History GratuitousEnglish / Music

* A somewhat amusing case is "Elettrochoc" by Matia Bazar. Not enough that the only English word used in the song is "said", but the late Enzo Jannacci does a guest spot mimicing a news reporter or interpreter and does a cold-detached voice-over translating that into Italian ("disse"), just to amp up the almost Zappian surrealism that permeates the record (or in case an Italian hearer doesn't speak English...)

* A somewhat amusing case is "Elettrochoc" by Matia Bazar. Not enough that the only English word used in the song is "said", but the other singer also immediately translates into Italian ("disse"). Just in case an Italian hearer doesn't speak English...

* A lot of Music/UtadaHikaru Japanese songs have an English title or a few English sentences in the lyrics. Although they are always grammatically correct and make sense, as she was born in America.

* Los Shakers were a Uruguayan rock band of the sixties who were heavily influenced by Music/TheBeatles, and despite the fact that they primarily played to a South American audience, recorded most of their songs in grammatically shaky English. For instance, "Break It All" has the refrain "But when the music start / don't stand there like a fool / and break it all / you listen me, break it all".

* This is where the Series/EurovisionSongContest gets weird. Once the language requirement was removed again in the 90s because of Ireland winning by showing up, countries where English is not widely spoken at all started using it for their songs. It's now at a point where songs in your native language are the ''exception'' and not the rule. Unless, you're Italy or Portugal.

* This is where the EurovisionSongContest gets weird. Once the language requirement was removed again in the 90s because of Ireland winning by showing up, countries where English is not widely spoken at all started using it for their songs. It's now at a point where songs in your native language are the ''exception'' and not the rule. Unless, you're Italy or Portugal.

* Music/{{Santana}}/Maná's "Corazón Espinado" received a "{{Spanglish}} [[http://www.wowlyrics.com/read.php?wow=1492700 version]]", featuring sentences such as "how it hurts el corazón".

** Music/{{PSY}} breaks out into a chorus of "HEYYYYYYYYYYYYY, SEXY LADY" in his famous "Gangnam Style" video. There's also phrases like "baby, baby" and "You know what I'm saying?!" before the final chorus; justified in his case, since he speaks fluent English.

* Brazilian singer Ednaldo Pereira likes to insert some randomized English words in some of his songs. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Zv6QPFG2s Some]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pn_wolTq0Y examples]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maMVMjTYxwM here]]. His northeastern Brazilian accent [[PlayingWithATrope just makes this trope better]].

* Brazilian musician/singer/songwriter Carlinhos Brown likes to mix Portuguese and English, starting with his stage name[[note]]His birth name is Antonio Carlos Santos de Freitas[[/note]]: Carlinhos is a Portuguese hypochoristic for Carlos, and Brown is a homage to Henry Box Brown (not Creator/JamesBrown, as many people think), a slave who escaped slavery in a box. Some of the songs he writes also have this mix, like "Uma Brasileira" ("Deixe tocar aquela canção/ One more time, ime, ime") and "Covered saints" ("se ainda mora em mim não sei dizer/ in a beautiful way"). Ironically, when he cameod AsHimself in English-langauage film ''Film/Speed2CruiseControl'', he sang a song with an [[AvertedTrope all-Portuguese]] lyrics, [[SignatureSong "A Namorada"]].

* A somewhat amusing case is "Elettrochoc" by Matia Bazar. Not enough that the only English word used in the song is "said", but the other singer also immediately translates into Italian ("dice"). Just in case an Italian hearer doesn't speak English...

* This is where the [[EurovisionSongContest Eurovision Song Contest]] gets weird. Once the language requirement was removed again in the 90s because of Ireland winning by showing up, countries where English is not widely spoken at all started using it for their songs. It's now at a point where songs in your native language are the ''exception'' and not the rule. Unless, you're Italy or Portugal.
* Most Japanese Music/{{Vocaloid}}s are pretty bad at pronouncing any English word (except for Luka[[note]] and, as of now, Miku, Rin, Len, Kaito, Meiko, Gumi, and Fukase, with more on the way[[/note]], who actually has an English voice bank). Try Miku's "Cinderella romance" (SUPAA POWAFURU SINDERRA, LOVU LOVU LOVU LOVU LOVULII DAHLEEN! SUPA POWA FURU LOVU ATTAKKU!)

* KPop is a MAJOR offender of injecting meaningless English into its songs. It practically needs it's own page.

* The title of Welsh band Music/SuperFurryAnimals' EP ''Moog Droog'': English-speaking listeners may get the combined ShoutOut to Moog synthesizers and Literature/AClockworkOrange (where "droog" is [[FutureSlang Nadsat]] for "friend") [[note]]possible FridgeBrilliance: the [[Film/AClockworkOrange film adaptation]] had its score performed on Moog by Wendy Carlos, so it involved both Moogs and droogs[[/note]]... But "moog droog" also sort of sounds like "mwg drwg", which is Welsh slang for marijuana (literally "naughty smoke").

* Listen to Ednaldo Pereira. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Zv6QPFG2s Pretty]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pn_wolTq0Y nice]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maMVMjTYxwM English]]. His northeastern Brazilian accent just make the music better.

** It should be noted that Joe Inoue was born Los Angeles, USA and is a native English speaker, something easily mistaken. He apparently claimed to have learned Japanese from watching {{Anime}}, arguably making him an {{Otaku}} and of course OneOfUs. This would also account for his Japanese being the more accented.

** Similarly, the SonicAdventureSeries has tracks named [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure "Bad Taste Aquarium", "Funky Groove Makes U Hot!?", "Tornado Scramble", "Skydeck A Go! Go!",]] [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 "Vengence (sic) is Mine", "For True Story", "Mr. Unsmiley", and "Keys The Ruin".]] Also, the name of the Sonic Adventure OST is ''[[WordSaladTitle Digi-log Conversation!]]''

* The title of Welsh band Super Furry Animals' EP ''Moog Droog'': English-speaking listeners may get the combined ShoutOut to Moog synthesizers and Literature/AClockworkOrange (where "droog" is [[FutureSlang Nadsat]] for "friend") [[note]]possible FridgeBrilliance: the [[Film/AClockworkOrange film adaptation]] had its score performed on Moog by Wendy Carlos, so it involved both Moogs and droogs[[/note]]... But "moog droog" also sort of sounds like "mwg drwg", which is Welsh slang for marijuana (literally "naughty smoke").

* It seems as if J-Pop singers in the late 1970's-80s were obligated by contract to have at least one English song. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9Yjz4lKh_4 Minako Yoshida]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIBMj8bEbtk Junko Ohashi]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mib-bC9DPXk Kimiko Kasai]], and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z7VaZsbHxU Tatsuro Yamashita]] all got in on it, the latter doing so multiple times. However, while the efforts from the previous four were actually [[SurprisinglyGoodEnglish pretty well done]] compared to the English in J-Pop today, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtmbA8sU7kw&t=38m37s this]] falls squarely into Gratuitous English.

** Generally speaking, the level of GratuitousEnglish use varies from company to company. SM Entertainment (who owns both [=BoA=] and EXO) tends to use more than other music companies (i.e. YG Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, etc.), where the song writers actually speak a decent amount of English.
** Music/{{PSY}} breaks out into a chorus of "HEYYYYYYYYYYYYY, SEXY LADY" in his famous "Gangnam Style" video. There's also phrases like "baby, baby" and "You know what I'm saying?!" before the final chorus.

** SHINee deserve a special mention: ''"Fantastic, elastic, fantastic, elastic..."''