The Foreign-Language Song Version

Today I wanted to share one of my favorite musical/linguistic phenomena: the foreign-language version!It used to be common for musicians in non-English speaking countries to cover songs in their native language. Artists may even release songs in languages they don't speak to cross over into more markets. ABBA themselves recorded in English, Spanish, Swedish, German, and French. They also made Swedish versions of some of their songs to be recorded by other artists on their record label, Polar. Some artists would make their own translations when covering songs, such as this one from Brigitta Wollgård covering Mamma Mia.When Mamma Mia! the musical was translated into Swedish, this version was not used. Instead a new translation was made for the musical.Bjorn and Benny of ABBA found some early success with some of their songs in Japan, and in 1972 the earliest Japanese-language cover of an ABBA song I've found so far was released: "She's My Kind of Girl" by LOVE STORY. (More…