Is there a song in a foreign language you like the melody to but didnt know the lyrics?
For me i’d say vocaloid when i was younger. No clue about now, maybe some russian songs like igorek.
I've been a fan of Rammstein for many years. I know the gist of what each song means and know a few words of German. But I can't translate word for word.
Prisencolinensinainciusol! That song rocks.
All right!
I dunno, sounds like english to me.
Came here to say this. If you haven’t heard this remix yet do check it out!
Dragostea Din Tei by O-Zone, though I think I heard it on NicoNico Douga before it became known as the NumaNuma Song.
A banger!
Kind of a weird one, but the beginning theme to the original Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex has stuck with me.
The song is called "Inner Universe," but the lyrics are Russian.
Wolf Totem by the Hu. In fact, their entire discography. The heavier stuff is great at the gym
My first introduction to them was Yuve Yuve Yu, also a banger.
I got a little hyper fixated on throat singing one week and they popped into my feed. Bike rides and road trips have never been the same.
Mayeeaheeeeee mayeeeaaahhooooo mayeeeeaaaa ha ha!
Dragostei din tei(sp) or so, by Romanians O-Zone?
Most anime OP's I like I have no idea what they're saying and that's probably for the best.
Leek spin https://youtu.be/GCO62VNm67k
Which is actually the Finnish song "Ievan polkka" and not just scatting/jibberish as I always naively used to think
Except, it is mostly scat/jibberish! Just in Finnish! Most of the song is nonsense lyrics.
Except it is just scatting. The leekspin version and the Miku version of the song is just the scatting parts of the Loituma arrangement. The full Loituma version, Korpiklaani version or one of the many recorded versions from Finnish folk singers have the actual lyrics. They do actually include a scatted part, usually after every verse, but Loituma atleast extended it for a full verse of scatting, which the Miku version made into a full song.
For the record, the lyrics are about the main character of the song dancing polka with the girl he loves (Ieva), whose "proper" and religious parents don't approve of the mc or dancing in general. So after they dance and go home, the mom of Ieva catches them and makes Ieva cry, the mc threatens the mom to leave them alone and professes his love for Ieva. Then they go on to dance more polka. It's great.
Einstürzende Neubauten: Nagorny Karabach https://youtu.be/hd-6WweqD0Y
(With subtitles in English)
Polish cow song. The melody itself is from another song, "How long - Lipps, inc" apparently. But both songs do well with that beat.
I non-ironically quite like the leek spin song (Ievan Polkka).
Anything from the hu
That is some seriously addictive stuff. Good call.
I don’t speak French and the soundtrack of the game Clair obscur expedition 33 is all in French and I can’t stop listening to it. So I have no idea about the lyrics but it sounds so pleasant to the ears.
That’s not really fair: Giddens could make coughing up phlegm sound amazing.
This is a significant fraction of my music collection.
Mundian to Bach Ke by Punjabi MC (and famously remixed with Jay Z)
You can't hear it from there, but I am screaming in non-native English speaker.
Or, to put it another way, every single song you know released before 1995.
historical example: Sukiyaki by Kyu Sakamoto – released in Japan in 1961 under “Ue o Muite Arukō” – released in US in 1963 under “Sukiyaki” because that was about the only Japanese word Americans knew …
I loved his cover of “Calendar Girl” sung in Japanese.
A bunch of songs from various Hololive JP talent :)
The band Creepy Nuts is a Japanese rap(?) group that did the Dandadan opening, but I also really like their opening for Mashle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLW35YMzELE
I think they also did the opening and closing for Call of the Night, but of which are also great.
Tons of songs from the Eurovision song contest. I was rocking out to this one from Estonia today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htPAhtVgKsI
I’ve played a lot of Korean games since way back, and there are plenty of songs I like — even though I have no idea what they’re saying.
I still play games like DJMAX and EZ2ON, and I just enjoy the vibe without understanding the lyrics.
The classic answer is La Bamba. Love the song, no idea what the lyrics are.
Many songs if I like enough I figure out some of the words when looking for the title. Otherwise I remember them then forget them for a while. A couple famous examples I like:
Dschinghis Khan - Moskau, it's a bop, i know the melody but lyrics I only know parts of.
O-Zone - Dragostea Din Tea - this one of course I know front to back but I don't know what a single word means.
Everything by Wardruna. Gregorian chant and medieval music, particularly by Hildegard von Bingen. Music by Enya in Gaelic.
I basically love city pop cus it has great groove, rhythm and usually the few English words in the lyrics reassuring me that it’s usually about love or a metaphor of it.
Yes
99 luftballoons!that's it, until I learned german
Baba Yetu, the Swahili opening to the game Civilization 4. Wikipedia says it's the first song made for a video game to win a Grammy.
I really enjoy Pourquoi by Eths, but I have no idea what's being said
There's this Norwegian metal band called Kvelertak and I absolutely love their sound, but have no idea what the lyrics are about as I don't speak the language.
There's a Mexican metal band Ladrones that I have the same issue with.
I did not expect to find a Kvelertak fan in this thread! Cool!
If you ever decide to learn a little to understand them, know that the dialect in Stavanger is very different to what you normally learn.
