The Global 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

Juan Gabriel: Así Fue / That’s How It Went
Lyrics & music: Juan Gabriel
Mexico, Spanish, 1998

One of the most prolific and renowned Latin artists of all time, Gabriel wrote some 1,800 songs and sold 40 million records during his lifetime. He originally wrote Así Fue for the Spanish singer Isabel Pantoja, whose 1988 recording was a huge success on both sides of the Atlantic. Gabriel didn’t release a cover of his own song until 1998, when it won many awards. (On his 2015 album Los Dúo, Gabriel and Pantoja performed the song together). The song, which has also been covered by numerous other artists, portrays a protagonist telling a former lover why they can never be together again.
I’m sorry to make you cry/I’m sorry to make you suffer/But it’s not in my hands/I’ve fallen in love/I’m sorry to cause you pain/I’m sorry to say goodbye/How can I tell her that I love you when she asks me?/I told her that I don’t/I’m honest with her and with you/I love her, and I have forgotten about you/If you wish, we can still be friends/Don’t hold on to something impossible…/You know well that it wasn’t my fault/You left without saying a thing/And even if I cried like never before/I was still in love with you/But you left, and if you were going to return, you never told me/That’s how it was/That’s how it went

Rihanna, feat. Jay-Z: Umbrella
Lyrics & music: Jay-Z, Tricky Stewart, Terius Nash, Kuk Harrell
Barbados/U.S., English, 2007

Before Umbrella became a global success, topping music charts in 17 countries, it struggled to find a home. Writers Stewart, Nash and Harrell first pitched it to Britney Spears, whose management team turned it down (apparently Spears never heard it). They then tried British artist Taio Cruz, who liked the song but couldn’t convince his record company to produce it. Pressed for time, the writers essentially shopped the song simultaneously to Mary J. Blige and Rihanna. Since Rihanna had a new album due much sooner than Blige, she got Umbrella—and her performance covered the world. Suddenly she wasn’t a rising pop artist but a superstar, on her way to becoming one of the leading vocal artists of the twenty-first century. Jay-Z’s featured vocals, which he wrote himself, were icing on the cake.
When the sun shines, we’ll shine together/Told you I’ll be here forever/Said I’ll always be a friend/Took an oath I’m-a stick it out till the end/Now that it’s raining more than ever, know that we’ll still have each other/You can stand under my umbrella/You can stand under my umbrella/These fancy things/Will never come in between/You’re part of my entity/Here for infinity/When the war has taken its part/When the world has dealt its cards/If the hand is hard/Together, we’ll mend your heart because…

Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin: Je t’aime… moi non plus / I Love You… Me Neither
Lyrics & music: Serge Gainsbourg
France, French, 1968

Gainsbourg was a larger-than-life figure in French music and his stature has only grown since his untimely death (at age 62) in 1991. He wrote more than 500 songs and was especially noted for the wordplay of his lyrics. He composed Je t’aime… in 1967 and sang it with Brigitte Bardot, but didn’t release the song. By 1969 he was in a relationship with Jane Birkin and re-recorded it with her; the song was a seething success in France, became the first foreign-language hit to reach number one in the U.K. and was banned in several countries because of its sexual nature. Many years later, Birkin told The Telegraph, “I only sang it because I didn’t want anybody else to sing it [with Serge]”.
I love you, I love you/Oh yes, I love you/Me neither/Oh my love/Like a vacillating wave/I go, I come and I go/Between your loins/I come and I go/Between your loins/And I hold myself back/I love you, I love you/Oh yes, I love you/Me neither/Oh my love/You are the wave/I am a desert island/You go, you come and you go/Between my loins/And I’m joining you/I love you, I love you/(Heavy breathing interlude)/You go, you come and you go/Between my loins/And I’m joining you/I love you, I love you/Oh yes, I love you/Physical love, for its own sake/I go, I come and I go/Between your loins/I come and I go/I hold myself back…/Me neither…/No! Come! Now!

