive feat and hear them in the act. 

Check videos for all the songs discussed here:

http://perfectshow.site/09-multi-language-songs/

Check the original songs here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPxDnKc4gzWuwjpl1tz6WUw

Special thanks to fiverr artists who worked on the songs from this episode: 

 

Cana Rialto - canarialto: https://www.fiverr.com/canarialto

 

Chloe Chan - jiachen782: https://www.fiverr.com/jiachen782

 

Arunabh Kumar - arunabhkumar: https://www.fiverr.com/arunabhkumar

 

Charu Haran - charuharan: https://www.fiverr.com/charuharan

 

Ekata Sharma - ekatashreya: https://www.fiverr.com/ekatashreya

 

Thomas Mennuni - thomasmennuni: https://www.fiverr.com/thomasmennuni

 

Lucas GM - lucas_gm: https://www.fiverr.com/lucas_gm

 

StudioBlackroom - studioblackroom: https://www.fiverr.com/studioblackroom

Music from this episode by:

 

Brrrrravo - https://www.fiverr.com/brrrrravo

 

Bastreon - https://www.fiverr.com/bastereon

 

Handanu - https://www.fiverr.com/handanu

 

Shawn Korkie - https://www.fiverr.com/shawnkorkie

 

KG Rap Official - https://www.fiverr.com/kgrapofficial

 

Lofi_rob - https://www.fiverr.com/lofi_rob

 

From the Free Music Archive and used under a Creative Commons License:

 

Komiku - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Komiku

 

Mall - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Komiku/Captain_Glouglous_Incredible_Week_Soundtrack/mall_1328

 

A Calm Moment to Remember Before Taking the Dangerous Road - https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Komiku/Helice_Awesome_Dance_Adventure_/a-calm-moment-to-remember-before-taking-the-dangerous-roa

 

AI-Generated Transcript:

 

Speaker 1: <time>0:19 </time>

Hey, it's Scott. Quick disclaimer here at the top this episode has clips from a lot of songs and one of them has a curse word that I haven't beeped, so if that's something you like to be aware of ahead of time, well, now you are Hi and welcome to the Perfect Show. I'm your host, scott Moppen. I'm what you might call a perfection prospector, sifting through life looking for little things or experiences that could be considered perfect. Join me each episode as I examine one topic that I'm presenting as a little nugget of perfection. I find it very impressive when people are able to function in multiple languages. I've had conversations in mixed company that switch back and forth between English and Japanese frequently, and those are the moments when I really feel the seams of my own language ability stretching much more so compared to times where I only need to operate in English or Japanese. But some people just seem to be able to flip back and forth between languages mid-sentence effortlessly. I'm also quite impressed by musical ability of any kind. In particular, singing Instruments carry their own complexities, for sure. I played a few growing up and I get that. But to me they are maybe less daunting because, as long as they are in tune, they usually have an obvious mechanical action for achieving a note, like press this key or cover that hole. Singing feels like you're asked to do the same thing just without the help of any equipment or machinery. You're just expected to nail the note all on your own. So then it should come as no surprise that people who can sing in multiple languages nearly short circuit my brain. I've memorized some non-English lyrics to a few songs over the years. But to be able to perform musically in front of a microphone while operating in a language that isn't your well, I can't even say native language, because some people absolutely do grow up speaking two, three or more languages, but it's just a stack to me, you know. Difficult thing on top of difficult thing on top of yet another difficult thing and pulling it all off. That's why this episode I want to celebrate music that travels across languages and the singers putting their skills on display. Now let me jump out here and set up some guidelines, because there are some gray areas in that statement, but I'm looking for songs that follow a very specific set of rules. First and foremost, it has to be the same singer doing both languages. I came across some foreign language versions of songs, but they were sung by a different singer and I'd consider that to be pretty much a cover song, even though it's in a different language. But that's not what I'm talking about here. So the singer needs to be the same, but also I'm looking for the song to be the same too. Right, someone singing all their regular songs in English but then throwing it in an Ave Maria on a Christmas album or something? That's not going to count. Same singer, same song, multiple languages. By the way, the more language versions the song has, the happier it makes me. I mean, remaking a song in a second language is mind-blowing enough to me, but some musicians don't stop it only too. My joy about the whole thing just increases exponentially for each additional language that's involved. When I started this search, I only really knew of a handful of examples, most of which I had personally collected over the years as just oddities and curiosities, and I'll get to each of those. But in researching for this episode, I discovered a ton of additional examples and started taking notes. Remember, I love this type of song where some people may light up at the first edition of a famous book. I light up at the French edition of a famous song. In collecting all the songs for this, my multi-language music collection grew way bigger, like Grinchart style, and when the song list got long enough, I started to see some similarities among the different tracks, and what I came up with was three different categories for these songs on my list. Category 1 Category 1 the first category is for singers who release music in multiple markets regularly. Usually, if I find out about them, there's an English version involved, and oftentimes, if there's another version of the song, it'll be in Spanish due to the large overlap of Spanish-speaking and English-speaking markets where I live. I'm sure there are a ton of examples that I have no idea about out there with songs and pairs or trios of languages that just don't involve English. Now, this may seem obvious, but a lot of the artists in this category are multilingual, meaning they speak two or more languages. I mean, it's got to make it easier to sing in a language if you're already comfortable communicating in it, right? Ricky Martin, who became a huge star in the late 90s, early 2000s, has a ton of songs like this. A good example is Liv and La Vida Loca, which, like a lot of his songs, has an English version and a. Spanish version released simultaneously to play in both the Spanish and English-speaking markets. Same thing with Gloria Estefan, who has released a ton of her songs in two languages for those two markets, as both