Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Eurovision

Mario

Was it this song?



PS. I agree with you about the language issue. It seems that performers now think that the only way to get international recognition is to sing in English.

PPS. There is a site, http://4lyrics.eu/esc/2017/salvador-sobral-amar-pelos-dois/, which has the original lyrics and a tab with the English translation.

You were under a false impression, it's never been the case.

ABBA - Waterloo (1974).

Hanes - the Irish language is Gaeilge - closely related to the Scottish language Gaelic. I can just about understand Gaelic as a lot of the words are very similar, but usually the accent defeats me!!!!!!!

Ian, you're right. But unless my memory is really playing tricks on me, that was the exception, not the norm. I distinctly remembre hearing lots of languages during old Eurovision contests.

Yesterday, as I said, Portugal was the exception. All 17 others, from Azerbeijan to Greece, from Georgia to Belgium, From Cyprus to Iceland .... all in English. I find that sad.

Peter, that's the one. Notwithstanding that he seems to be a talented piano player, I do prefer him solo as he performed last night (first time I heard the music too, so maybe I was more impressed then)

I haven't watched it since Jonny Logan won it singing in English "What's another year" in 1980.

I happened to be staying in Jury's Hotel at Balls Bridge in Dublin that night, boy did we all party till dawn.

Once the USSR ceased to be that the voting went stupid and I failed to see it as a competition any longer .

p.s. The Aussies also sing in English - at least I don't recall hearing an Aboriginal one.

p.p.s. Johnny Logan was born in Australia .

Ever heard anyone singing opera in English? Of course not - opera is done mainly in Italian though I believe the French insist on it being translated into frog. Pop music on the other hand has been dominated by the Americans and to a much lesser extent by us, so its overwhelmingly in English. sSo what.

Does any of that really matter?

Didn't Benjamin Britten write the opera Peter Grimes to be sung in English? Gilbert & Sullivan's works may have been comic operas, but they are classified as operas nevertheless and delivered in English.

Aren't Gilbert and Sullivan things called operetta implying lightness?
I'm not sure so I'll check with my daughter who is an opera singer!
I know she has to master pronounciation in lots of languages for different roles. I also know she loves Italian. I also remember that she likes singing in German.
I'll find out and comment more.
Nick

I have seen a couple of performances in English performed by the Glyndebourne touring team - they were both Puccini so written for Italian.

If it's done well the performance loses nothing.

I would like to offer two observations.

1. We use the term English to describe the words used.
2. An English person is likely to find someone speaking the language with an accent more interesting than a native person in many cases so it is not necessarily a disadvantage.

I would say that the language we refer to as English is also American, Australian, South Africa (ish) and others. It may have it's roots in England but it is no longer ours. There are many contributors to this from my perspective (Internet, US TV etc etc) but I don't think it is fair to say that the EU will stop speaking English because we leave the party. It is a bigger thing than just Britain. Lets face it they don't even use it in Sunderland