| 1 | A subtrope of CoverVersion, or occasionally CoveredUp for songs which are translated into a different language. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | For songs where only the melody survived the translation process, see WhatSongWasThisAgain. When a show uses a Translated Cover Version of a song the audience knows in the original language, that's FamiliarSoundtrackForeignLyrics. |
| 4 | |
| 5 | ---- |
| 6 | !!Examples: |
| 7 | |
| 8 | * Music/CelineDion started her career with French-language music before adding English-language starting from 1990, and as a result, more than a few French songs would find themselves on her English albums and vice versa: |
| 9 | ** Some of her first French songs were actually translated from English songs, such as "A quatre pas d'ici" (Four steps from here) which was Buck Fizz's 1981 song "The Land of Make Believe" and "Ne me plaignez pas" (Don't pity me) from Sheena Easton's "Please don't sympathize". This is particularly evident on her first Christmas album, ''Celine Dion Chante Noel'', which includes French versions of several songs which originated in English, including "Sleigh Ride," "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," and "White Christmas," plus "Glory Alleluia," which is sung to the same melody ("John Brown's Body") as "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." |
| 10 | ** Dion covered her 1988 Eurovision-winning "Ne partez pas sans moi" (meaning "Don't Leave Without Me") in German under the title "Hand in Hand." |
| 11 | ** Her English debut album, ''Unison'', originally would contain the exact same track list as ''Incognito'', her post-makeover French album, fully translated, but eventually the only song the two albums share is ''Incognito''[='=]s "Partout je te vois" (I see you everywhere), adapted by Dion's frequent collaborator Eddy Marnay (after whom she would name one of her sons) from ''Unison''[='=]s "Have a heart", a cover from Angela Clemmons in 1987 (when it was titled "Just Have a Heart") and one of the first English-language songs in Dion's concert repertoire. |
| 12 | ** "Pour que tu m'aimes encore," "Je sais pas" and "Vole" from ''D'eux'' (1995) became "If That's What It Takes," "I Don't Know," and "Fly" on her 1996 album ''Falling Into You'' (1996). |
| 13 | ** Her first English album post-[=Y2K=]-hiatus, ''A New Day Has Come'', contains two English songs which were adapted from French songs: "Ten Days", a rock-oriented adaptation of "Tomber" (2000) by Gérald de Palmas, and "The Greatest Reward", an adaptation of "L'envie d'aimer" (2000) from the French musical Les Dix Commandements, performed originally by Daniel Lévi. |
| 14 | ** "Je t'aime encore," despite the French title, is actually an English song that appears on ''One Heart,'' released in early 2003. However, the song is translated into French and titled "Et je t'aime encore" for her Francophone album released later that same year, ''1 fille & 4 types.'' |
| 15 | ** She has occasionally had her songs translated into other languages too, such as "L'amour existe encore" (Love still exists) she recorded in 1991 which became the Spanish "Aun existe amor" in her 2002 album ''A New Day Has Come'', "All by myself" translated into Spanish "Sola Otra Vez" (Alone again) and "Be the man" having Japanese version. |
| 16 | ** Marion Ravn has a Norwegian version of ''It's All Coming Back To Me Now'', which she did an English cover of with Music/{{Meatloaf}}. |
| 17 | * What Dion was to the 1990s, Connie Francis was to the 1960s. She has done covers of some of her songs in multiple languages such as Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, and Romanian. Aside from English, she was fluent in Spanish and Italian (she is of Italian descent); the other languages she learned to sing phonetically. Other artists did covers of one of her songs in Finnish, Swedish, and Portuguese. The song "Strangers In The Night", which was originally offered to her but was first recorded by Music/FrankSinatra, was later recorded by her in Spanish. She sang English covers for songs such as "Never On Sunday", "Solamente Una Vez (You Belong To My Heart)", "Al Di La", and "La Vie En Rose" with some of the lyrics in the original language. Interestingly, Francis' Japanese-language renditions of her hits competed in that market with covers by domestic pop star Mieko Hirota, who became known as "the Japanese Connie Francis." |
| 18 | * Music/MariahCarey (who is of partial Afro-Venezuelan descent) tried her hand at recording in Spanish. "Hero"/"Heroe," "Open Arms"/"El Amor Que Soñe" and "My All"/"Mi Todo" were her only efforts. |
| 19 | * After The Fire's "Der Kommissar" is an English cover of a German song originally done by Falco. The title and the line "Alles klar, Herr Kommisar?" are the only parts that weren't translated. Music/LauraBranigan recorded a different English version titled "Deep in the Dark" a year later. |
| 20 | * The 1991 Creator/IsaoTakahata {{anime}} film ''Anime/OnlyYesterday'' features a Japanese-language version of Amanda [=McBroom=]'s "The Rose," popularized in its original English version by Music/BetteMidler in 1980. The Japanese version is sung by Harumi Miyako and titled "Ai wa Hana, Kimi wa Sono Tane" ("Love is a Flower, You Are the Seed"). |
| 21 | * A number of Hispanic recording artists, including Music/RickyMartin, Music/GloriaEstefan, Music/ChristinaAguilera, Creator/JenniferLopez, Music/NellyFurtado, Music/{{Shakira}}, Marc Anthony, and Mexican singers/actresses Thalia and Paulina Rubio, have all recorded several of their singles both in English and in Spanish (and in Shakira's case, Portuguese). |
| 22 | ** Gloria Estefan often released Spanish-language versions of hits such as "Words Get in the Way," "Anything for You," "Don't Wanna Lose You," and "Coming Out of the Dark" as B-sides of the English-language single releases. "Anything for You" was also released in a bilingual "Spanglish" version. Later, Estefan's protege Music/JonSecada did the same, with the Spanish lyrics of some of his hits, including "Just Another Day" and "Angel," written by Estefan herself. |
| 23 | ** In Shakira's case, English versions of a few of her Spanish-language songs have also popped up on later albums. "Ojos asi" from ''Dónde están los ladrones?'' returned on ''Laundry Service'' as "Eyes Like Yours"; from ''Fijación oral vol. 1'', "Dia Especial" and "En Tus Pupilas" returned on ''Oral Fixation vol. 2'' as "The Day and the Time" and "Something," respectively. |
| 24 | * Music/TheBeatles re-released a couple of their early hits in German - [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4NLqkv-J4k "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand"]] ("I Want to Hold Your Hand") and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVF-WyrwPI8 "Sie Liebt Dich"]] ("She Loves You"). In a more comic vein, during the recording of "Get Back" they recorded a version in bad German: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAJnY2bG7nQ "Geh Rous]]". |
| 25 | * Music/ElvisPresley had a No. 1 song in the UK in 1961 with "Wooden Heart," a primarily English song with a few lines in German based on a German folk song, "Muss i denn." The song was a No. 1 hit in the USA too, but for one-and-a-half-hit wonder Joe Dowell, as RCA declined to release Elvis' version in America at that time. (Presley's version was eventually released in the States a few years later but failed to chart.) |
| 26 | * The Music/DavidBowie song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHT8Kb9VjAQ Heroes]] has been done in three languages, the original English, in German as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXV3rlr9G04 Helden]] and in French as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=van4ZFqTM3k Heros]]. |
| 27 | ** Supposedly, Bowie was to record a version of the song in Spanish, but [[WhatCouldHaveBeen to no avail]]. |
| 28 | ** The German version sounds especially creepy when covered by Till Lindermann of Music/{{Rammstein}}. |
| 29 | * "Gloria" by Music/LauraBranigan was originally an Italian song by Umberto Tozzi. Branigan's version isn't a straight cover, though; her Gloria is a lonely, promiscuous loser and the lyrics are sarcastic and contemptuous, while Tozzi's original gushes almost worshipfully about a woman who is waaaaay out of his league. |
| 30 | ** Tozzi also did his own English version. |
| 31 | ** Carola Häggkvist has a Swedish version of ''Gloria''. |
| 32 | ** "Solitaire" was originally a bleak French language song before Branigan made a more upbeat English cover. |
| 33 | ** "Self Control," Branigan's biggest international hit, is sometimes confused as a translation because of the credit "English lyrics by Steve Piccolo" being used. The song was only recorded in English by its composer RAF in his native Italy. Both songs were released around the same time, in some countries even taking two spots on the upper regions of the chart, but with Branigan's version besting RAF's everywhere but Italy. The song was later translated to Spanish for an early Music/RickyMartin song, "Que Dia es Hoy." |
