Going by the title of Nuestro Himno (Our Anthem), it served as a tool in a pro-immigration movement by the Hispanic community in the US. It incorporated the voices of several singers from various countries, featuring the Puerto Ricans Carlos Ponce and Olga Tañón, and the Cuban-American Pitbull, as well several Mexican singers, such as Kalimba, and Gloria Trevi, among others — the various Spanish accents are clearly distinguishable in the recording.
Controversial in some ways, former President George W. Bush expressed that the anthem should be performed in English:
Within hours of its release the song had done what protest songs everywhere aim to do: it had annoyed people. It was no surprise to see bloggers sounding off, but it was something of a surprise to see President Bush weighing in. When asked about "Nuestro Himno," he said, "I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English."
While it is a Latin American work, the Spanish lyrics make use of the verbal forms corresponding to the pronoun vosotros. In everyday speech being an aspect relegated to most of Spain, in Latin America, vosotros finds its way in citations from the bible, religious chants, medieval theatrical scenes, and other instances, generally adding an archaic taste to what's being said by taking the place of the more usual ustedes.
Spanish
Verso 1Amanece, ¿lo véis? A la luz de la aurora ¿lo que tanto aclamamos la noche al caer? Sus estrellas sus franjas flotaban ayer en el fiero combate en señal de victoria, fulgor de lucha, al paso de la libertad. Por la noche decían: "¡Se va defendiendo!" Coro Oh, ¡decid! ¿Despliega aún su hermosura estrellada sobre tierra de libres, la bandera sagrada? |
| English Verse 1 It's sunrise. Do you see by the light of the dawn What we proudly hailed last nightfall? Its stars, its stripes yesterday streamed above fierce combat a symbol of victory the glory of battle, the march toward liberty. Throughout the night, they proclaimed: "We will defend it!" Chorus Tell me! Does its starry beauty still wave above the land of the free, the sacred flag? |
4 comments:
Interesting that the accents are identifiable even when singing. This is often not the case in English, where Brits, for example, have tended to adopt American-style accents when singing. Even non-native speakers of English can be hard to spot when singing in English.
Yes, what you say about songs in English is something I had observed as well. As an example, I was surprised to find out that Rick Astley, the singer of the famous Rick Roll song, is actually British.
And many (not all) British singers do this, going as far as adopting a rhotic pronunciation in their singing.
This generally does not occur in Spanish, unless for some reason, the singer is trying to portray someone from another country, of course. Speaking of which, I started working on a post that discusses a similar issue with regards to music and accents (saved as a draft right now), now that you brought it up indirectly through English, I'll finish it and post it soon.
As for how the Spanish accents are identifiable in this song, there are certain sounds that give them away; for instance, usually n and s are good markers, since the preceding vowel is also affected.
At 2:15 in the video, a guest Haitian singer comes in with his line, and, his accent is immediately recognized as non-native — his pronunciation is a little off.
I look forward to that post.
I was wondering how American British singers who adopt this style sound to American ears, and was thinking that perhaps rhoticity was one area that may let them down (not that trying to sound American is the ultimate goal). But your comments suggest otherwise. I think Britpop was a conscious move towards a more British sound - unsurprisingly.
Interesting that n and s are good markers - s doesn't surprise me but n does.
Re: British singers. By contrast, a singer like Lily Allen keeps her very southern English accent in her songs. Those t's rendered as glottal stops are the most notable feature, but the vowel qualities and her native non-rhoticity are all there. Listen, for example, to this sample of hers, a remake of the American Britney Spears "Womanizer".
On the other side of all this, I know there are American singers who possess a rhotic accent in normal speech, but who will drop r's when singing (I imagine, because it makes certain syllables easier to sing and sustain). Speaking of Britney Spears, she does it herself (she sings "suckah", "womanizah", "you ah" [for "you are"], etc).
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