Subtlety of Song

As a native English speaker, the growing obsession I have notice in my workplace with regard the embracing all things English, is becoming increasinly more annoying. Swedish is a great language and why they choose to hop over it to a language which in many cases isn't appropriate, is just plain irritating.

A speaker of a second language will never be able to compete on an equal footing with someone who has been born into the same language. Things like context, and subtle playing on words, are not something that you learn in a classroom. Nor is it something that you can "pick up over time". It's something inherent, and it's obvious when a person doesn't have it. The recent Swedish qualifying competition for the Eurovision Song Contest was a classic example. If you ever want a definitive list of weird and out-of-context English phrases, watch Melodifestivalen. First off I will say that they are perfectly correct with their English, grammatically. Can't fault the Swedish songwriters for that. The problem is that they go way too far beyond their abilities with their use of the language. Trying to become English, and that's not only sad but is destined for failure. Instead of trying too hard to be too clever, the songwriters need to realise that no one really listens to the text anyway. It's 99% about the music and melody. How else would a song about a "Hollaback Girl" ever have seen the light of day ? Does anyone know or care what Waterloo was really all about ? Where the Swedish songwriters are falling down this year is that they have toned down the music and raised the profile of the text. Huge mistake. Why hide your strength and highlight your weakness ? Just dumb. When Loreen won with her English language song last year, barely 25% of the lyrics were audible. She won on the sound of her voice, and the melody of the song. It's a simple formula. The song which will represent Sweden this year is performed by a guy who is ok. He's not going to set the world on fire, but he can hold a note. Sadly I think that the very very weak English lyrics are going to destroy his presentation. It actually started off ok, telling a bit of a story. I had some hopes for it. A little over a minute into the song, the songwriters had clearly run out of things to say. With 2 minutes still to fill in, they decided to stuff it full of every English cliche they could think of. Regardless of whether those cliches and phrases were something that a native English speaker would use together or in that situation. That's when you spot a non-native speaker. To be fair, it wasn't the biggest criminal act of the night. That honour went to one of the weirdest English language cliche filled songs of all time which made no sense from the title through to the welcomed closing notes. Cringeworthy. Our suspicions with regard to the winning entry were confirmed when they were judged by musical panels from various European countries. The song scored quite well by non-English speaking countries. Catchy tune and a guy who could hold a note. All you need. However, when judged by the true English speaking countries, the song got exactly what it deserved, barely scoring a point. All the good musical work was undone by English lyrics which were not only wrong and inappropriate but completely overshadowed the rest of the performance. I think that Sweden should have the courage to go back to basics. They have great artists who sing great songs, in Swedish. It should be about presenting the country in the best light possible, and that's not through cheesy, cheap, and tacky lyrics which they clearly don't understand.