Though English is seemingly the most global languageâspoken from London, England to London Island, Chileâit would appear that while there are those not blessed with the ability to decipher the tongue of Shakespeare, they still sometimes like to make their own versions of our songs without really messing around with the music (which is obviously the best way to do it, because fuck âinterpretationsâ just get out the Google Translate and get on with it). This was best summed up to me by a Swedish friend who told me about his childhood days singing songs 'round the campfire in the frozen North. I was expecting some haunting folk tunes about Vikings or getting trapped in your Saab for two months, but instead, she just sang me the Cats song âMemoryâ in Swedish. Fired by this piece of cross-cultural brilliance, I went in search of more foreign language covers. Hereâs what I found.This sexy little twink is a member of Big Bang, a Korean boy band that rocked Wembley in December. A badass Bieber, heâs all about rapping, necklace-n-vest combos and woolly hats. Heâs so successful that even Yahoo Answers, that pillar of Internet wisdom, has a page wondering if it was him or Maroon 5 who originally penned âThis Loveâ (answer: it was neither).Artists covering themselves in different languages is always good, because it feels like the days when singers were essentially record company slaves who had to do whatever they were asked in order to shift units in new âterritoriesâ full of people eager to fully understand the poetry they were listening to. The man in black seems well suited FOR the dark gravitas of German in the same way that âWhat Becomes of the Broken Heartedâ singer Jimmy Ruffin seems totally suited to Italian in this version of his enduring hit.Polish punk stalwarts The Analogs are so keen on their influences, they made a whole album of covers (2005âs Talent Zero), with lyrics translated into Polish. This is one of a few Clash covers theyâve done, and their version of peerless Buzzcocksâ (anti) love song âEver Fallen in Loveâ inspired this moving, wordless tribute from a Polish kid and his guitar. Of course, itâs hard to talk about second-language (cartoon) punk covers when you can just listen to NOFX doing âChamps Elyseesâ.Iâm told that Greeceâs lesbian community isnât really evolved enough to have icons, but if ever there was a Greek lesbian icon, itâs Alkistis Protopsalti. Sheâs the Mediterraneanâs answer to Ellen, Jodie Foster, or the woman who plays Susan Kennedy in Neighbours. This version of Nickelbackâs classic song of identity and amnesia is given a run for its money by her version of Tanya Stephensâ âItâs a Pity,â the video for which features our hero sticking her middle finger up to the rat race by waterskiing along a bunch of main roads. Thereâs a rich collection of Greek-language covers, and given that this is a nation bizarrely obsessed with b-list Manchester indie heartbreakers James (go to any James videos on YouTube and most/all the comments will be in Greek), itâs no surprise that Filippos Pliatsikasâ version of âSay Something" is popular and, you know, really deep. Pliatsikas was the main man in 90s Greek rock megaband Pyx Lax, whose big hit âEpapses Agaph Na Thimizeisâ employs every trick in the 90s rock book: loads of flange, long hair, and a video featuring two women, some mystery, flickering images, and the sense that serious long-haired guys are the only guys capable of truly serious long-haired emotions.Looking at this sweet Ukrainian X Factor contestant do his very best with Eminem, I canât help but imagine him years down the line, smoking crack in a basement with his entourage, stricken by marital strife, child custody issues, and rampant Nixon-levels of paranoia.According to the spiel under this video, itâs possible to get âwriterâs blockâ when youâre covering a song (Note to Piano Guys: you did not write the Coldplay song âParadiseâ). For American easy-listening/Classical YouTube sensations The Piano Guys, the answer to this block was to take a ârandomâ new approach: an âAfrican approach!â Africans, theyâre so random! Cue sweeping shots of piano, cello, and a singer on a mountain and the wide plains of, er, Utah, and a version of the song sung in Swahili featuring the singerâs own âAfrican scatâ (which the Piano Guys refer to as âScafricanâ). All they need to do now is team up with the X Factor auditionee who covered Rihanna in Kenya.You want some real Africans (two guys from Senegal)? Here they are, covering Totoâs neo-colonial classic âAfricaâ with a whole lot of French rapping and the line âAfrica, you are my mother and my father.âI remember a friend telling me about seeing Lou Reed amble through a totally forgettable set in Central Park. At the end, everyone was leaving wearily, when Lou reappeared, grandly told the throng that he âcame here to play,â and launched into another 45 minutes of the back catalog. I canât help but feel that Lou would disapprove of cheeky Catalan jester Albert Pla. I imagine Pla making faces at him over dinner while a smoking, sunglasses-wearing Lou tells him that he âcame here to eat.âA friend of mine got into studying Mandarin simply because he was in love with Faye Wong. Some time later, he realized she was singing in Cantonese at the time. She starred in Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express, which had her Cranberries cover on the soundtrack, and this cover of âBohemian Rhapsodyâ has to be seen to be believedA song about a dude drowning/Phil Collinsâ angry divorce sung by legendary Senegalese singer TourĂ© Kunda in the SoninkĂ© language. Seems like a mainstream way to end this.Follow Oscar on Twitter @oscarrickettnow
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