Bonnie Raitt: I Can’t Make You Love Me
Lyrics & music: Mike Reid, Allen Shamblin
U.S., English, 1991

Bonnie Raitt has earned 14 Grammy Awards (as of 2024), and although she received critical acclaim early in her career, which began with her first album in 1971, it wasn’t until her tenth album (Nick of Time, in 1989) that her commercial success matched her glowing reviews. Nothing sealed her legacy more than I Can’t Make You Love Me, which appears not only on numerous “greatest songs of all time” lists but, notably, number eight on Mojo magazine’s “100 Greatest Songs of All Time” list. Raitt recorded the song in a single studio take, observing that the song was so sad she couldn’t recapture the emotion. In an interview on NPR some years later, she said, “I Can’t Make You Love Me is no picnic. I love that song, and so does the audience. It’s almost a sacred moment when you share that depth of pain.”
Turn down the lights, turn down the bed/Turn down these voices inside my head/Lay down with me, tell me no lies/Just hold me close, don’t patronize/Don’t patronize me/’Cause I can’t make you love me if you don’t/You can’t make your heart feel somethin’ it won’t/Here in the dark, in these final hours/I will lay down my heart and I’ll feel the power/But you won’t, no you won’t/’Cause I can’t make you love me, if you don’t/I’ll close my eyes, then I won’t see/The love you don’t feel when you’re holdin’ me/Mornin’ will come, and I’ll do what’s right/Just give me till then to give up this fight/And I will give up this fight

Mahsa Vahdat: Khiyaal e Khat e to / خیال خط تو / Vanishing Lines
Lyrics: Hafez/Music: Mahsa Vahdat
Iran, Persian, 2015

Born in Tehran and now based in the San Francisco Bay area, Mahsa Vahdat is an internationally acclaimed singer, composer and musician whose work is rooted in Iranian classical and regional music. Throughout her career she has defied bans on music and solo performances by women imposed by Iranian authorities; she is also a voice teacher for a generation of young Iranian women singers. Vanishing Lines was written by the 14th century lyric poet Hafez, whose body of work is regarded as one of highest pinnacles of Persian literature; in addition to later Persian poets, he also inspired the likes of Goethe and Emerson. The song appears on Vahdat’s 2015 solo album Traces of an Old Vineyard, as well as on Placeless, a 2019 collaboration with singer Marjan Vahdat (her sister) and Kronos Quartet.
A life ring is my longing for you/I fear not drowning in wine/Advise the barrel to keep the air locked, for the tavern is in ruins/My beloved is gone and in my tearful eyes/Her image can only be drawn in vanishing lines/Wake up my eyes for there is great peril/In this continuous flood of tears at the doors of sleep/The mountains and plains are full and verdant/This world is but a passing current,
let us waste no time

King Sunny Adé & His African Beats: Ja Funmi / Fight for Me
Lyrics & music: King Sunny Adé
Nigeria, Yoruba, 1982

The title isn’t career hype: King Sunny Adé was born into Yoruba royalty. He opted for a music career but never gave up on his identity or his leadership heritage. He is a singer, songwriter and musician—and one of the most influential African music artists of all time. Ja Funmi is from his internationally acclaimed album Juju Music. The song stresses the importance of tradition and dedication to roots, using head and body as an expression of the bond between the creator in the spiritual dimension and the farmer in the earthly realm.
My head is held high/Fight for me/My body is strong/Fight for me/My creator, please don’t forget me/The head of the farmers fights for the farmers…

Aurelio Martinez: Yalifu / Pelican
Lyrics & music: Aurelio Martinez, Ivan Duran
Honduras, Garifuna, 2016

