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French Eurovison song sparks language debate
By MaltaMedia News
Apr 18, 2008 - 8:15:16 PM
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Sebastien Tellier, the French singer who will be representing France in the coming Eurovision Song Contest has caused outrage by choosing to sing in English rather than in his native language.
An outrage so important to French national pride that it refuses to stay in the streets. Tellier’s song, Divine, has pushed proud French parliamentarians Francois-Michel Gonnot, Alain Joyadet and Jacques Myard to voice their utter disapproval.
Choosing whether to sing in English (as the accepted lingua-franca of mainstream pop music) over another language has been one of the debates surrounding the Eurovision contest’s history, even amongst Maltese followers of the festival.
When MaltaMedia asked Norman Hamilton, ex-chairperson of the Maltasong board, whether English enhanced chances of success he said that “Since most countries’ songs are currently in English, Malta would stand a better chance if the song were in English”. Recently, this statement was echoed by 1991 Eurovision contestant Paul Giordmaina, adding that participating countries should continue to follow this trend.
When told that in 2007, the winning song was in Serbo-Croat and not in English, Hamilton dismissed it as “primarily the result of voting [dominated] by friends and neighbours.”
On being asked whether the Maltese language could be a winning language in such a mainstream festival, MaltaMedia.com’s Creative Director, Dr Toni Sant said, “If the reason we send songs in English is so we get good placements, it may be time to explore sending a song in Maltese to see whether the points it gets are more or less than what Malta received in the last couple of years.” This implies that if Malta has not been doing so well with English, might as well opt for a change.
Deo Grech from OGAE Malta, told MaltaMedia that in the seventies, when all participating countries had to use their official language, Malta could participate in English but it chose Maltese and placed last on two occasions. This poor placement might have been the effect of various factors, not just language. It could have been a lack of experience and professionalism back in those days but “it is a fact that when Malta sent songs in English it obtained better results.” Grech said.
Voting, placing and points are determined by a number of factors in such contests and language hardly seems to be the most decisive one. Indeed, Joe Grech’s Marija l-Maltija in 1971, placing last with 52 points, attracted more points than Fabrizio Faniello’s Another Summer Night which with 48 points placed ninth. One then naturally asks, is the language debate a storm in a teacup?
Sant says, “The Maltese language can be used to great effect in pop songs. L-Aħħar Bidwi f'Wied il-Għasel, recently recorded by Claudio Baglioni, is an excellent example of this. Maltese is a beautiful language. However, I don't know that it would be appreciated at the Eurovision Song Contest. Still, this doesn't mean that Eurovision songs from Malta should never be in Maltese.”
Similary, Deo Grech said that “the Maltese language can indeed be a winner …but only if used in combination with traditional music, not with a ballad or a pop or rock song.”
Sant has been proposing that less conventional contestants such as the band Xtruppaw, Joe Demicoli or, more recently,Jo Zette should represent Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest.
And what do Xtruppaw have to say about the choice of language and the Eurovision song contest? The band has only released songs in Maltese as yet and consistently chooses to transliterate English words with Maltese phonetics so that “Disclaimer” becomes “Disklejmer” and “Music” becomes “Mjuzik”. Moreover, in their “Diska Cool Ghar-Radio” - A cool song for Radio, they say “Il-hasra biss, li l-kliem m’humiex bl-Ingliz Kieku l-video taghha kien jurih fuq l-MTV” – the only pity is that the lyrics are not in English, otherwise MTV would have shown its music video.
In their song “Malta”, Xtruppaw put the Eurovision song contest on the same level as the local and general elections, events of historical consequence where voting and celebration dominate.
Commenting on his own case, Sebastien Tellier reportedly said that the controversy is overblown and that he would be willing to add more French lyrics to his song because his only intention was to please audiences. He anecdotally said,”The baguette won’t taste any worse tomorrow if I sing in English.”
In this case, Morena’s Vodka is a safe, if not wise, choice of title being an adopted word in a number of languages including both Maltese and English.
For more detailed information about Malta's participation in the
Eurovision
Song Contest see EurovisionMalta.com.
© Copyright 2008 by MaltaMedia.com
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Latest update:
May 7, 2008 - 11:23:39 PM CET
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