| 34 | * "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," a hit in 1966 for Music/DustySpringfield and in 1970 for Music/ElvisPresley, began life in Italian as "Io che non vivo (senza te)" (meaning "I, Who Can't Live (Without You)"), a smash in its native land for its co-writer, Pino Donaggio. |
| 35 | * "Amoreuse," a French melody introduced by Veronique Sanson, had hit versions in English with different sets of lyrics by two different vocalists: Kiki Dee (under the original French title) and Music/HelenReddy (as "Emotion"). |
| 36 | * Music/BillyRayCyrus's "Achy Breaky Heart": |
| 37 | ** Stef Carse, a now-forgotten French-Canadian country singer, had a one-hit wonder in the early 1990s with a French rendition called "Achy Breaky Dance", dance moves included. |
| 38 | ** Caballo Dorado produced a Spanish version titled "No rompas más mi pobre corazón", and then a [[MultilingualSong bilingual version]] with Billy Ray Cyrus himself in 2017 for [[MilestoneCelebration the song's 25th anniversary]]. |
| 39 | * Petula Clark translated many of her English-language songs into French, Spanish and Italian. "Downtown" is the best known of those, while "I Will Follow Him" is an English cover of Petula Clark's French-language song "Chariot." |
| 40 | * Music/PhilCollins translated and sang his own songs in French. |
| 41 | * Music/BabyMetal recorded "The One" in both Japanese and English for their second album (the original Japanese version is half in English anyway). They later recorded an English version of "Elevator Girl" for their third album. In both cases, international releases contain the English cut while domestic releases contain the Japanese. |
| 42 | * Every Franchise/{{Disney|Animated Canon}} song is translated into around 20 languages each, and some languages have more than one translation, to accommodate local variation. |
| 43 | * Music/TheElectricBananaBand wrote an English version of their song 'Banankontakt', lampshading it in a recorded conversation on the record: "We can't sing in Swedish anymore, because that's dorky." |
| 44 | * [[Music/HelloProject Morning Musume's]] "Summer Night Town" was originally done in Japanese but was then covered by label mates Coconuts Musume in English, barring part of the chorus. Group member Kusumi Koharu's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBuDK88vWWw Koi kana]]" became Laura Vanamo's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMjZHGBJgmk Se tunne]]". That's not Japanese, that's Finnish! |
| 45 | * "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" (aka "Wemaweh" and "In the Jungle") was originally a Zulu pop song from South Africa -- which caused some controversy (years later), as the original writer and performers got no credit for the cover and never saw a cent from it. The English version was later adapted in French - under the title "The Lion ''Died'' Tonight". |
| 46 | * The original "Macarena" was entirely in Spanish. A popular version (the "Bayside Boys Mix", which was ''Billboard'' magazine's No. 1 single of 1996) exists with English verses, though it retains the original Spanish chorus. |
| 47 | * "Aserejé (The Ketchup Song)" was recorded by Spanish group Las Ketchup in both Spanish and Spanglish (or rather English mixed with frequent GratuitousSpanish phrases). It also has a Brazilian Portuguese cover. |
| 48 | * Nena's "99 Red Balloons" is an English-language cover of her own German-language song "99 Luftballons". Oddly, the original German version received more airplay in the U.S., while the U.K. release 45 had the German version as the BSide. Oddly, Goldfinger's cover, while the rest of the song is in English, uses the German fourth verse, which was translated into the English third verse, so one verse ends up being [[SecondVerseCurse completely left out]]. The fourth verse contains a line about jet pilots comparing themselves to Captain Kirk, so it could have been left out for trademark reasons. |
| 49 | * Similarly, "Eres Tu" by Spanish pop group Mocedades was also recorded by the group in English (as "Touch the Wind"). Although the English version was the B-side of the U.S. single, the original Spanish version became the hit, reaching the Top 10 in early 1974. (Music/EydieGorme released a cover of the English version, which failed to chart.) |
| 50 | * Argentinean bands Renacer and Tren Loco, who have covered several English-language songs in Spanish, such as ''[[Music/JudasPriest Metal Gods]]'', ''[[Music/{{Megadeth}} Reckoning Day]]'' and ''[[Music/{{Helloween}} March of Time]]'' in the case of the former, and ''[[Music/JudasPriest The Hellion/Electric Eye]]'' and ''[[Music/{{Megadeth}} Train of Consequences]]'' in the case of the latter. |
| 51 | * "Solo Le Pido a Dios" by Argentinean singer Leon Gieco has been translated by several other artists and groups into different languages, as well. |
| 52 | * Music/{{Oomph}}: |
| 53 | ** The compilation album ''Truth or Dare'' contains some of their most important songs re-recorded in English language. |
| 54 | ** "Der neue Gott" ("The new God") from ''Oomph!'' is sung in German but has a short interlude in English. Later releases of the album included a "bonus version" completely in German, with the interlude translated almost precisely. |
| 55 | * Music/ThePolice did a cover version of "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da" in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCbCA5z1Ygs Japanese]] and in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uPZY-F_zac Spanish]]. |
| 56 | * "Ue wo muite arukou" ("Sukiyaki") by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtXQ31F1A-k Kyu Sakamoto]] (1963) has had quite a few English translations, including one by Clyde Beavers (1963, as "I Look Up When I Walk"), one by Jewel Akens (1966, as "My First Lonely Night") and one by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqFkUNqBwMw A Taste of Honey]] (1981) which was later covered by 4PM (1994) and G.H. Hat (2018) and interpolated by Music/MaryJBlige in her hit "Everything" (1997). The original Japanese song was about someone wandering while looking up and whistling so that their tears wouldn't fall. While the Beavers and Akens covers kept close to the original story, the lyrics used by A Taste of Honey/4PM/G.H. Hat have little to do with the original's. [[note]]According to A Taste of Honey vocalist Janice-Marie Johnson, this was because a literal translation of the original Japanese lyrics would have yielded incomplete sentences, though strangely this didn't stop the writers of the Beavers and Akens versions from doing much more faithful translations.[[/note]] In turn, Music/{{Selena}} did a Spanish cover of the Taste of Honey version at one point. |
| 57 | * Music/TakeThatBand recorded a Spanish version of "Love Ain't Here Anymore". |
| 58 | * The Spanish band Loquillo y los Trogloditas translated Johnny Cash's "The Man in Black" as "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcvc8BYtqMc El Hombre de Negro]]". |
| 59 | * Tino Casal's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tZVHCkrmjo Eloise]]". |
| 60 | * Siniestro Total's cover of "Sweet Home Alabama", "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t02dFZI7nw4 Miña Terra Galega]]" (although this one has lyrics about the Galician diaspora). |
| 61 | * Music/ScottWalker sang several of Jacques Brel's songs in English in the 60s, though he didn't translate them himself. Perhaps the most famous is "Amsterdam," also covered by Music/DavidBowie. |
| 62 | ** "Seasons In The Sun" by Terry Jacks, a #1 US hit in 1974, has the same tune and is ''very'' loosely lyrically related to Jacques Brel's "Le moribond." An alternate set of English lyrics also exists to this tune and was recorded by Music/TheKingstonTrio among others. |
| 63 | ** All the songs in the JukeboxMusical ''Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris'' are English translations of Brel's songs. |
| 64 | * La Frontera's cover of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIWteKhM5uw Viva Las Vegas]]" and Mikel Erentxun remaking The Smiths' "There is a light that never goes out" as "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeTFYnKKxzw Esta luz nunca se apagará]]". |
| 65 | * Laibach have translated some songs into German: "Sympathy for the Devil" as "Sympathy for the Devil (Dem Teufel Zugeneigt)", Music/{{Queen}}'s "One Vision" as "Geburt einer Nation" and Opus' "Life is Life" as "Leben Heißt Leben". |
| 66 | * The Four Seasons' "December 1963 (Oh What A Night)" was covered in French by Claude François as "Cette année-là". Subverted in that, although it is a foreign language cover, it's not a translation; the lyrics of François' version are about his own life. |
