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Michael's Spanish and French singing

muhammed

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I was just wondering what did it sound to the people that spoke French or Spanish as a main language

How was mike's pronunciation for words when he sang I Just Can't Stop Loving You or the short part of What More Can I Give(Spanish version)
 
I don't speak either language but I heard the French translation is horrible. Not MJ's fault of course since he did not do it.
 
I'm fluent in Spanish. It's apparent from Michael's and Siedah's voices they are not native speakers. The song is not phonetically consistent either cause they mix Latin American Spanish with European Spanish.
 
Hispanic American people mix up Castilian dialect with words used exclusively in their countries. Isabel de Castilla was the queen ruling Spain when the conquerors invaded the new continent but it's indeed grammatically and phonetically incorrect. If artists want to record songs in other languages, they should do so with previously unreleased tracks, I'm not in favor of completely distorting the original message of a song trying to fit it in another language.
 
I'm from Argentina and I can tell you that MJ did it amazing. I am not saying this because I love everything he did (cuz I don't), but Michael didn't know much spanish and he's obviously not a native speaker, and he is very fluently and you can understand him very well! I agree about the consistency thing but that isn't MJ's fault, I'm talking mostly about pronunciation, and he did it very well!
 
Oh, yeah, regarding his pronunciation was mostly good but most non native speakers have problems saying the letter Y in Spanish. My critique was mainly the lyric adaptation of the song.
 
I've also heard from native speakers of both languages that he did a very good job on TMAET when it comes to pronunciation, but that his French wasn't particularly great and the French translation apparently completely missed the mark.
I thought the Spanish lyrics were sweet. I liked that 'starry night, please make her love me the way I love her' part :)
 
I don't speak Spanish but I know the Spanish version of IJCSLY was translated by a professional and he was interviewed for Bad25. The woman Quincy brought to translate the song to French was not and I heard people say it sounds like Google Translate. Was it officially released back then?

Who translated Todo Para Ti?
 
The French lyrics were written by Christine Decroix.

christine_decroix.png
 
I think Rubén Blades also translated Todo para ti but I'm not 100% certain.

I checked on Wikipedia and he's credited as the writer indeed.
 
A French native speaker will surely know better than me but I understand it to some extent. I'm not as fluent in French as I am in English but it's true the lyrics grammatically don't make sense and his pronunciation is less spot on. Michael pronounced Spanish much better than French.
 
I don't know a lick of Spanish, but his French was a bit iffy. Then again, it's not my mother tongue! I was able to pick out a little bit. The translation is a bit meh, though. I think that's the main flaw.
 
I speak French.

I just listened to Je Ne Veux Pas La Fin De Nous (IJCSLY) again. To be honest, it sounds like a 5-year-old wrote it. The lyrics are very simplistic and often don't make any sense ("the truth for me is life with you", "and dancing all winter, without you it's hell"). His pronunciation is actually quite good. He struggles a bit with the e (pronounces it like é instead of "uh") but he got the r down which English speakers often find difficult. Bless him for trying :)
 
LindavG;4147007 said:
He struggles a bit with the e (pronounces it like é instead of "uh") but he got the r down which English speakers often find difficult. Bless him for trying :)
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I can never get this one right. :ermm:
 
My comment won't contribute much, but very interesting thread. :) I've always wondered about that myself.
 
MidnightMoonwalk said:
My comment won't contribute much, but very interesting thread. :) I've always wondered about that myself.
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I think it's interesting too. I always thought his pronunciation was incredible (especially rolling R's) but I always wondered about what native speakers thought).
 
LindavG said:
he got the r down which English speakers often find difficult. Bless him for trying :)
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I'm nowhere near fluent in French but I can understand him here and there, I was impressed with the way he pronounced the r as well, lol. To me it's just too cute to hear him try - it always makes me wish he would've said something in Dutch, that would've been the cutest thing ever :wild:
 
Cool idea, I've always wondered this.

My Spanish teacher (she was stunning :cheeky:) she was really impressed by it and she remembered that all Spanish girls loved it
 
I never spoke French nor Spanish, though my last name is French sounding. But I love when Michael sang in Spanish for "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and "What More Can I GIve", the French version is good, but I like the Spanish version the best.
 
Lil said:
I'm nowhere near fluent in French but I can understand him here and there, I was impressed with the way he pronounced the r as well, lol. To me it's just too cute to hear him try - it always makes me wish he would've said something in Dutch, that would've been the cutest thing ever :wild:
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Knowing what a perfectionist he was he would have probably stayed up all night practicing the r and g :cheeky: We couldn't do that to him.

I wonder if Michael knew what he was singing, did someone translate the translation for him or was he just parroting the words?
 
^haha I know, poor thing! He does make a sound that's kinda similar to our g (to my ears at least) in Loving You tho, so I bet he could've done it! :D

If I remember correctly Ruben Blades said he spent 3 days teaching Michael the words, and that he had no problem interpreting the song in Spanish. So I think he knew, at least on TMAET.. can't imagine they were recording it for 3 days and he never once told him what the words actually meant?
 
I remember reading an article, in which the french translator talked about her thoughts while translating I just can't stop loving you into french. I can't remember where I read it, its some years ago, but as I remember, she said; it wouldn't make any sense to translate the english lyrics into french, so what she did was translating the essence of the song and she gave quite alot of examples - I really cannot remember where I read it, urgh!
 
JamesDean said:
I remember reading an article, in which the french translator talked about her thoughts while translating I just can't stop loving you into french. I can't remember where I read it, its some years ago, but as I remember, she said; it wouldn't make any sense to translate the english lyrics into french, so what she did was translating the essence of the song and she gave quite alot of examples - I really cannot remember where I read it, urgh!
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That's essentially what the Spanish guy did for the Spanish version too, you can see him discussing it and archive footage of Michael singing it in Bad 25 :)
 
I speak french. The lyrics are a bit odd and naive, but it's still adorable to hear michael singing in french. his pronunciation is not bad at all, as lindavg said, he really gets the guttural french r that so many americans struggle with. i'm still so impressed!! i've been studying french since i was 12 (i'm 24) and it took me a good 10 years to really nail the r. sometimes he denasalizes vowels that should be nasal, but that's just normal american-speaking-french errors. i'm not surprised he picked it up quickly, since we know he was good at imitating sounds.

Although.. it was his lowest grade his freshman year of high school :rofl:

MIchael-s-report-card-P-michael-jackson-30804787-576-720.jpg


well we know he did study it a bit as a child, so that could have given him a bit of an advantage in relearning it for je ne veux pas la fin de nous
 
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ive heard several native Spanish people say that he did a great job...
 
I don't know how well he pronounced the words in the songs since neither French or Spanish is my native language, but I REALLY REALLY REALLY like how it sounds.
 
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