What language is this song in?
September 14, 2010 11:10 AM Subscribe
What language is this song in?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nVJAfikQQ8
I cannot figure out what language this song is in. I'm curious if it was sampled, if it's an original, or whatnot. Any ideas? Clues? Perhaps the hive mind can help me out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nVJAfikQQ8
I cannot figure out what language this song is in. I'm curious if it was sampled, if it's an original, or whatnot. Any ideas? Clues? Perhaps the hive mind can help me out.
Response by poster: The Italian song is a sample of another song. I'm thinking Portuguese? Just because at times it sounds like Spanish, which is how Portuguese always sounds to me...like I should understand it but don't.
posted by wooh at 11:19 AM on September 14, 2010
posted by wooh at 11:19 AM on September 14, 2010
Response by poster: It's Spanish? Damn, it's nigh incomprehensible. Wish I could find lyrics. Anyone else want to weigh in on whether it is Spanish or not?
posted by wooh at 11:21 AM on September 14, 2010
posted by wooh at 11:21 AM on September 14, 2010
I speak both Spanish and Portuguese. umbú is correct. It is Spanish, not Portuguese.
I can make out many of the words but there are also a lot of nonsense words thrown in.
posted by vacapinta at 11:27 AM on September 14, 2010
I can make out many of the words but there are also a lot of nonsense words thrown in.
posted by vacapinta at 11:27 AM on September 14, 2010
Wiki says:
Yolanda Be Cool collaborated with Australian producer DCUP (real name Duncan MacLennan) to release an international single "We No Speak Americano" on the indie Australian label Sweat It Out they founded, sampling on a 1956 hit "Tu vuò fà l'americano" by Renato Carosone and written by Carosone and Nicola "Nisa" Salerno.
Lyrics and translation here.
posted by nangar at 11:50 AM on September 14, 2010
Yolanda Be Cool collaborated with Australian producer DCUP (real name Duncan MacLennan) to release an international single "We No Speak Americano" on the indie Australian label Sweat It Out they founded, sampling on a 1956 hit "Tu vuò fà l'americano" by Renato Carosone and written by Carosone and Nicola "Nisa" Salerno.
Lyrics and translation here.
posted by nangar at 11:50 AM on September 14, 2010
Response by poster: "Prior to the hit, they had collaborated with DCUP when he remixed their hit "Afro Nuts" in 2009."
posted by wooh at 12:01 PM on September 14, 2010
posted by wooh at 12:01 PM on September 14, 2010
> I can make out many of the words but there are also a lot of nonsense words thrown in.
Really? Which are the "many words"? Because I know Spanish pretty well and can't make out a single one. How do you get Spanish from the repeated "tikikona" or whatever it is? This reminds me of the time I went out for pizza with my Italian-American roommate in grad school and we argued about the language the countermen were speaking with each other; he said it was a weird Italian dialect, I said it was a weird Spanish dialect. Finally we asked, and were equally embarrassed when it turned out to be Greek. Since then I've been a lot more cautious about identifying languages I couldn't make out clearly. How do we know, for instance, that it's not deliberate gibberish?
Here's a direct link, by the way, and the only hit Google finds for "Yolanda Be Cool" is here (from page 226 of Motorcycle Ride on the Sea of Tranquility, by Patricia Santana).
posted by languagehat at 12:23 PM on September 14, 2010
Really? Which are the "many words"? Because I know Spanish pretty well and can't make out a single one. How do you get Spanish from the repeated "tikikona" or whatever it is? This reminds me of the time I went out for pizza with my Italian-American roommate in grad school and we argued about the language the countermen were speaking with each other; he said it was a weird Italian dialect, I said it was a weird Spanish dialect. Finally we asked, and were equally embarrassed when it turned out to be Greek. Since then I've been a lot more cautious about identifying languages I couldn't make out clearly. How do we know, for instance, that it's not deliberate gibberish?
Here's a direct link, by the way, and the only hit Google finds for "Yolanda Be Cool" is here (from page 226 of Motorcycle Ride on the Sea of Tranquility, by Patricia Santana).
posted by languagehat at 12:23 PM on September 14, 2010
Response by poster: That's what I am worried about, languagehat, and why I am skeptical.
I think the name is a reference to Pulp Fiction. That said, a google search for Yolanda Be Cool leads to plenty of band related stuff, so not sure what you meant there.
posted by wooh at 12:36 PM on September 14, 2010
I think the name is a reference to Pulp Fiction. That said, a google search for Yolanda Be Cool leads to plenty of band related stuff, so not sure what you meant there.
posted by wooh at 12:36 PM on September 14, 2010
> I think the name is a reference to Pulp Fiction. That said, a google search for Yolanda Be Cool leads to plenty of band related stuff, so not sure what you meant there.
Yeah, you're totally correct, and I'm not sure what happened with my Google FAIL.
posted by languagehat at 1:16 PM on September 14, 2010
Yeah, you're totally correct, and I'm not sure what happened with my Google FAIL.
posted by languagehat at 1:16 PM on September 14, 2010
Best answer: "it samples Plan B’s party staple frikitona"
frikitona (nsfw)
posted by yaymukund at 1:23 PM on September 14, 2010
frikitona (nsfw)
posted by yaymukund at 1:23 PM on September 14, 2010
Better quality audio of frikitona
Lyrics (Spanish)
Urbandictionary (ugh) says that frikitona is the Spanish equivalent of woman who's a freak (in bed).
posted by yaymukund at 1:33 PM on September 14, 2010
Lyrics (Spanish)
Urbandictionary (ugh) says that frikitona is the Spanish equivalent of woman who's a freak (in bed).
posted by yaymukund at 1:33 PM on September 14, 2010
Response by poster: The lyrics are pretty hilariously bad. It looks like Afro Nuts just samples the first half of the song and the chorus, and doesn't get into the later lines. That said, it's a good lesson in sped-up slang-ridden puerto rican rap (aka a recipe for incomprehensible)
posted by wooh at 2:13 PM on September 14, 2010
posted by wooh at 2:13 PM on September 14, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by circular at 11:14 AM on September 14, 2010