| 67 | ** This was very common in the 60s, especially with Claude François. For example, François's successful "Belles Belles Belles" was an adaptation of "Girls Girls Girls (are made to love)" by the Everly Brothers where most of the lyrics were changed to keep the "ringing" sound of the original. And Sinatra's "My Way" is "Comme d'habitude" with different lyrics. |
| 68 | ** François' cover of The Four Tops' "Reach Out (I'll Be There)," [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Mv5-3T6JC4 J'attendrai]], is a relatively faithful translation. |
| 69 | * Music/BenFolds has covered his own "Song for the Dumped" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJT3cj-NWk0 in Japanese]]. Naturally, the swearing remains in GratuitousEnglish. |
| 70 | * Creator/FUNimation did this quite frequently on their anime dubs. ''Manga/FruitsBasket'', ''Manga/CaseClosed'' and ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'', for just three examples, all include English-dubbed covers of their original themes. One dubbed episode of ''[[Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' has Creator/WendeeLee singing the English version of the song played at the talent show. |
| 71 | * While Funimation's dub of ''Anime/{{Free}}'' keeps the themes in Japanese, Creator/VicMignogna [[https://youtu.be/BG4j9S5nNM4 covered]] the season 1 ending theme SPLASH FREE in English. |
| 72 | * J-pop duo TWO-MIX (featuring seiyuu Creator/MinamiTakayama) released an English version of their opening theme from ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'', "Just Communication," which already featured some GratuitousEnglish in its chorus. |
| 73 | * Australian pop singer Sophie Monk's [[https://www.youtube.com/shared?ci=gP9cwMwh11U Come My Way]] was covered by Music/NamieAmuro as "Come" and used as the 7th end theme for ''Manga/InuYasha''. |
| 74 | * Lvzbel did a whole CoverVersion Album which contained only Music/JudasPriest's spanish-translated covers. It backfired. |
| 75 | * Music/SixpenceNoneTheRicher covered their hit "Kiss Me" in Japanese. |
| 76 | * For Music/ThePixies cover of "Evil Hearted You", originally by Graham Gouldman but CoveredUp by Music/TheYardbirds, Black Francis translated the lyrics into Spanish. Slightly less clumsy than his regular Spanish, too. |
| 77 | * Music/AvrilLavigne covered her song "Girlfriend" with the chorus translated to several other languages. |
| 78 | * Cantonese anime dubs will occasionally come with a dubbed version of the opening theme. Examples include ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'', ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', and ''Literature/TheStoryOfSaiunkoku''. |
| 79 | ** In some cases, like their treatment of ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'''s ''Melissa'', it's more like they [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning rewrote the lyrics]]. |
| 80 | ** ''Ranma 1/2'' also had its first theme song, "Jajauma ni Sasenaide" ("Don't Make Me a Shrew" aka "Don't Make Me Wild Like You"), translated into Spanish and Italian with the same melody. The English dub didn't dub the songs themselves but included "sing-a-longable" lyrics in the subtitles which different quite a bit from an "accurate" translation. |
| 81 | * The Disney XD UK broadcast of the 2005 ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' anime featured an English adaptation of the Japanese OP song "Yume wo Kanaete Doraemon." The American dub, however, featured a narration by Doraemon's US voice actor, Creator/MonaMarshall, over a series of clips from the series in place of an opening song. The US dub episode "Big Boys Do Cry," however, did feature an adaptation of Sneech's (Suneo's) "Rich Kid Mambo" song from the original episode, sung as "The Big Sneech Mambo" by his US voice actor, Creator/BrianBeacock. |
| 82 | * Some snippets of Takeshi's (Brock's) image/ED song from ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', "Takeshi's Paradise," were adapted into the English dub wherever it was played as an InsertSong in Japanese. |
| 83 | * The ''New Manga/CutieHoney'' OVA from 1994 includes an English adaptation of the franchise's iconic (since 1973) theme song, performed by Mayukiss. |
| 84 | * ''Unyielding Wish'' from ''Anime/MagicKnightRayearth'' has ''two'' official English versions, one for the dub of the anime sung by Sandy Fox and one for the Sega Saturn game sung by Jenny Stigile, both with completely different lyrics. |
| 85 | * German singer Juliane Werding has done a number of translated covers, including Music/TheBand's ''The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down'' (''Am Tag, als Conny Kramer starb''), Music/MikeOldfield's ''Moonlight Shadow'' (''Nacht voll Schatten''), and Music/NikKershaw's ''Wouldn’t It Be Good'' (''Sonne auf der Haut'') |
| 86 | * Music/{{Abba}} recorded Spanish versions of many of their songs, including a Spanish album called "Gracias Por La Musica" and a few songs that replaced album tracks in Spanish territories. Later a compilation album, ''Oro'' (Spanish for "gold", was produced to collect them (15 in total). Their native tongue is Swedish but only their earliest singles have Swedish versions. |
| 87 | ** They also recorded a BlindIdiotTranslation of "Waterloo" in French which is honestly SoBadItsGood. "Waterloo! Je vais constituer ta prisonnière!" |
| 88 | ** They also recorded "Ring Ring", "Another Town, Another Train" and "Waterloo" in German. The reason they did this was that they were aiming for a European market who wouldn't necessarily speak English. As it happened, German fans already liked the English versions and they didn't bother doing any more after that. They wrote "Ring Ring" deliberately around this trope - the title phrase is onomatopoeic and so can be used no matter what language the song is translated into. |
| 89 | * O-Zone's "Dragostea Din Tei" has been covered in so many different languages, the translations have [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragostea_din_tei#Remixes.2C_parodies_and_other_cover_versions their own section on the song's Wikipedia entry]]. |
| 90 | ** There are ''multiple'' covers of it in (at least) English, French, Dutch, and Hebrew. |
| 91 | ** There are two Japanese covers, and ''three'' Chinese covers. |
| 92 | ** One of the most notable is the Brazilian Portuguese cover by Latino, which [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning turns it into a song about throwing a house/apartment party with booze and sex]]. Music/{{Psy}}'s "Gangnam Style" received a similar treatment, becoming a song about a groom-to-be drinking and kissing women at a bachelor party even though he know he'll be hungover when he weds the following morning. |
| 93 | * Music/SongsToWearPantsTo did an English cover of the Music/UtadaHikaru song "Blue". |
| 94 | * One Music/JonathanCoulton fan translated "Re: Your Brains" into the French "Re: Vos Cervaux". Jonathan has since recorded it and performed it live. |
| 95 | * Music/FranzFerdinand did a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGcLODDy9Uw German cover]] of their own song "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-SFac3GpxY&feature=related Tell Her Tonight]]," featuring drummer Paul Thomson (who usually doesn't sing at all) on lead. |
| 96 | * Blumchen's "Ich bin Wieder Hier", although not a translation, uses the tune of Rozalla's "Everybody's Free". Conversely, she recorded English versions of two of her own albums under the alias Blossom. However, her cover of Music/{{Queen}}'s "Bicycle Race" was never translated into German. |
| 97 | * "Hot Limit" ("[[MemeticMutation We Drink Ritalin]]") by John Desire is a GratuitousEnglish Eurobeat cover of a Japanese song by TM Revolution. Conversely, many Eurobeat songs have been covered in Japanese. |
| 98 | * "I Will Go With You" by Donna Summer is an English rendition of "Con Te Partirò" (Time to Say Goodbye) by Andrea Bocelli/Sarah Brightman. |
| 99 | * Gloria Gaynor recorded a Spanish version of "I Will Survive" called "Yo viviré". There's also a version in Arabic. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ca5N55QzGs Haifa Wehbe - Adra Ayeesh]] |
| 100 | * A tradition for popular French songs of the 60s. Gilbert Becaud's "Nathalie" was translated in German, Spanish... Johnny Hallyday's "Que je t'aime" even got a Japanese version. |
| 101 | * Germany has an impressive track record for recording German versions of popular pop songs - be they British or French. Basically all French hits of the 60s were translated and either sung by their original artist or by German cover artists. A good number of covers of American songs were produced in East Germany, because the government saw it as the only way to prevent young East Germans from coming into contact with subversive, capitalist songs. |
