Entertainment desk
< April 2	<< Mar \| April \| May >>	April 4 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

April 3

Singers/bands singing in non-native languages

I've noticed that many singers/bands sing in languages which are arguably not their native languages. For these people, it is required that in real life they be proficient in the language(s) they sing? 72.95.242.33 (talk) 03:32, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

No, singers can be taught to sing phonetically in other languages without knowing the meaning of the sounds they are making. Well trained singers can sing convincingly in just about any tongue, even if they don't speak it. --Jayron32 03:44, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder if anyone has taken advantage of this and taught a singer to sing something they wouldn't normally be willing to say. StuRat (talk) 13:33, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Opera singers, and indeed lieder singers, have been doing this for centuries. Unless they confine their repertoire to Italian works, or German, or French, or whatever, they'll be required to regularly sing in a range of languages. Those three, plus maybe Czech, Russian, Hungarian and a few others. Over time, they would naturally gain some degree of proficiency in those languages, but whether enough that they could carry on a conversation with a contemporary native speaker is another matter. (But a Babylonian emperor, a Valkyrie, or a medieval troubador - ah, now you're talking. Or they are, more to the point.) -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 04:35, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Outside of opera, probably the most famous example of this in the English speaking world is The Beatles' German versions of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You". For the record (pun intended), The Beatles didn't like the idea of doing it. And they didn't speak German. Dismas|^(talk) 05:22, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Many European rock and pop artists sing in English because it's the lingua franca of Western pop music. Abba would be the most famous example. In these cases the artists are usually proficient in English. --Richardrj ^talk ^email 06:18, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

More on ABBA: as well as singing (and writing) many dozens of songs in English, they released an album of Spanish-language versions of some of their songs (Gracias Por La Música) in 1980. The lyrics were translated by others beforehand. I think they did a French version of "Honey, Honey" as well. Hassocks5489 (tickets please!) 12:53, 6 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Queen had three non-English songs : Teo Torriatte (only partly Japanese), Las Palabras de Amor and Mustapha (still not known if that song is even a real language, it just sounds Arabic with only a few actual disernible words being sung like "Allah, Allah, Allah will pray for you"). I still enjoy the song, so I find myself unintentionally memorizing the lyrics and singing along even though I don't know what the hell they mean. If someone asked me to sing the song in its entirety, I probably could. Same for Regina Spektor's song "Après Moi", there's a Russian verse in it that's from a Boris Pasternak poem that I probably know by heart, even though I don't speak, read or write a lick of Russian. I learned all the words phonetically.24.189.90.68 (talk) 10:35, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I should have also clarified that Las Palabras is only partly Spanish as well. Mustapha is the only song of theirs that is sung in a non-English language almost entirely. 24.189.90.68 (talk) 01:10, 4 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Manu Chao sings in quite a few languages, often mixing them in the same song. AFAIK, he speaks most of them. --NorwegianBlue^talk 18:52, 4 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Oscar Wilde

I've seen on a number of websites (for example, Wikipedia's pardoy uncyclopedia) references and quotes of "Oscar Wilde" that couldn't possibly refer to the Oscar Wilde I knew. Excuse me if I'm just an old fogey and out of touch with today's youth culture but the Oscar Wilde I knew from the university was a respected Irish writer. What am I missing? 76.199.151.12 (talk) 16:57, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The attribution of invented parody quotes to Oscar Wilde is an Uncyclopedia in-joke. See our article Uncyclopedia. Ka renjc 17:48, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"A respected Irish writer" - you make him sound like a stuffy academic. Wilde was well renowned to have a playful and rapier wit. Once one becomes known as a producer of a clever turns of phrase, people tend to attribute quotations to you "to lend them authority". On the American side of the pond, this happens frequently with Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin. I think Yogi Berra said it best: "I really didn't say everything I said." -- 174.31.194.126 (talk) 19:02, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

But congratulations on your longevity. If you knew Oscar Wilde at university, that would make you at least 150 years old. (Jeanne Calment, prepare to relinquish your record.) -- Jack of Oz ... speak! ... 21:32, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Wilde: "I wish I'd said that"

Whistler: "You will, Oscar, you will!"

-- Quoted in q:James McNeil Whistler by Lisa N. Peters

If with the literate I am / Impelled to try an epigram, / I never seek to take the credit; / We all assume that Oscar said it.

-- A Pig's-Eye View of Literature, q:Dorothy Parker

Everything I've ever said will be credited to Dorothy Parker.

-- George S. Kaufman

More thing he may or may not have said at q:Oscar Wilde meltBanana 23:57, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder if it is inspired by the Whistler/Wilde Monty Python sketch. "Your majesty is like a stream of bat's piss...one of Wilde's!" "It sodding was not!" Adam Bishop (talk) 03:44, 4 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Wellingtons musical group disambiguation

"The Wellingtons" page in Wikipedia provides information on a current musical group. A three person vocal group was active in the 1960's and sang "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island" on the Gilligan's Island TV show. The group also made a guest appearance on one episode. Additionally, they were a popular group on shows like "Shindig." How can a page be added to provide information about another singing group with the same name?fred campbell (talk) 20:42, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Disambiguation for a general description on how to resolve such problems. --Jayron32 21:01, 3 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Probably simplest to call the article The Wellingtons (1960s group). We've already got the founder, George Patterson (psychologist)[1] (though I've just nominated him for deletion). Clarityfiend (talk) 03:47, 4 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]