The Best of Everything: The Best Song In A Language Other Than English

A lot of people who read this are going to look at that headline and say "Don't you mean The Best Song In A Foreign Language?" But I don't. Because TBOE is an international website, so people from other countries read it, too. Even if those countries don't have the good sense to speak English, they are kind of real countries with kind of real feelings and their own cultures that I should respect, but to respect them I'd have to know about them and to know about them I'd have to do something other than watch my new Newhart Season One DVDs which Sweetie gave me as an anniversary present.

So I'm not likely anytime soon to understand other cultures, but I do know that they speak languages that are not English, and I do know that they think those languages are not "foreign languages." In fact, I understand -- if you can believe this -- they think English is a foreign language. I'm sure they'll see the light of day once we either start shipping them iPods or invade them or both. Until then, I'll stick with The Best Song In A Language Other Than English, a topic which is not only accurately named but which also combines two of my passions: music, and thinking someone is screwing with my head.

Specifically, I think someone is screwing with my head because when I was younger, I clearly recall hearing a song that now most radio stations pretend don't exist. My memories of when I was younger serve me well in all instances, from debunking science to remembering music, and I trust my memories.

My memories in this case tell me that when I was a teen, the rock group "Nena" released a song in English called "99 Red Balloons." (My memory is that it's a group, but apparently, "Nena" is just one person. So she's got the exact opposite of a Pink Floyd/Jethro Tull deal going on.)

I liked the song "99 Red Balloons," and enjoyed singing along with its Euro-tech-bouncy version of how the cold war was going to kill us all. That's just my personality.

The 80's came and went and I grew older and now all the songs of my youth are played on stations whose names begin with "Classic" or "Oldies." And those Classic Oldies Stations refuse to play "99 Red Balloons." Instead, they play something called "99 Luftballons." They never play the English language version of the song, so I can't sing along with it because the only part I recognize is the "Captain Kirk" part. Not satisfying.

The stations act as though the English version never existed, screwing with my head and driving me nuts because I know it did exist, and I know in fact that the English version was the version that was a hit in the United States, so why won't the stations play the version that became a classic oldie here?

Plus, "luft" in German does not mean "red." It means "air." So it's probably not the same song at all.

It's not that I dislike songs in other languages. I like them a lot, in fact. My view of art is that the meaning the artist imposes on his or her work is secondary to the meaning that the person experiencing the art -- the artee, as it were -- imposes on that work. That is, art is meant to be and is interpreted by the artee, who brings their own experiences and emotions and thoughts to the work and imposes them on that work. That's why, for example, I can think the song "Love Soaked In Blood" by Peel is happy and bouncy and upbeat -- so happy and bouncy and upbeat that I have it on my "upbeat" playlist, next to "Love Today" and "Convoy."

I can think that because when I first heard the song, I was playing with Mr Bunches and Mr F and chasing them around while music played, so I associate the song with chasing my twins around, not with what is most likely a song about a horrific double murder.

So, painters, singers, writers, remember that we out here are interpreting your creation through our own lens. You think maybe you're making an ironic commentary on a post-materialist world, but we're looking at it and saying That looks like Aunt Val's dog.

Songs in foreign languages are especially conducive to imposing my own meaning on them, because I have no idea what they're talking about (beyond that they mention "Captain Kirk.") Plus, they have unusual instruments, weird syncopation, melodies that don't head where you expect them to go, and other things that separate them from the pack and make them compelling and interesting.

More compelling and interesting, sometimes, than you would think if song came in English. Take "Dragostea Din Tei," which you know as "Numa Numa." No, I'm not going to play that guy again. Instead, here's an opera version:

It's dramatic and heartfelt and foreign and mysterious. But in English, it's just another song about a guy who's one or two calls away from a restraining order. (The group behind "Dragostea Din Tei" made their own English language version of the song. But the English language version changes the lyrics from the Romanian version of the song -- and that change was something I was able to guess even without knowing Romanian, because in the English version, called Ma Ya Hi, they don't say anything as often as they say Numa in the original -- so if you know a little something about codebreaking [and I do] you know that they were changing the words, because they say "Numa" in Romanian roughly 100 times, but in the English version, they don't say anything 100 times. So unless "numa" means something different everytime you say it, they were changing the lyrics. And that, my friends, is the secret to codebreaking. Take that, Windtalkers.)

(If "Numa" did mean something different everytime you said it, Romanian would be by far the most awesome language ever.)

But the English version of the song is still pretty good:

I have my Non-English best songs broken down to three lead contenders. The second runner up is "Barracuda," by Miho Hatori:

The first runner up is "Ta Douleur" by Camille:

Those songs get this high up on the list because of their foreign-ness, because they have weird qualities, and because they're catchy anyway. I can snap my fingers and tap my toes to them and try to sing along, and never be quite successful because they move in weird ways, the way snakes move in weird, hypnotic ways.

Before I go further, I will address what will likely be the subject of a huge international controversy akin to the one that ensued when I made my most controversial pronouncement ever. I want to avoid kicking up a furor, so let me just explain that there will be those among you who will say "But 'Barracuda' is sung in English."

Those of you who say that will be what scientists refer to as "correct" and what I refer to as "ignored," and here's why: Miho Hatori sounds like she's singing in a foreign language because her voice is so exotic. Here's another why: Miho Hatori probably does not speak English and so for her, "Barracuda" is in a foreign language, so if I had named this entry "The Best Song In A Foreign Language," "Barracuda" would qualify. And here's a final why: I wanted it in here.

Those are the runners-up. The Best Song In A Language Other Than English eclipses those two at the same time as it doesn't go as far as them. It's not as strangely wonderful; it's more conventional, but it makes up for that by conveying its emotion so clearly that it doesn't, in the end, need to be in English or be strange or exotic. It's enough that it exists and that it exists in a language that lets me impose my emotions on it, emotions that are made wonderful because the song brings them out and makes them wonderful, imposing itself on me as I impose myself on it.

The Best Song In A Language Other Than English is "Espacio Sideral" by Jesse & Joy:

You listen to that song, and without even understanding the language, you become happy, filled up with emotion, brimming with love. Brimming with not just love but "LOVE", the kind of "LOVE" that lifts you up and carries you and makes you happy, even if you're being happy in a language other than English. I'm not even sure what this song is about, in the long run -- some kind of cereal, I think -- but it's obviously a happy song, and happy in a way that makes me think only of "LOVE." I don't need to know the specifics of what it's about, because the music pulls emotions out of me, and puts them back into me, all without getting in the way of my interpretation by having words I can understand.

That, and I like the acoustic guitar.

Plus, they mention Superman. I'm positive I heard that. And Superman is almost as great as Captain Kirk, so that really puts this song over the top.