| 102 | * Freestyle artist Angelina did an English cover of Paradisio's "Bailando", as well as in the original Spanish. |
| 103 | * "Around the World" (2000) by German group ATC is an English cover of "Pesenka" (1998) by Russian group Ruki Vverkh. |
| 104 | * According to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_a_Gigolo_%28song%29 the other Wiki]], "Just a Gigolo" was originally an Austrian song about a hussar reduced to making a living as a hired dancer, "a poetic vision of the social collapse" of Austria after World War I. The English translation removed the historical context and social commentary. It wasn't originally done by David Lee Roth either, but that's [[CoveredUp another trope]]. |
| 105 | * ''Film/{{Wanted}}'' is directed by a Russian. Thus the end credits song "The Little Things", by Music/DannyElfman, received [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K047goQGGq4 a Russian version]], also sung by Elfman. |
| 106 | * "The Girl From Ipanema" (also a case of TheCoverChangesTheMeaning). |
| 107 | * A few ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' series have English versions of the theme songs. Most are sung by different people, usually ones who speak English, but the ''Series/SeijuuSentaiGingaman'' English version was sung by Masato Shimon, the same as the Japanese version. |
| 108 | * Music/TracyChapman's "Fast Car" has been covered in Japanese by Hitomi Yaida. While the translation is mostly faithful to the original, all references to the singer having a job/being the breadwinner while her husband is unemployed have been taken out -- which slight alteration [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning completely changes it]] from a song about a girl from a poor neighborhood who dreams of better things but ends up singlehandedly supporting a good-for-nothing husband to a song about a girl who dreams of an exciting life but ends up playing housewife to a salaryman husband who's never home. |
| 109 | * France Gall's Series/EurovisionSongContest winning "Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son" was self-covered in Japanese as "Yume Miru Chanson Ningyou". She also recorded it in German and Italian, and covers also exist by other artists in just about every language under the sun, with an English rendition, "A Little Singing Doll," done by British singer Twinkle. Likewise her "Laisse tomber les filles" ("Dump the girls") found new life as April March's "Chick Habit" in ''Film/ButImACheerleader'' and more famously, ''Film/{{Grindhouse}}:'' ''Film/DeathProof''. |
| 110 | * Sandie Shaw did the same with "Marionetas en la cuerda", her spanish version of "Puppet on a string" |
| 111 | * Mike Oldfield's much-covered "Moonlight Shadow" has a Spanish cover by Marcela Morelo and a Russian one by Miriada. |
| 112 | * Chilean singer Salomé Anjarí's entire body of work is Spanish-language covers of Japanese pop songs. |
| 113 | * There is an album of various Japanese artists covering Music/SimonAndGarfunkel, mostly in Japanese. There is also [[http://www.discogs.com/Various-Outlandos-DAmericas-Tributo-A-Police-A-Tribute-To-The-Police/release/1253254 one by Latin American artists]] covering Music/ThePolice in Spanish. |
| 114 | * On a tribute album to Japanese singer Mariya Takeuchi, Lisa Loeb covered one of her songs in English. |
| 115 | * Russian pop duo Music/{{TATu}} have many of their songs in both English and Russian, including "Ya Soshla S Uma"/"All The Things She Said", "Nas Ne Dogonyat"/"Not Gonna Get Us", and "Lyudi Invalidy"/"Dangerous and Moving". However, some of their songs have only ever had English lyrics. Do not attempt to search for the "original Russian" versions of "Loves Me Not" or "All About Us": they don't exist. |
| 116 | * Japanese duo Music/PuffyAmiYumi have done many English versions of their songs to put on the North American releases of their albums, including "Asia no Junshin"/"True Asia", "Akai Buranko"/"Red Swing", and "Violet"/"Love So Pure". They have also done Japanese version of their English theme songs for Creator/CartoonNetwork shows, such as ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' (the Japanese version was played as the opening of the particularly silly episodes) and their own ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi''. |
| 117 | * This is extremely common in KoreanPopMusic, as groups and soloists often promote Japanese versions of their Korean songs in Japan or have Korean songs that sample English songs or are based on English demo tracks. |
| 118 | ** Music/SHINee has done this a couple times-"Juliette" is taken from [[Film/HighSchoolMusical Corbin Bleu's]] "Deal With It", "Love Like Oxygen" was originally "Show the World" by winner of Series/TheXFactor (Danish) Martin Hoberg Hedegaard, and "Hello" was from "Holla" by J. Cates. |
| 119 | ** Music/GirlsGeneration's "Run Devil Run" is from a Ke$ha demo that was later released as a bonus track on her debut album. |
| 120 | *** They have also done this with their own songs, as part of their forays into J-Pop with Japanese covers of some of their more prominent singles like "Genie", "Gee", and even "Run Devil Run". |
| 121 | *** They have also inverted the typical Korean->Japanese translation, releasing a Korean version of their Japanese song "Mr. Taxi" on their Korean album The Boys, as well as a Korean version of their Japanese single "Catch Me If You Can". |
| 122 | ** Music/{{Twice}} does this to themselves. As of 2022, the group has released four [=EPs=] containing Japanese adaptations of their Korean title songs. Beginning with "Likey", the group has filmed both language versions' music videos during the same shooting sessions. Some of their Japanese songs, for example "BDZ" and "Be As One", have Korean versions that made it onto their domestic releases. |
| 123 | *** "The Feels" is a song that was originally released in English, but Chaeyoung decided she wanted to translate it into Korean. Her adaptation is a bonus track on ''Formula of Love''. |
| 124 | *** "Cry For Me" and "More & More" are unique in the group's discography for having versions in Korean, Japanese, ''and'' English. |
| 125 | ** Music/DongBangShinKi's "Mirotic" was Sarah Connor's Under My Skin |
| 126 | ** [[Music/{{Fx}} f(x)]] 's "Danger" is from Kristine Elezaj and "Hot Summer" was from Monrose. |
| 127 | ** ''Music/{{BoA|Korea}}'' has sung a bunch of songs in Korean, Japanese and English, even a few in Chinese. |
| 128 | ** Music/FTIsland has actually inverted the usual Korean->Japanese translation cliche in kpop by releasing some ''Korean versions'' of their Japanese songs. In particular is their Korean album "Japan Best - ALL ABOUT" which consists purely of their past Japanese songs translated to Korean, such as "Freedom", "FREE" and "Morning Coffee". |
| 129 | ** Music/{{IU}} inverted this as well, with her song "Voice Mail" which was originally released in Japanese and translated into Korean. |
| 130 | ** Music/CNBlue also inverted the Korean->Japanese cliche by having translated their indie Japanese songs into Korean for their first few Korean releases, for example "Love Revolution" and "Now and Never". |
| 131 | ** Following the example of her labelmates FTI and CNB, Music/{{Juniel}} has Korean versions of her Japanese songs - like CNB, indie Japanese songs were used for her first few Korean releases, such as "Mask" and "Everlasting Sunset". She's also did a typical Korean->Japanese example for her and CNB's Yonghwa duet "Babo" for her Japanese album. |
| 132 | * Music/{{Manowar}} released their song 'Father' in 16 LANGUAGES. |
| 133 | * The Music/{{Carpenters}} performed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnDHwVrW2uc a cover of "Sing" in Japanese.]] |
| 134 | * ''Music/DschinghisKhan'' did an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUCnvA9Jl-U English version]] of their German song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv20M0iPnTg "Moskau"]]. It takes quite a few liberties with the original, but keeps the overall theme intact. They also translated their self-titled song as "Genghis Khan". |
| 135 | ** French musician Georgie Dann did a spanish version of "Moskau" called "Moscú", and spanish singer Iván covered "Dschingis Khan" as "Sin amor". |
| 136 | ** Japanese pop group Berryz Kobo, meanwhile, has done a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL2WMSk_sEw Japanese cover]] of Dschinghis Khan's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4WdFede2wE self-titled song]]. |
| 137 | ** And, of course, it had to happen sooner or later... "Dschinghis Khan" was translated and performed, fittingly, in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg11a84c_K0 Mongolian]]'' |
