Melodifestivalen

[mippy.livejournal.com]

Sir Terence of Wogan, on the radio just now:

'Pop music's an anglophone thing. In French or Finnish, it's just not right...'

O RLY? Can you judge Eurovision for anything here? Does all English music sound like Canal Street hi-NRG then? Or is it because the only European music 'we' - 'we' being yr Radio 2, maybe Radio 1 audience - hear is in English, save dancehall shows which I guess are already targeted at a patois-speaking audience, radio-wise. But like I said earlier, I'm musically rusty, and probably don't listen to enough non-English pop save 'Initial BB' and Jacques Dutronc.

Comments

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

"French is a great language for hip-hop" is one you hear a lot. Is it, though?

It is in that French has a long tradition of clever wordplay involving homophones and the like which fits well with the way rappers use these devices in their rhymes.

I would give this question the attention it probably deserves if the statement hadn't come from Wogan, who has raised Xenophobia and little-Englander mentality to a high art on his radio show recently. The latest being some crap about Mutya Buena's name.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I guess he thinks he is trying to stir up some national pride ahead of Saturday.

[mippy.livejournal.com]

The wordplay thing would probably be lost on a non native speaker, though - I doubt somehow Wogan is a Francophile but this is something that really gets lost in translation.