Do you like listening to music that's in a language you don't speak?

[Prophetic Spirit]

Only Yakuza Karaokes (i can sing very well if you ask me).

Spoiler: The Videos if you doubt about xd

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Anthem

LOUDNESS

 

[Positron]

Aficionados of Fado are always on the lookout for the new Amália Rodriges, and in the past decade the prime candidate has been Ana Moura. I've just got hold of her album Leva-me aos Fados. I'm aware that she has branched out stylistically of late, but in this particular album she stays largely traditional:

You can hear her perfect control of dynamics and shadings. She does not go all-out passionate like Amália Rodriges; even in the most intense passage it seems she is holding something back -- and I prefer it that way.

Here is a bittersweet little number with the nice title "Crítica de Razão Pura" or "Critique of Pure Reason":

Why did you want to name the path to happiness?
Why did you want to understand
The fire that was ours?
My love, if we end up alone,
It is because you wanted to understand.

The next song, to me the most haunting in the set, is musically closer to generic folk than Fado, but the lyrics speaks of urbanite alienation, yearning for the sea, and the futile search for release -- all familiar themes in Fado lyrics.

Turning my back on the bright lights of my home town
I'm on a journey I no longer want to take
At the end of the road there is a house meant for me
In there an untamed wish that insists on my doom
Without love, heading South
The sky no longer blue

 

[Cheerlead-in-Chief]

I listened to K-Pop, and J-Pop and Celtics music, so yes.

 

[DavidFerrie]

Does Gregorian Chant (Latin) count?

 

[Positron]

The album New Dawn, by the Somali group Waaberi, was immediately hailed as a classic when it was released in 1997. Listeners were enchanted by the fusion of Arabic instruments and African jazz. This song, "Kafiyo Kaladeri" ("Opposites"), which ends this album, is not the most interesting nor the most catchy, but this is the only track I can find on Youtube.

There is no full translation of lyrics in the booklet, just a snippet: “My love for him will no longer stay secretly in my heart. Although I try to stop it, the feeling moves to my lips. I have to tell him.”

The lead singer of the group, Maryam Mursal, also has a solo career, but her solo music has a very "night-clubby" sound that I find less endearing:

 

[Celebrate Nite]

In my 20's when Dance Dance Revolution was my drug, there were lots of songs (mostly in japan) that I would listen to on my iPod and put on repeat because they sounded so awesome.

One of my favorite songs from that series happens to be in French

 

[Grandpa Simpson]

Shreya Ghoshal is absurdly skilled. You can't help but be amazed at her vocal control.

The other was Shannon Williams, a half Korean prodigy, she was on TV at 15 or so.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Recently found out about Demon Kakka.

 

[Grandpa Simpson]

Lastly the composer Jin Ah. She doesn't get the popularity she deserves. She does compositions for TV series now.

 

[round robin]

I like this.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

I remembered listing to Italian opera a few years back, and recently I listened to a mix of Russian disco and Japanese pop that was from the 80’s, so there’s that.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

A rude French song. Translation below by me, attempting to preserve rhyme and idiom.

Spoiler: Les paroles

When the Artilleryman of Metz
Arrives in the barracks,
All the women of Metz
Stick their fingers up their cracks.
To prepare such a journey
To this cannoneer horny
Who will fuck them tomorrow
His prong up their snatch.

[Refrain]
Artillerymen, my dear friends
Let us drink together without end
And repeat this most gay rhyme:
Long live the Artillerymen,
Women, and good wine.

When the Artilleryman of Metz
Requests a favour
All the women of Metz
Agree with great ardour.
And her husband, such a cuck
Sees the Artilleryman fuck
In equal measure
The daughter and the mother.

When the Artilleryman of Metz
Leaves the military
All the women of Metz
Leap off their balcony
To salute with great jollity
This cannoneer so salty
Who, it so came to pass
Came to fuck them up the arse.

 

[[Redacted]-san]

I usually used to listen to nasheeds and other Arabian music, now it's mostly russian, german, Japanese/chinese songs, religious Latin songs, and NKpop/military music.

 

[Coffee Shits]

I like to tune into the Russian stations when I'm playing Euro Truck Simulator 2.

In my own car, I've got Army of Mushrooms by Infected Mushroom. "Send Me An Angel" is a great track although I don't speak Hebrew:

 

[Positron]

I've posted Azerbaijani music in this thread before. Here are more from Armenia.

As the very first nation that adapted Christianity as their state religion, you can expect Armenia has a long tradition of sacred choral music. The first volume of Celestial Harmonies's Music of Armenia series is dedicated to these chants, recorded in a cave which producer David Parsons deemed acoustically stunning.

Volume 5 of this series, consisting of 2 CDs, is on folk music. I haven't opened it yet and I'm going to.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

If you're into doom and gloom, no body does it better than Russians. I love a lot of the stuff that's been coming out of there for the last few years.

Spoiler: russian stuff

 

[mr.moon1488]

Does Gregorian Chant (Latin) count?

That's actually not a bad way to learn some foreign languages. I've picked up a fair bit of German, Latin, and even a tiny bit of ancient Greek from listening to songs like that.

 

[DavidFerrie]

That's actually not a bad way to learn some foreign languages. I've picked up a fair bit of German, Latin, and even a tiny bit of ancient Greek from listening to songs like that.

I also like Orthodox chant, but I still can't speak any Old Church Slavonic.

And on the secular side, I like Byzantine classical/non-Church stuff as well:

 

[Crankenstein]

Not a weeb but city pop is pretty great.