| 138 | * Caramell, after the JustForFun/CaramelldansenVid craze, in addition to English and German cover versions, did a Japanese version of Caramelldansen based on mondegreens of the original lyrics. The [[SequelSong sequel single]], "Boogie Bam Dance", was also recorded in multiple languages. |
| 139 | * ''Vive le Vent'' is a popular French and Canadian song sung to the tune of Jingle Bells but explicitly about New Years and Christmas (unlike Jingle Bells which was originally about Thanksgiving). |
| 140 | * Smokey Robinson did a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdMHzGjtdKk Spanish]] version of "Being with You." |
| 141 | * Cartoons made two cover of their "Witch Doctor" (already a cover of a David Seville song): one in Spanish named "Hombre Mago" (which means exactly that), and an Italian one, [[http://www.orrorea33giri.com/2008/09/cartoons-tutto-passer-witch-doctor-1999.html "Tutto passerà"]]. |
| 142 | * "Sugar Baby Love" by The Rubettes has a Japanese cover version by Yoko Ishida, which was used as the opening song for ''Anime/ALittleSnowFairySugar''. |
| 143 | * Spanish band Los Bravos wrote at least one song in English, "Black Is Black", which became a [[OneHitWonder big hit]] in the English-speaking world, it was also a top seller in French when Johnny Halliday covered it as "Noir C'est Noir". |
| 144 | * The theme tune to ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'' has three versions, the original English, a Japanese version both done by Creator/LauraShigihara and a Spanish version. |
| 145 | * Creator/WongKarWai's 1988 debut film ''As Tears Go By'' features a Cantonese cover of ''Take My Breath Away'', originally featured in English in the 1986 film ''Film/TopGun''. The Cantonese version is performed by Cantopop singer Sandy Lam, who also performed the Cantonese theme song for ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind''. |
| 146 | * UsefulNotes/HongKong singer Faye Wong did a Cantonese version of Music/ToriAmos' "Silent All These Years". She also performed a Cantonese version of Music/TheCranberries' ''Dreams'', for Creator/WongKarWai's ''Film/ChungkingExpress''. |
| 147 | * Ben E. King's R&B classic "Stand By Me" was rewritten by Italian singer Adriano Celentano as "Pregherò" (I Will Pray), a love ballad that borders on ChristianRock to the point that Celentano performed it in 1995 at a command performance for Pope John Paul II's 75th birthday. Spanish rocker Bruno Lomas did a Spanish version called "Rogaré" (it also means I Will Pray). |
| 148 | * [[Music/CatStevens Yusuf Islam]] has taken in recent years to performing his classic song "Wild World" with the lyrics in Zulu. |
| 149 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tujga5JdP1M This Japanese cover]] of "[[Music/DeepPurple Smoke on the Water,]]" which uses traditional Japanese instruments as well as translated lyrics. |
| 150 | * Music/SusanBoyle's "Wings to Fly" is an English cover of "Tsubasa wo Kudasai," originally performed by Japanese pop band Akaitori in the '70s, and also [[CoveredUp featured in several anime]] such as ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' and ''Anime/KOn'' |
| 151 | * Beatallica, a band whose gimmick is doing [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] songs InTheStyleOf Music/{{Metallica}}, have an entire album's worth of translated versions of their "All You Need Is Love" parody "All You Need Is Blood". They essentially got international fans of the band to translate the lyrics into their language and also had them write them out phonetically so the singer could better pronounce them. |
| 152 | * Music/{{Bjork}}'s OldShame debut included Icelandic covers of Music/StevieWonder's "Your Kiss Is Sweet" and Music/TheBeatles' "The Fool On The Hill". |
| 153 | * Music/PeterGabriel re-recorded the vocals of his third self-titled album and ''Security'' in German, calling the results ''Ein Deutsches Album'' and ''Deutsches Album''. |
| 154 | * Similarly, the entirety of [[Music/VanHalen David Lee Roth's]] ''Eat 'Em And Smile'' was translated into Spanish with re-recorded vocals by Roth himself as ''Sonrisa Salvaje'' (which actually means "Wild Smile"). |
| 155 | * "Jai Ho", a Hindi song by A.R. Rahman, featured in the film ''Film/SlumdogMillionaire'', was covered in English by the Music/PussycatDolls. |
| 156 | * Kate Ryan recorded "Scream for More" in both English and French. |
| 157 | * Music/LunaSea's Ryuichi Kawamura recorded an album of standards with new Japanese lyrics. |
| 158 | * Music/DirEnGrey's "DOZING GREEN" and "GLASS SKIN" were released as singles in Japanese, but appeared on their ''UROBOROS'' album in English. The original Japanese versions were included as bonus tracks. |
| 159 | * There are English cover versions of Music/{{Rammstein}} songs such as "Amerika". |
| 160 | * There's also the cover band Rammsund which covers Music/{{Rammstein}} in Norwegian (nynorsk). |
| 161 | * Sting re-recorded several of his songs in Spanish and Portuguese. |
| 162 | * Music/PeterSchilling's sole hit, "Major Tom (Coming Home)", was [[CoveredUp originally recorded]] in German as "Major Tom (Vollig Losgelost)", as was the rest of ''Music/ErrorInTheSystem'', originally titled ''Fehler im System''. The only song from the album that [[KeepItForeign wasn't translated into English]] was the AntiChristmasSong "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht". |
| 163 | * Music/{{Covenant}}'s "Der Leiermann" uses the tune of "Like Tears in Rain" with the lyrics of a German art song. |
| 164 | * ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' ends with a Spanish-language version of Randy Newman's "You've Got a Friend in Me", performed by the Gipsy Kings. |
| 165 | * Basshunter's "Boten Anna", in addition to the English bastardization "Now You're Gone", was covered by himself in German, and by Gebroeders Ko in Dutch, with the lyrics parodized to be about a ''boat'' named Anna. |
| 166 | * Lucas Prata, with the help of former O-Zone member Dan Balan, recorded an English version of "Dragostea din Tei"([[MemeticMutation aka "Numa Numa"]]) titled "The Ma Ya Hi Song", which in turn was gender-flipped by Alina as "When you Leave (Numa Numa)". Balan also recorded an AscendedMeme version titled "Sugartunes (Numa Numa)". |
| 167 | * Brazillian musician Creator/SeuJorge recorded five Brazilian Portuguese versions of Music/DavidBowie songs for the soundtrack of ''Film/TheLifeAquaticWithSteveZissou'' (which are sung by his character in the film) - only the version of "Starman" was an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auAGPN_keDs already existing one]], the rest translated by him. Said songs (along with 7 more translated covers) were eventually released in the album ''The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions Featuring Seu Jorge''. |
| 168 | * Alla Pugacheva's "Million Roz" was originally a Latvian song called "Davaja Marina" sung by Aija Kukule. |
| 169 | * Fanny Brice's SignatureSong, "My Man," was a translation from the French of "Mon Homme," which was associated with Mistinguett. |
| 170 | * "Sobakasu (Freckles)", the theme song to ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', has two English cover versions, one by Sandy Fox for the English dub of the show, and another by the Danish Eurodance artist Tiggy, which appeared in the ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'' series. The first ending theme, "Tactics" (original version by The Yellow Monkey), was also covered in English by Lex Lang (the English dub voice actor of Sanosuke). |
| 171 | * Music/{{Kaya}} has [[ConceptAlbum a whole EP]] of classic {{chanson}} songs translated into Japanese. |
| 172 | * In a somewhat bizarre example, Japanese band Music/{{Versailles}} initially recorded their song "Love will be born again" in ''[[GratuitousEnglish English]]''; the Japanese version ([[RearrangeTheSong which also turns the song from a soft ballad to a]] PowerBallad) didn't come until a year later. |
| 173 | * The Japanese musician [[http://www.benibenibeni.com/ Beni]] has recorded several English covers of famous Japanese songs, such as "One More Time, One More Chance", the RealSongThemeTune from ''Anime/FiveCentimetersPerSecond''. |
| 174 | * "The Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)", from the Czech "Škoda lásky". |
| 175 | * International singing star Nana Mouskouri recorded many songs in a remarkably wide range of languages ranging from her native Greek; to English, French, Spanish, and German; to Maori and Turkish; even Mandarin Chinese. Sometimes even switching languages in the same song -- For example, in her rendition of Welsh folk song "Ar Hyd Y Nos" ("All Through the Night") she the first verse in the original Welsh, then immediately follows with the English translation). |
| 176 | * "La Mer" by Charles Trenet, which was covered in Italian, Dutch and most famously in English as "Beyond the Sea" by Bobby Darin. |
