Is 'In English' always better?

         Hello, lovelies.

             We missed out on this years Eurovision song contest thanks to COVID 19. Should we be letting out a huge sigh of relief at not coming last again with Nil points Or have we missed out on a historic part of our contemporary culture? Does the song contest open our ears to different sounds and songs? Or are we better off just sticking to songs we know and that are sung in English?

            I love listening to music. Who doesn't? There is nothing better than after having a stressful day at work than to pop on the radio and listen to beautiful songs, all sung in English, and switching off my poor overwhelmed brain. As I sing along, at the top of my voice, I let the music wash over me. Fantastic. I do have a very particular taste in music, not one shared by everyone. But isn't that great? There is so much music out there that we could all have completely different tastes, and we would never need to clash. But am I missing out on other styles of music? Just by sticking to what I already know? Could there be a more exciting song to listen to?

           My beloved daughter dropped her mobile phone last week, smashing the screen into pieces, making it unusable. She nagged me into getting it fixed, as she said she was actually going to die if I didn't fix it right away. And I mean that she was actually going to die without her phone she assured me. I finally agreed, even though it was going to cost me a lot of money. And as I walked into the locally run phone repair shop, the guy behind the counter hurried to turn off his music. As I handed over the broken phone, I couldn't understand why he had done that. Did he think that I wasn't a fan of whatever it was that he was playing? Or that on hearing his music I would automatically take offence? So I asked him. Why turn off the music? He looked perplexed, but apologised and turned on the radio. I was deafened by 90s' English pop music. Yuck! That was not what was playing when I walked in. So I asked again. Why can't we listen to the music he had originally been playing?  He was shocked. He tried to tell me that I wouldn't like it, as it was in Hindi. But he did put it back on for me. It was brilliant. Top Hindi songs of 2012. Absolutely brilliant. And I was genuinely surprised by his reaction to my reaction. Why did he think that I wouldn't like it? Okay, so I had no idea what they were singing about, but that didn't matter. The music was beautiful, and every now and then an English word was thrown in, so I could sort of keep up with what they were singing about. But did it really matter if I didn't understand they were saying? Was it because I use English as my first language, and therefore would prefer to listen to songs sung that way? But are English sung songs better than all the rest? 

        My mother loved Wagner, and would often tell me about her going to 3 day long operas in her youth, and they were all sung in different languages. I have a love for Mozart. The best piece of music ever written is the Overture to The Marriage of Figaro. Honestly, go and listen to it. And none of his work is sung in English. Is our love of all songs sung in English born of a superior mindset?  Only if we understand what is being said, that the song has value? If that were the case, most of the modern-day music would be completely worthless to me, as I don't understand half of what they're going on about. For years I thought the song These Days, by Take That was actually about eBay with the lyrics 'Tonight, we're going to live for eBay' instead of These days.

         We know that singing can be done by anyone, regardless of their singing ability. Anybody could sing if they wanted to. And, okay, we can't all sing like the legendary Freddie Mercury, but what a boring place if we all could. Singing is a very effective way of lowering your stress and anxiety levels. It can help increase confidence and be a tremendous fun thing to do. I mean. Who doesn't love singing along to the radio, or if you're brave enough, standing up and singing in front of your mates at a karaoke. Even singing whilst tone-deaf can be fun. It helps improve your mood and even helps improve sleep. Singing releases the same feel-good chemicals in your brain as sex and eating chocolate. It also releases pain releasing endorphins. How cool is that!

        But does it only work if you sing in English? No. Not at all. When my eldest daughter was sitting her French GCSE exam, she would sing all her revision notes in French, and she passed. I found an amazing German artist named Max Raabe. One of his cover songs, We Will Rock You stopped me in my tracks when I heard it. I now listen to all his work in both German and English. Music moves every part of your body, and not understanding every word really doesn't matter.  There is a belief that as English is an international language, popular sellable songs must be sung that way. But I think that's an incredibly close-minded boring way of thinking. I'm never going to be a music connoisseur. And my taste of show tunes is never going to appeal to everyone. Although I did name my 2 dogs after strong female stage characters. Elphaba from Wicked. And Fionnula from Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour.

        I think that the world full of creative voices, and only sticking to what you know is a shame. So I am going to venture out of my show tune bubble and start listening to different styles. New genres. Different voices. And who knows what I might find.