Changing regional accents in singing

Not too long ago, I wrote about a Spanish translation of the US National Anthem, analyzing the translation, but more specifically, my focus was studying how a group of people from different countries come together to work on a media project—the interest being in how their different accents interact to create a single product.
In the comments section of that post, a reader brought up the issue of how, unlike Spanish-speaking singers, English artists almost always adopted an American pronunciation even if the singers were born in England or Australia:

stormboy:
[...] Brits, for example, have tended to adopt American-style accents when singing.

Agreeing with that comment, my response was that "I was surprised to find out that Rick Astley, the singer of the famous Rick Roll song, is actually British."

While it is true that Spanish singers maintain their own native accents when singing, I have found some exceptions. The examples shown here are singers who perform regional music from various countries, and sing in the accent of where the genre generates. These are singers who do use their native accents in their musical works and in speech, but have changed their accent only to record a few selected songs.

The one piece that prompted me to write about this topic is a recording of a song performed by the Spaniard Raphael. A performance from 1968, Que nadie sepa mi sufrir, it is a song classified as a vals peruano (Peruvian waltz).

Raphael speaks with a Central Spanish accent; that is, he possesses the apical-alveolar /s/ in his speech, as well as the phoneme [θ]. Yet, in this performance, he has none of those Central Spanish traits. Instead, he has what would be classified as a South American accent, or it could even be taken for a Southern Spanish one (see various posts on La Terremoto). Here, his intent must be to connect to the song in a more genuine way, and in the process leaving behind his native accent as a Spaniard.
He clearly pronounces post-vocalic /s/ as [h], and [θ] is rendered as simply [s].

Some transcriptions showing these changes in his accent in contrast to his native one:

• No te extrañes [no tɛh'tɾanes]
• corazón [koɾa'son]
• tus lindos ojos negros [tʊh 'lindo 'soxɔh 'neɣɾos]
• esas cosas raras de la vida [esah 'kosah 'raɾah ðe la viða]
• hiciste [i'siste]
• pagaste [pa'ɣahte]
• sincero [sin'sero]

In another recording from the same era, this time performing a Mexican song, Raphael retains all the pronunciation features heard in the last piece, a South American song — there is not a trace that can be identified as a "Spanish (Spaniard)" accent by the listener.

In a more recent example, Raphael performs a Mexican song a duo with another Spanish singer, Bunbury. Bunbury's accent is definitely that of a Spaniard. Raphael, however, once again, matching the origin of the piece, changes his accent to one resembling a Latin American one—or more precisely Mexican. One example from this duo is Bunbury pronouncing corazón as expected from his accent, [koɾa'θon], but Raphael singing with seseo, pronouncing comenzar and hace as [komen'sar] and [a'se].

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On the other side of all this are Spaniards who have recorded Mexican songs and who maintain their native Spanish accents, unlike Raphael has done in the previous examples.

Natalia from La Quinta Estación is a Spaniard who began her career in Mexico singing in her native accent. In the following song, we hear Natalia singing a very Mexican-sounding rhythm with her very Spanish pronunciation, i.e.with distinción, she uses both [s] and [θ].

Concha Buika, another Spaniard, born in from Mallorca, recorded a Mexican piece retaining her Spanish accent.

The most notable Spaniard to sing Mexican music is the late Rocío Dúrcal. She sang in all kinds of Mexican rhythms, including Mariachi, all while keeping her very characteristic Spanish accent, which not surprisingly earned her the nickname la española más mexicana (the most Mexican Spaniard).

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All in all, changing one's accent when singing can be thought of as part of the performance, as one more element in the act to entertain the audience. Whether the musical number merits altering one's pronunciation is up to the artist, or perhaps to the marketing executives for the more commercial recordings (this would seem to apply more to English-speaking singers, referenced in the opening of this post).

Briefly touching on the same phenonemon in other languages, in Portuguese, I have encountered a band from the Açores, Portugal whose members sing Bossa Nova in a Brazilian accent—a feat much more complicated than switching from a Spanish to a Latin American accent, as the number of pronunciation changes involved is much greater in the Portuguese case. In French, there is the famous Celine Dion who is criticized at times by her fellow Québécois for sounding too French when facing the French media—in other words, changing her accent to sound more "European" and less Québécois French.