| 177 | * The Grass Roots song "Let's Live For Today" is a cover of the Italian "Piangi Con Me" by The Rokes (who, ironically, were an English-speaking British group residing in Italy). For added translation fun, the song was ALSO a Japanese hit by The Tempters under the title "Kyō Wo Ikiyō". |
| 178 | * "I Love You" by Music/TheZombies was covered in Japanese by The Carnibeats as "Sukisa, Sukisa, Sukisa". Ironically, the original version was only released in Japan AFTER, to cash in on the cover. |
| 179 | * Quite common with the Brazilian artists - to the point some of the first rock hits were Portuguese versions of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ak-4dK0Yp4 Bobby Darin]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSTvMl553Zo Connie Francis]]. For a few standout cases, Os Paralamas do Sucesso translated their songs into Spanish [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff once they saw a surge of popularity in neighbor Argentina]], one of the first hits of Skank (one of the artists in The Police tribute above) was a Music/BobDylan [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EehDzJ-Foqk version]], and Nenhum de Nós' SignatureSong is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmhSbgs5MCw a version of]] Music/DavidBowie's "Starman" (a phonetic one that turns Bowie's words into WordSaladLyrics). |
| 180 | * There was a tribute album to L'arc~en~Ciel with mostly English language covers of their songs by artists such as TLC, {{Music/Daniel Powter}}, Vince Neil, Orianthi, Boyz II Men, and more. |
| 181 | * Lots of Italian singers have covered their hits in Spanish: Adamo, Adriano Celentano, Franco Battiato, Eros Ramazzotti, Nek...but very few Spanish musicians have self-covered their songs in Italian. |
| 182 | ** A few of the most popular cases are singer Miguel Bosé (son of Italian actress Lucia Bosé) and pop group Music/{{Mecano}}, who recorded their song "Hijo de la Luna" (“Son of the Moon”) in French and Italian, in addition to the Spanish original. |
| 183 | ** Music/LauraPausini is an extreme case, to the point that her career has been built in this trope. After her second studio album, she released a recopilatory of all her singles she sung in Spanish, and that album sold '''so''' well than from her third onwards she releases each studio album in Italian and Spanish simultaneously. And a few of those songs have also been recorded in English as well - two in particular appear on her English album, ''From the Inside''. |
| 184 | * Back in the 70's and early 80's Raffaella Carrá was so popular in Spain and Latin America that almost all her hits have versions in Spanish. |
| 185 | * Spanish 80s band Music/{{Mecano}} had a no. 1 hit with "Une femme avec une femme", the French version of their song "Mujer contra mujer" (“Woman against Woman”). |
| 186 | * Alex Megane has German versions of some of his singles, such as "Atemlos (Beautiful Day)" and "Gefühle (One Million Feelings)". |
| 187 | * "You're the One That I Want", from ''Film/{{Grease}}'', has a Brazilian Portuguese cover done by sibling duo Music/SandyEJunior, the Sandy in question being named after the movie's Sandy. In fact, Sandy & Junior are possibly one of the most extreme cases, with a vast majority of their discography consisting of covers. |
| 188 | * Creator/JackieChan performed both Mandarin and Cantonese covers of "I'll Make a Man Out of You". The Mandarin cover can be found as a special feature on ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' DVD's. |
| 189 | * Music/TheyMightBeGiants recorded a Greek version of their song "Number Three". Despite Linnell's claim to one-eighth Hellenic ancestry, actual Greek speakers were not complimentary to his pronunciation of the translated lyrics. |
| 190 | * "(Theme from) ''Series/TheMonkees''" was translated for some other countries where the show aired. The Italian version, "Tema Dei Monkees", was released on a rarities |
| 191 | * Music/{{KMFDM}}'s "A Hole in the Wall" is an English version of their earlier German song "Liebeslied," albeit with different music. "Kraut" is a German version of their English song "Disobedience," but only the chorus and a few other lines are the same. |
| 192 | * Music/MunchenerFreiheit: |
| 193 | ** The band did a German version of Music/BobDylan's "Baby Blue". |
| 194 | ** Their album ''Fantasy'' is a whole-album version of this. It's their album ''Fantasie'' with the lyrics translated into, or rewritten in, English. |
| 195 | * After Music/PatBenatar recorded "The Ooh Ooh Song", she and Neil Giraldo decided it would be fun to record a Spanish version. They asked their Hispanic producer to translate the song into Spanish and recorded a version that way. Both versions appear on disc two of the ''Synchronistic Wanderings'' box set. |
| 196 | * Music/CaptainAndTennille re-recorded their signature song, "Love Will Keep Us Together," in Spanish as "Por Amor Viviremos" (We'll Live for Love). The Spanish version even sold well enough to get to #49 on the ''Billboard'' pop singles chart. |
| 197 | * Music/{{Selena}}, who did a Spanish version of the previously mentioned "Sukiyaki", also did a Spanish cover of the Music/{{Pretenders}}' "Back on the Chain Gang" entitled "Fotos Y Recuerdos" ("Photographs and Memories"). |
| 198 | * The Japanese song "Story" by Ai was rerecorded with English lyrics to tie in with the Japanese release of ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6''. |
| 199 | * [[Main/SkaPunk Ska-core]] group Voodoo Glow Skulls re-recorded the entirety of their album ''Firme'' in Spanish, as a nod to their Mexican roots. The song "El Coo Cooi" was already entirely in Spanish, so the Spanish version of the album featured an English version instead. |
| 200 | * ''Film/MulhollandDrive'' features Rebekah Del Rio performing an admittedly unrecognizable [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrC3Bf-CvHU Spanish a capella rendition]] of Roy Orbison's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNdBLBleO90 "Crying"]]. |
| 201 | * Music/{{Madonna}} has recorded two of her singles in Spanish versions as the B-Sides. "You'll See" as "Verás" and "What It Feels Like for a Girl" as "Lo que siente la mujer." She also made a Spanglish version of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from Evita. |
| 202 | * Japanese film ''Film/MorningForTheOsoneFamily'' opens with the Osones singing "Silent Night" in Japanese. |
| 203 | * [[TheEighties 1980s]] Japanese singer Takako Mamiya, to close out her album ''Love Trip'', recorded an English version of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iGAp3uoGW4 the title track]] called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrexUJ-BFF4 "What a Broken Heart Can Do"]]. Much of the first verse and part of the chorus is indecipherable. Points for trying? |
| 204 | * Music/{{Belly|Band}} recorded a BSide, "Judas Mon Coeur", that was actally their song "Judas My Heart" (off of ''King'') with the lyrics in French. |
| 205 | * ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor: Underground'' has a German song titled "Er lasst mich niemals allein" playing on in-game radios, that was translated into English as "Each Night He Comes Home to Me" on the OST. |
| 206 | * Trans-X re-recorded "Living on Video" in French as "Vivre sur video". |
| 207 | * Music/LesleyGore sung several versions of "You Don't Own Me" in the 60s. "Goodbye Tony" is in German, "Va... Tu Sei Libero" is in Italian, and "Je Ne Sais Plus" is in French. |
| 208 | * Creator/AnimEigo produced English versions of the entire ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'' soundtrack. Particularly infamous is their version of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ4UV0WtoMc "Mr. Dandy"]]. |
| 209 | * Music/JAMProject has done English versions of a few of their songs--"No Border," "Hero" and their themes to Anime/CardfightVanguard. |
| 210 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'''s ending theme, originally sung in Irish by Aoife Ní Fhearraigh, has an English cover by Creator/DonnaBurke, the voice of Angela Orosco and Claudia Wolf in the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series, and singer of "Heaven's Divide" from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker''. |
| 211 | * The ''Anime/YoKaiWatch'' opening "Gera Gera Po" was translated from Japanese when the series was localized. |
| 212 | * Two songs from the anime ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' feature both an English and Japanese counterpart. ''You Are My Love'' one performed by Creator/YuiMakino and the other by Eri Ito. The other song, ''Tsubasa'' one by Creator/FictionJunctionKAORI and the Japanese version, ''Yume no Tsubasa'' again by Makino and there exists a duet version with her co-star Creator/MiyuIrino. |
| 213 | * The film ''Film/CrazyRichAsians'' includes Chinese covers of "Money (That's What I Want)", "Material Girl", and Music/{{Coldplay}}'s "Yellow". |