中西 圭三 - Woman
Nakanishi Keizō - Woman
(Japanese; my Japanese only good enough to catch a few snippets)
One I came to love because the guy in the room next to me when I lived in Japan kept playing it over and over until I did. Also featured in my first (and last!) attempt at doing karaoke in front of Japanese people.
https://youtu.be/xYe0d9QFLIA
Время и Стекло - Тролль
Vremya i Steklo - Troll
(Russian)
The Ukrainian crunk equivalent of "No Scrubs"? (IIRC read an article explaining how the song is about terrible men hitting on her)
https://youtu.be/q--5Ht49vNY
Anders Nelsson - 鬼新娘
Anders Nelsson - Ghost Bride Song
(Cantonese)
From the soundtrack of 殭屍先生 (Mr Vampire, 1985), Hong Kong horror-comedy about the hopping dead.
https://youtu.be/q9DHRNREzlk
Tabou Combo - Konpa Mania
(Haitian Creole & English; I only know a few words in Creole)
A konpa track I think sampled by Wyclef Jean.
https://youtu.be/McUmXoB_9yw
Songs from Negura Bunget, First Fragment, and newer stuff from Vildhjarta
Sometimes you get helpful subtitles such as Benny Lava. (Indian.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdyC1BrQd6g
A jetpack operation?
Also Yatta (Chinese)
J'en parlerai au diable • Johnny Hallyday
A lot of classical music
That Russian song that sounds like Joy Division on MDMA. I'm told the lyrics are very depressing but it's absolute fucking fire.
I like several songs by Stromae and don't understand French.
Any song that's on my playlist and not german or english ;)
Though specifically Akatsuki Records (JP), CrazyBeats (JP), several Vocaloid produces I can't remember.
flying duck by cherryfilter. I know only enough Korean to pick out a few words here and there, but have never bothered to look it up.
Always liked the melody to this 王七七Wang QiQi song:
Lots of Polish music:
Sexy Doll by Republika
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Mówię Ci, że by Tilt
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Fajki i Alkohol by Andy
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Zima by Natalia Szroeder
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Gdzie jest biały węgorz ? by Cypis
I gave up trying to learn Polish because of its immense difficulty. I only speak English fluently but I've taken up an interest in Esperanto.
A lot of songs come to mind, actually.
But if I had to pick just one, it would be MC Solaar's Carpe Diem.
My French is shaky at best, so back when I stumbled upon MC Solaar (maybe it was via Bearshare), I could barely understand the gist of what was said - and even with a much better understanding, many of the "retro" references in this song specifically would have made no sense to me.
But it evoked a weird sense of nostalgia in me - a longing for a time/things, that I had no connection to (so I shouldn't even feel any nostalgia):
https://youtube.com/watch?v=6-YCancrrBI
PS: If I had to pick something more popular, it would be Plastic Love by Mariya Takeuchi (got recommended by YouTube back when it made its first comeback wave in 2011, I think).
All of Francoise Hardy's album Soleil. Absolutely lovely singing voice.
MONO NO AWARE - かむかもしかもにどもかも！
No clue on the lyrics but the melody along with the lyrics are excellent
The artist Lescop is great. I know some french but not enough to really 100% follow the lyrics
I know enough Spanish to understand the lyrics now, but loved that song before I knew what it was saying.
That's a solid "The entire Caramba" album.
You might've heard (of) Habba Habba Zoot Zoot; well, they made an entire album of "plausible sounding" songs in German, Japanese, Finish, American, Russian, etc. It's really quite hilarious.
Here's a Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/artist/57BijyLUDfabkaaSwZsxsS
Locutorio - Sara Socas (España)
If I like a song, I make a deliberate effort to learn the lyrics and what they mean. People wrote those lyrics for a reason.
Or do you just want to dance?
Brutal 6 - Todo en mis Manos.
Olivia Lufkin - Stars Shining Out.
Anna Tsuchya - Kuroi Namida
Pretty much the whole soundtrack to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It's all done up in French and I only know bonjor, baguette, and fromage. But it just sounds right for the mood of the game :o
I'm surprised that people can answer with only one or a few songs. I don't "discriminate" music by language at all, I listen to a ton of music from all over the world in more languages than I can say. One very good place to find good international music is the YouTube channel My Analog Journal: https://youtube.com/@myanalogjournal
Yeah!
I've had "V blbym veku" from Xindl X in a playlist for 10 years.
I don't understand a single work, but it just speaks to me for some weird reason.
I always thought Regin Smidur by Týr captured exactly the kind of vibes I'd expect from Viking metal. But I've never known what the lyrics are about, and probably don't want to.
Ay Que Doler by Los Chunguitos. Such a banger and I always sing along but no idea what they're saying
Everything in Drakenier's Chaos Language.
I like vocaloid music, but many of the songs are in Japanese which I don’t speak
This song in some Cyrillic language: https://open.audio/library/tracks/102128
AcidWolf: Cherokee Lectro Mix https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iPaC0kQLVs
Some of them are:
Clouseau - Passie (Dutch)
5MIINUST x Puuluup - (nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi (Estonian, from 2024 Eurovision)
I caught some Icelandic rap the other night on that global radio website and now I need to find it. I caught some Algerian rap - rap again, even though it's usually not my thing - a few months back, too, and it was awesome.
Are you talking about radio.garden?
I don't speak Spanish, but when I heard Colores by Ska-P ("Por la libertad es fundamental la diversidad") I was instantly in love. The music is great and the lyrics seemed straight up fire.
Then I translated their songs and now they are my second favourite band, after RATM.
A Chitón - On repression and censorship in the name of security
El Vals del Obrero - The Workers Waltz, on unity of the working class
Blueprint Supreme
SKAI ISYOURGOD & AR LIU Fuyang
I have no idea what they're saying, but I know it slaps.
“Fighting in Built-up Areas” by Ladytron. Sung in Mira Aroyo’s native Bulgarian.
99 Luftballons was the first one that came to mind.
I love that song
The prettiest song ever about nuclear war.