Do singers learn different language?

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Posted: 2 years ago
#1

I have always been curious when I heard Shreya, Lata ji, Asha ji, Udit etc songs in non Hindi films and music.

Do singers actually learn the language they sing in? For eg, if Shreya sang a Tamil song, did she learn the language for it?

Or do they just recite lyrics without knowing language? How do they bring the feel in song without knowing language? They rely on translations or hire language tutors? How do they manage accent issues?

Do they even sing the song themselves or are duplicates hired who have identical voices like original singer?

Or do they use some software to make it sound like the singer him/herself sang that song and make it sound convincing?

Please educate me how music industry and playback singing in different and non native languages works.

I have seen mimicry artistes mimic exact voices of actors and dub for them in films and web series that are from artiste's non native language. Like Sumedh Shinde dubbed for Anil Kapoor and Pankaj Tripathi for some regional web series because he sounds exactly like them and can mimic their voices. So I understand how it works for actors and they do not necessarily speak or learn the language themselves when they do regional films.

How does it work for singers?

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DheeJattanDi thumbnail
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Posted: 2 years ago
#2

You're not gonna tell me ANY of the artists in Bollywood actually know Punjabi.. whereas all of them must've sang a couple of lines in Punjabi.

642126 thumbnail
Posted: 2 years ago
#3

Punjabi is a little close to Hindi so it is easy to sing. Most Bollywood wale sing it badly and make it sound like Hindi in Punjabi accent.

I was curious about songs in totally different languages like Tamil, Telugu, Bangla etc.

How the singers manage to sing in those?

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Posted: 2 years ago
#4

Most of the time, they have sheet music and transliterations in the language they are most fluent with that spell out pauses, emphases, accents, and other pronunciation notes. And/Or they hear a recording of a native singer and imitate it. And/Or some actually master a language over time.

Singers brains tend to be unique with a knack for understanding sound. https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/the-scientific-reason-singers-have-a-knack-for-language

jasminerahul thumbnail
Posted: 2 years ago
#5

Udit and shreya do not know south languages.but shreya learns the correct pronunciation to sing the song.but udit's pronunciation and accent r not right.Chitra can speak various languages.i duno whether she learnt languages purposefully or while singing in many languages gradually she learnt them.

Edited by jasminerahul - 2 years ago
1239317 thumbnail
Posted: 2 years ago
#6

Originally posted by: atominis

Punjabi is a little close to Hindi so it is easy to sing. Most Bollywood wale sing it badly and make it sound like Hindi in Punjabi accent.

I was curious about songs in totally different languages like Tamil, Telugu, Bangla etc.

How the singers manage to sing in those?

It's a good question. A lot of them keep a diction coach for languages so they are able to properly sound out different languages. The South Indians obviously have an easier time with Tamil and Telugu (especially Tamil has ties to most Indian musicians). Nowadays they have to follow what the maker of the song wants them to do - some of them can actually sing in proper Punjabi (because there's a lot of accent coaches) but the makers prefer the horrible Hindi wala type.


I remember Dilip Kumar told Lata Mangeshkar her voice sounded like dal chawal (sounds like classism) - she immediately hired a Hindi and an Urdu coach.

khan.baba thumbnail
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Posted: 2 years ago
#7

this topic made me remebered this song of sonu nigam of tamil .... i wish this should have released in hindi


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5_5VClHNlw

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