| 214 | * Creator/JohnnyHallyday had several French covers of English songs, including Le Pénitencier (House of the Rising Sun) and Da Dou Ron Ron (Da Doo Ron Ron). Amusingly, his cover of Da Dou Ron Ron changes it from a simple love story to a [[Main/LyricalDissonance cheery mourning of lost love]]. |
| 215 | * ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' has had a few in the anime adaptation, all by the same artists in the native Japanese and in English: |
| 216 | ** The second [=OP=] for ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureDiamondIsUnbreakable Diamond is Unbreakable]]'', batta's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WPuwZuJh_E Chase]]", released over two years after the Japanese version. |
| 217 | ** The third [=OP=] for ''Diamond is Unbreakable'', Karen Aoki and Daisuke Hasegawa's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKaFX3hdI6M Great Days]]". |
| 218 | ** The first [=OP=] for ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind Golden Wind]]'', Coda's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2rgip26txc Fighting Gold]]". |
| 219 | ** The second [=OP=] for ''Golden Wind'', Daisuke Hasegawa's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix9KQtcIzQA Uragirimono No Requiem]]". |
| 220 | * ''WebVideo/CLWEntertainment'': The themes of ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'', ''Manga/NinjaHattori'', etc. are translated into English. Collin sometimes remixes the songs and changes the instrumentals to make them unique. |
| 221 | * Music/{{Kraftwerk}} have recorded a number of their songs and albums in different languages: |
| 222 | ** The 1975 album ''Radioactivity'' features both English and German. |
| 223 | ** 1977's ''Trans Europe Express'' was issued in separate English and German editions, as was 1978's ''Man Machine'', 1981's ''Computerworld'' and 1986's ''Electric Cafe'' |
| 224 | ** A French version of "Showroom Dummies" ("Les Mannequins") was also recorded. |
| 225 | ** ''Pocket Calculator'' had versions in English, German ("Taschenrechner"), French ("Mini Calculateur"), Italian ("Mini Calcolatore") and Japanese ("Dentaku"). |
| 226 | ** The Spanish versions of "Techno Pop" and "Sex Object" received a limited-edition release. |
| 227 | * ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution 5th Mix'' has an English version of the ''Manga/ChibiMarukoChan'' ending theme "Odoru Ponpokorin" called "Dancing Pompokolin", performed by Captain Jack. |
| 228 | * The French novelty song "Agadou" was first recorded by Michel Delancray and Mya Symille in the 1970's. It was later covered in other languages, such as in English by the German group Saragossa Band, and in Dutch by Arie Ribbens. The most well-known English version, "Agadoo" (based heavily on the Saragossa Band version), was performed by the British party band Black Lace, and became a number-two hit in the UK (being denied the top spot by [[Music/GeorgeMichael "Careless Whisper"]]). |
| 229 | * ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'' occasionally uses foreign-language nursery rhymes translated into English and vice versa, usually in episodes about different cultures. The episode "Hola Mexico!" features translated cover versions of "La Rueda de San Miguel" and "Dale, Dale, Dale!" (dubbed "San Miguel's Ring" and the "Piñata Song" respectively). |
| 230 | * Following the [[MemeticMutation memetic resurgence]] of Mariya Takeuchi's long-lost J-pop single "Plastic Love" on Website/YouTube, Caitlin "mom0ki" Myers [[https://youtu.be/vunm-W-ovLc recorded an English cover]]. She has also done [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW61VTLhNjQ a Japanese citypop version]] of Music/RickAstley's famous "Never Gonna Give You Up" with annapantsu, WebVideo/LilyPichu, and Lizz Robinett. |
| 231 | * Swedish sing-songwriter Carola Häggkvist loves this trope. Almost every song she has covered she has translated into Swedish, sometimes changing the meaning of the lyrics. Most notably, she turned Floraldisio's BreakUpSong ''Non Voglai Mica La Luna'' into a religious song. |
| 232 | * Secret Garden's "Nocturne", winner of the 1995 Series/EurovisionSongContest, was originally performed in Norwegian, then translated into English the following year. |
| 233 | * Gerard Joling's "Shangri-La was initially recorded in English, but sung in his native Dutch at the 1988 Eurovision contest, as per the language requirement at the time. |
| 234 | * A fictional language example: countless musicians have [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb3X5Xq1Qcg recorded]] [[SpeakingSimlish Simlish]] covers of their songs to be featured in ''VideoGame/TheSims''. The list is [[https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Songs_in_Simlish staggeringly long]] and spans virtually every genre of popular music. Reportedly, Maxis has no problem getting musicians to agree, as [[JustForFun/OneOfUs many of them are fans]] of ''The Sims'' and see it as an AwesomeDearBoy job. |
| 235 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmCTnaAR1Ao "Eat You Up"]] by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_You_Up_(Angie_Gold_song) Angie Gold]] managed to do this ''at least'' three times, and not always from English. It started as an 80s pop song and was a modest hit in her local UK. However, it was wildly popular in Japan and not only reached number 1, but was covered in Japanese by Yoko Oginome as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgNIeWvXKNM "Dancing Hero (Eat You Up)"]]. That version was a huge hit in Japan, but also in China, so it was covered in Mandarin by Priscilla Chan as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyTzSac108o "Dancing Street"]]. ''Then'', in 2017, the Japanese version reached popularity thanks to a remix being used in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxr9tvYUHcg a performance]] by the Tomioka High School dance club--prompting ''another'' cover [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsqG9k6LOE0 into Korean]] by a group of women comedians. |
| 236 | * "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor is about rising from the ashes of heartbreak, after falling out of love with someone. "Picha Pie" by the Filipino band Music/ParokyaNiEdgar, which uses the same melody and a pastiche of its lyrical content, describes pretty much the inverse: hating someone at first, but then falling in love with them. Well, actually more like hating something at first, then falling in love with it -- the song is [[AntiLoveSong done like any love song, but is actually about pizza]]. |
| 237 | * Italian singer-songwriter Domenico Modugno's 1958 Italian-language song "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nel_blu,_dipinto_di_blu_(song) Nel blu, dipinto di blu]]" ("From the blue that is painted blue") ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRF5zSczYEs audio]]) has been covered in at least seven languages. Possibly the most famous is Music/DeanMartin's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejzDJkUXgdw cover]], released the same year, which is partly in English and partly the original Italian (a firm but inoffensive assertion of Martin's pride in his Italian heritage).[[note]]Martin spoke Italian (or more probably Neapolitan--his father was from Abruzzo, and his mother was Italian-American of probable Southern Italian ancestry) as his first language. He learned English at school, an was bullied in his childhood for his then-poor command of English. The real linguistic "screw you" in Dino's version of the song is actually in the ''Italian'' lyrics, where it appears he deliberately sang them in a Neapolitan accent--e.g. by voicing certain consonants, particularly pronouncing "cantare" as "gantare"--to bug uppity Northern Italians.[[/note]] |
| 238 | * The karaoke songs in ''VideoGame/YakuzaLikeADragon'' are all dubbed in the English version, with appropriate lyrics to boot. |
| 239 | * {{Bardcore}} songs will translate the lyrics of a modern pop song to fit the CommonTongue of a specific period such as Old English or Latin. |
| 240 | * "Trust You Forever" from ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'' has an English cover version, though [[TheSongRemainsTheSame the show's English dub kept the songs in Japanese]]. |
| 241 | * Russian singer and [=YouTuber=] Ai Mori (real name Olga Zimina) is known for this trope and has made Russian covers of many English songs. |
| 242 | * Norwegian singer Wenche Myhre has two such covers of ''Non voglia mica la luna'', one in Norwegian and one in German. Both are about the power of smiling, and both use the English phrase "keep smiling" in the chorus. |
