One who can't speak English can sing in English!

[Dingbat]

Josh Groban picks out an audience member at a concert in Montreal. She can't speak English but sings a duet with him in English!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1_BIkfbjo

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

That's not at all uncommon. Lots of opera singers can sing in Italian
(or German, if they're in the Magic Flute, etc.) but can't speak it.

Come to that, C�line Dion has the grossest of Qu�b�cois accents when
she speaks (in French), but it's undetectable when she sings.


--
athel

[arth...@yahoo.com]

I agree. Dion does have a very strong Canadian accent when she speaks French. (I am not sure 'gross' is not derogatory.) She sings in English as well. Can you detect any accent when she sings in English?

I have seen a lot of native speaking actors play roles with a different accent that their own (American person playing a Britisher, Australian person playing an American, Britisher playing American.... ) Once this was not so common. I think Peter Sellers was one of the exceptional cases back in the day. Now you see it all the time (not that all of the actors do a convincing job of it).

There are actors who are not native English speakers and play roles with an English accent. But I suppose in real life they speak English relatively well. Robert De Niro, however, played a role speaking "multiple Sicilian dialects". I'm not sure he can even speak standard Italian fluently.

This was in the Wikipedia article about him:

"De Niro became the first actor to win an Academy Award speaking mainly a foreign language; in this case, multiple Sicilian dialects,[3] although he delivered a few lines in English."

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_De_Niro

Now, of course I don't think there are many people around here who can tell us if he did a good job or not.

Respectfully,
Navi.

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

Athel Cornish-Bowden skrev:

>> Josh Groban picks out an audience member at a concert in Montreal. She
>> can't speak English but sings a duet with him in English!
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1_BIkfbjo

> That's not at all uncommon. Lots of opera singers can sing in Italian
> (or German, if they're in the Magic Flute, etc.) but can't speak it.

> Come to that, C�line Dion has the grossest of Qu�b�cois accents when
> she speaks (in French), but it's undetectable when she sings.

Singing is a different action than speaking. On one of these
X-Factor/Talent/Whatever-shows there was a candidate who had
Tourettes Syndrome. He kept it relatively well controlled when
speaking to the judges, but there was no trace of it when he
sang. I believe that that is common.

--
bertel.lundhansen.dk fiduso.dk obese.dk

[Jack Campin]

>> Josh Groban picks out an audience member at a concert in Montreal.
>> She can't speak English but sings a duet with him in English!
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1_BIkfbjo
> That's not at all uncommon. Lots of opera singers can sing in Italian
> (or German, if they're in the Magic Flute, etc.) but can't speak it.

I'm told by Hungarians that I can sing pretty well in Hungarian,
but my vocabulary is mostly musicological terms and food words.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k
Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
mobile 07800 739 557 <http://www.campin.me.uk> Twitter: JackCampin

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

On 2014-07-27 09:50:30 +0000, Jack Campin said:

>>>
>>> Josh Groban picks out an audience member at a concert in Montreal.
>>> She can't speak English but sings a duet with him in English!
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1_BIkfbjo
>> That's not at all uncommon. Lots of opera singers can sing in Italian
>> (or German, if they're in the Magic Flute, etc.) but can't speak it.
>
> I'm told by Hungarians that I can sing pretty well in Hungarian,
> but my vocabulary is mostly musicological terms and food words.

No musicological terms, I'm afraid, but I can do some food words. Once
at a Hungarian restaurant in London I pronounced "paprik�s"
sufficiently well for the waiter to call the owner to find out if I was
Hungarian.


--
athel

[R H Draney]

arth...@yahoo.com filted:

>
>This was in the Wikipedia article about him:
>

>"De Niro became the first actor to win an Academy Award speaking mainly a f=
>oreign language; in this case, multiple Sicilian dialects,[3] although he d=

>elivered a few lines in English."

Later on, Marlee Matlin won an Academy Award for a role where she only had one
line of spoken dialogue....r


--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Sunday, July 27, 2014 4:50:02 AM UTC-4, Bertel Lund Hansen wrote:

> Singing is a different action than speaking. On one of these
> X-Factor/Talent/Whatever-shows there was a candidate who had
> Tourettes Syndrome. He kept it relatively well controlled when
> speaking to the judges, but there was no trace of it when he
> sang. I believe that that is common.

On this season's *America's Got Talent* there was a bartender
in his early 70s who sang like an early Sinatra ... he said he
had always been reluctant to sing because of his stutter. It's
incredible that (a) no one ever pointed out to him that stutterers
can (nsually) sing without difficulty and (b) he never noticed it
himself.

This week he was not "put through" to the live shows that begin
next week.

He might have taken notice of the fact that James Earl Jones is
a severe stutterer -- yet this had no effect on his vocal career,
presumably because actors/voiceover artists aren't "speaking" on
their own but rendering memorized text.

[J. J. Lodder]

For worse horrors, watch the Eurovision Song Festival,

Jan

[Bertel Lund Hansen]

J. J. Lodder skrev:

>> Josh Groban picks out an audience member at a concert in Montreal. She can't s
>> peak English but sings a duet with him in English!
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1_BIkfbjo

> For worse horrors, watch the Eurovision Song Festival,

A former Danish musician, now a producer, has admitted that he in
the start of his career had no idea what he was singing. He just
produced sounds that sounded like the English original song.