| 243 | * Choral music basically breathed this for a while. Old octavos and other editions would have a singable English text of a foreign language original. Inverted for things like [[ClassicalMusic Messiah, his famous Easter oratorio]] from Georg Händel: an English original that has editions in other languages, namely German, French and recently a Spanish edition. |
| 244 | * Music/LeonardCohen's "Suzanne" has been translated into German at least twice. There's a comparably {{Camp}}y version by the South African Schlager singer Howard Carpendale that [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning doesn't have much to do with the original]], and there's a version by the Dutch singer-songwriter Music/HermanVanVeen that's amazingly close to the original. |
| 245 | * The very concept of the German group Die Strandjungs was to cover Music/TheBeachBoys (which is what Die Strandjungs literally means) and Music/JanAndDean with new German lyrics [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning and all-new meanings]]. They quickly faded away when they started making original songs, making them sound like an unnecessary Music/MunchenerFreiheit knock-off. |
| 246 | * Music/JubyPhonic specializes in doing English versions of Japanese songs, typically, but not always, ones made with ''Music/{{Vocaloid}}''. |
| 247 | * In 2003, Polish radio station RMF FM released a CD called "Moja i Twoja muzyka", consisting of 13 songs, all of which were covers: |
| 248 | ** "Widzę twoją twarz" ("I See Your Face") and "Mniejsze zło" ("A Lesser Evil") by Kasia Kowalska are cover's of Music/{{Roxette}}'s "Listen To Your Heart" and Music/CelineDion's "All By Myself". |
| 249 | ** "Nasza jest cała ta noc" ("This Whole Night Is Ours") and "Bo dziś nie ma już nas" ("Because Today We're Not There Anymore") are covers of Music/BobDylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" and Music/EltonJohn's "Sacrifice", respectively. |
| 250 | ** "Kilka sekund" ("A Few Seconds") and "Więc popatrz na mnie choć raz" ("So Look At Me At Least Once") by Varius Manx are covers of "7 Seconds" by Youssou N'Dour and Nenneh Cherry and "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" by Music/PhilCollins, respectively. |
| 251 | ** "Kto by cię chciał pokochać" ("Who Would Want To Love You") and "Jeśli mnie nie znasz" ("If You Don't Know Me") by Urszula are covers of Music/BobMarley's "Could You Be Loved" and Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know Me By Now". |
| 252 | ** "Kiedy tęsknię" ("When I'm Missing [You]") and "Nieśmiertelni" ("The Immortal") by Edyta Górniak are covers of Leo Sayer's "When I Need You" and Music/{{Queen}}'s "Who Wants To Live Forever", respectively. |
| 253 | ** Perfect's "Każdy oddech twój" ("Every Breath of Yours") and "Kołysanka" ("Lullaby"; featuring Patrycja Markowska, the daughter of Grzegorz Markowski, Perfect's lead singer) are covers of Music/ThePolice's "Every Breath You Take" and "Tonight" by Music/TinaTurner and Music/DavidBowie, respectively. |
| 254 | ** Anita Lipnicka's "Kruchy czas" ("Fragile Time") is the cover of "Fragile" by Music/{{Sting}}. |
| 255 | * Finnish singer Vicky Rosti performed a Finnish cover of the Music/TenCc song "Rubber Bullets" titled "Puupaukut". |
| 256 | * Joe Yellow's "USA" was covered in Japanese by pop group DA PUMP and was given radically different lyrics about how great the United States is. It became a major success in the country. |
| 257 | * The Four Amigos did a number of Spanish covers of songs like "Mister Sandman" and "Stranger in Paradise". |
| 258 | * Hubert Kah re-recorded his 1995 single "C'est la vie" in German as "Wilkommen im Leben" in 2005, albeit retaining the original French TitleDrop. |
| 259 | * In Australia and New Zealand, ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' aired with English versions of two of the openings, "Catch You Catch Me" and "Platinum", and two of the endings, "Groovy" and "Fruits Candy". They strangely never dubbed "Tobira wo Akete" or "Honey". Meanwhile, Canada and the USA were left with the custom "Cardcaptors" opening. |
| 260 | * Music/DavidLeeRoth re-recorded his first solo album, ''Eat 'Em and Smile'', in Spanish under the title ''Sonrisa Salvaje''. |
| 261 | * The Latin boy band Music/{{Menudo}} relied on this trope quite a bit. |
| 262 | ** Early in their career, Menudo released a Spanish version of Music/{{ABBA}}'s "Chiquitita". A later album consisted of one half of re-recordings of their own songs and one half Spanish covers of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" (Music/{{Queen}}), "I Was Made For Loving You" (Music/{{KISS}}), "Can't Stop the Music" (Music/TheVillagePeople), and "Xanadu" (originally performed by Music/OliviaNewtonJohn and Music/ElectricLightOrchestra). |
| 263 | ** Later on, their first record in English, ''Reaching Out'', consists mainly of covers of their previous songs but translated to English. For example, "Sube a mi motora (Súbete a mi moto)" became "Motorcycle Dreamer" |
| 264 | ** The album ''Mania'' contained Portuguese covers of songs from their previous four albums. The aforementioned "Súbete a mi moto" became "Suba Em Minha Moto". ''Mania'' sold over one million records in Brazil. |
| 265 | * A translation of Music/SmashMouth's "All Star" into Aramaic and back again went viral in 2018. In 2019, the translator Isaac Mayer uploaded a video of himself [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2jFRDVUWG8 performing the song in Aramaic]] (with English subtitles). |
| 266 | * The song "One Way Ticket", first performed by Neil Sedaka, was covered in Russian by Poyushchiye Gitary as "Синяя песня" (The Blue Song), with lyrics largely unrelated to the original. Their version was actually a big hit in the USSR. Later, when Eruption CoveredUp "One Way Ticket", a group named Zdravstvuy, Pesnya recorded their own disco-pop version of the song with the same Russian lyrics as Poyushchiye Gitary. |
| 267 | * Suicide Commando's "Sterbehilfe" is a German re-recording of his 1998 song "Euthanasia". |
| 268 | * The Italian song "Volevo un gatto nero" was translated into Japanese as "Kuroneko no Tango" and into Korean as "Black Cat Nero". |
| 269 | * Music/BonnieTyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was covered in Spanish as "Eclipse Total del Amor" by Cuban singer Lissette Álvarez Chorens just two years after its original release, then Mexican singer Yuridia covered that version in 2006. Tyler herself recorded a French-English duet version titled "Si demain (Turn Around)" with Kareen Antonn for the song's [[MilestoneCelebration 20th anniversary]] in 2003. |
| 270 | * Creator/{{Pixar}} had covers made for the original songs in ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'' performed by boy bands such as Da-iCE for "Nobody Like U" in Japanese and [=W0LF(S)=] for "U Know What’s Up" in Mandarin. |
| 271 | * Creator/LeslieGrace did a [[https://youtu.be/qpXdFNfAjww Spanglish cover]] of [[Music/RonnieSpector The Ronettes]]' "Be My Baby" in 2013. |
| 272 | * Yuki Okazaki's "Do You Remember Me?" was covered in English by a Eurobeat singer known only as Jenny for ''Dancemania Happy Paradise Vol. 2'', and this version was licensed for ''[[VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution DDRMAX: DanceDanceRevolution 6th Mix]]'' and ''DDR Extreme''. |
| 273 | * Joe Rinoie's "Synchronized Love" originally had [[MultilingualSong Japanese verses and an English chorus]], whereas the Millennium remix(and by extension the Red Monster Hyper Mix of ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'' fame) has fully English lyrics. |
| 274 | * Fifty Fifty's "Cupid", originally a mix of Korean and English, has the fully English "Twin version" featuring Sabrina Carpenter. |
| 275 | * "Astérix est là", the main theme of ''WesternAnimation/AsterixVersusCaesar'', has a German cover (originally in French). |
| 276 | * Fiori released a Spanish version of her single "Take Me Where You Are" as a bonus track on her 2002 debut album ''Heaven''. |
| 277 | * Music/RadioTapok has built a career covering Western pop, rock, and metal songs in Russian. He's done everything from Music/{{Rammstein}} to Music/{{Disturbed}} to Music/FooFighters to Music/TwentyOnePilots. His BreakthroughHit in the west was Music/{{Sabaton}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRow6G5wQIw "The Attack of the Dead Men"]], which they helped him produce in a cross-promotion that dropped the day before ''The Great War'' came out. He started producing original music during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| 278 | * "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duZzbWjtYmY Selos]]" ("Jealous") by Filipino singer Shaira combines this with TheCoverChangesTheMeaning and RearrangeTheSong. It is a Tagalog-cover version of Music/{{Lenka}}'s "Trouble Is a Friend" that rearranges it into a danceable pop tune and rewrites the song in an heartbroken subtext. |
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