--
bertel.lundhansen.dk fiduso.dk obese.dk

[Dingbat]

On Sunday, July 27, 2014 3:20:40 AM UTC-4, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
> On 2014-07-27 05:20:30 +0000, Dingbat said:
>
>
>
> > Josh Groban picks out an audience member at a concert in Montreal. She
>
> > can't speak English but sings a duet with him in English!
>
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1_BIkfbjo
>
> That's not at all uncommon. Lots of opera singers can sing in Italian
> (or German, if they're in the Magic Flute, etc.) but can't speak it.
>

Interesting! Can anything be deduced about their native language or their proficiency in languages they sing in? I can't seem to make such deductions about Vicky Leandross, Nana Mouskouri or Daliah Lavi from merely their singing.
>
> Come to that, Celine Dion has the grossest of Quebecois accents when

[Guy Barry]

"J. J. Lodder" wrote in message
news:1lpgayz.1wb...@de-ster.xs4all.nl...

>For worse horrors, watch the Eurovision Song Festival,

"Festival"??????

--
Guy Barry

[Charles Bishop]

In article <c3jni3...@mid.individual.net>,

Athel Cornish-Bowden <acor...@imm.cnrs.fr> wrote:

> On 2014-07-27 05:20:30 +0000, Dingbat said:
>
> > Josh Groban picks out an audience member at a concert in Montreal. She
> > can't speak English but sings a duet with him in English!
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1_BIkfbjo
>
> That's not at all uncommon. Lots of opera singers can sing in Italian
> (or German, if they're in the Magic Flute, etc.) but can't speak it.

Presumably they have practiced the song beforehand though (see also:
ABBA). I think the implication in this case was that someone who didn't
speak english would be able to know the words to the song well enough to
sing them.

It's more likely that someone attending a Josh Groban concert is
familiar with his songs and might be able to sing them.

>
> Come to that, C�line Dion has the grossest of Qu�b�cois accents when
> she speaks (in French), but it's undetectable when she sings.

--

charles

[Charles Bishop]

In article <c3k1gb...@mid.individual.net>,

For about 5 minutes a salesgirl in a clothing store thought I was
Chileno. A second salesclerk disabused her of this impression.

--
charles, there are blonds in Chile

[Charles Bishop]

In article <53d4bcb7$0$301$1472...@news.sunsite.dk>,

There was a country singer (Mel Tillis?) who had a severe stutter that
disappeared when he sang.

Losing a stutter by singing was a plot in a Wodehouse short story. This
was done on Wodehouse Playhouse to good effect.

--
charles

[J. J. Lodder]

As in Glyndebourne ... .
The Eurovision event has many names, in many languages.
Perhaps you would prefer
Concours Eurovision de la chanson?

Jan

[Robert Bannister]

The girl in the clip does speak some English and possibly speaks it
better than it appears when she's not under a spotlight. Apart from
that, most kids all over the parts of the world that have radio
coverage, sing songs in English because English songs dominate.

--
Robert Bannister - 1940-71 SE England
1972-now W Australia

[Tony Cooper]

I attended a birthday party in Denmark where an entertainer sang some
Johnny Cash songs that were remarkably perfect renditions of Cash's
versions. I spoke to him later, and his English was - at best -
broken.

--
Tony Cooper - Orlando FL

[Peter Moylan]

On more than one occasion I've accidentally offended someone by not
speaking Dutch when "obviously I can". Apparently my pronunciation is
good, even though my vocabulary is close to nonexistent.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org

[Peter Moylan]

On 28/07/14 02:38, Charles Bishop wrote:
> In article <c3jni3...@mid.individual.net>,
> Athel Cornish-Bowden <acor...@imm.cnrs.fr> wrote:
>
>> On 2014-07-27 05:20:30 +0000, Dingbat said:
>>
>>> Josh Groban picks out an audience member at a concert in Montreal. She
>>> can't speak English but sings a duet with him in English!
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1_BIkfbjo
>>
>> That's not at all uncommon. Lots of opera singers can sing in Italian
>> (or German, if they're in the Magic Flute, etc.) but can't speak it.
>
> Presumably they have practiced the song beforehand though (see also:
> ABBA). I think the implication in this case was that someone who didn't
> speak english would be able to know the words to the song well enough to
> sing them.

You don't need to understand the words in order to sing them. Even when
I'm singing in my own language, I still have to put effort into learning
the words.

[Guy Barry]

"J. J. Lodder" wrote in message

news:1lpgqvw.1cp...@de-ster.xs4all.nl...

When I stayed with a German family on a school exchange visit I remember
being asked if I watched the "Grand Prix", and assuming the question was
about motor racing. It was actually about the Eurovision Song Contest.

--
Guy Barry

[Mike L]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2014 16:36:38 +1000, Peter Moylan <pe...@pmoylan.org>
wrote:

If you want your singing to be worth more than squat at a professional
level, you must know what the words mean. Remember that singers will
generally have sung everything countless times in rehearsal, and will
tend to have roles in which they specialise and which they may have
performed in public a few hundred times. My teacher speaks German and
Italian, but as well as his regular singing teacher may still visit a
coach in preparation - that's just for the language, not the voice.

[Robert Bannister]

And with the words to many songs, knowing the language doesn't always
help much.