Aurelio Martinez is the leading cultural ambassador of the Garifuna—a people of mixed African and Amerindian heritage speaking an Indigenous Caribbean language. The Garifuna emerged on the island of St. Vincent but were eventually expelled by the British in the eighteenth century, shipped to the Central American coast, eventually spreading from Belize to Nicaragua. Aurelio (who uses only his first name professionally) is a singer-songwriter and musician, and also a former Honduran congressman. He was a protegé and partner of the pioneering Garifuna artist Andy Palacio, from Belize, whose leadership mantle Aurelio inherited when Palacio died. In Yalifu, Aurelio highlights a more recent Garifuna migration—for economic opportunity—imagining himself as a pelican flying to see his father who has gone to work in New York.
Father, where are you, my father?/I am waiting for you/Pelican, give me your wings so I can fly there/The sun sets over the horizon and I am waiting for you, Father/The wind is blowing. I am here and you have still not arrived/I am here on the seashore, waiting for you/Father, where are you? Out at sea and I am here on the shore/Waiting for you, oh father! Where are you?/Oh, Father! How sad I am here in the afternoon/Sister, Mother, where is my father? I am waiting for him

Doris Monteiro: Conversa de Botequim / Bar Chatter
Lyrics: Noel Rosa/Music: Vadico
Brazil, Portuguese, 1971

Though he died of tuberculosis at the age of 26, Noel Rosa left a lasting imprint on Brazilian music as a singer and songwriter. His pivotal contribution was to sprinkle samba’s Afro-Brazilian roots with urban wit and social commentary. An accident at birth left him with a disfigured chin, which may have contributed to his habit of hanging out in dimly lit bars and cafés, where he became a keen observer of Rio de Janeiro’s low society of the 1920s and 1930s. Conversa de Botequim, one of his most beloved songs, features a patron who acts like he is the bar’s owner. Though performed mainly by male artists, the song gained a wonderfully fresh—and equally entitled—angle of vision in the 1971 version by the singer-actress Doris Monteiro.
Waiter, do me a quick favor and bring me/A good-sized coffee with milk that isn’t reheated/Some hot bread with loads of better/A napkin and an ice-cold glass of water/Shut the door to the right, carefully/Because I can’t be exposed to the sun/And ask the customer at the next table the final score of today’s soccer match/If you keep cleaning the table/I won’t get up, nor will I pay the bill/Go ask your boss/For a pen and some ink/For an envelope and card/And a cigar to shoo away mosquitos…/Oh, and waiter, lend me some money, ‘cause I left mine with my bookie

Soul Flower Union/Mononoke Summit: Mangetsu no Yube / 満月の夕 / Full Moon Evening
Lyrics: Takashi Nakagawa/Music: Takashi Nakagawa, Hiroshi Yamaguchi
Japan, Japanese, 1995

Soul Flower Union (SFU) was founded in Osaka in 1993 as a world music rock band incorporating elements of Japanese, Okinawan, Chinese and Korean sounds, blended with Celtic, swing jazz and psychedelic touches. Two years later they launched the acoustic side project Mononoke Summit, which included some former members of the original band. Mononoke Summit went unplugged because they did dozens of street concerts for victims of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, which killed more than 6,000 people, destroyed or irreparably damaged 400,000 buildings and caused widespread power outages. In the course of the open-air concerts they wrote Full Moon Evening, dedicated to the survivors. The concerts also raised the band’s profile, allowing them to set up a fund to help elderly and disabled quake victims.
The wind blows from the harbor, wrapping around the fire’s ruins/So sad, all I can do is to laugh/Dry winter evening/Across time’s border/Standing in the city with a thousand miles of debris/Sound of a pendulum in its heart/Seems to echo “Now” in mine/Shiba, a dog who lost his owner, plays on the road/Unleash your life and laugh at everything/Dry winter evening/Yasahoya sings loud, dances until morning without sleeping/Yasahoya, surround the bonfire, the whiteness of the breath you breathe/Unleash your life and laugh at a full moon evening

Divanhana: Emina
Lyrics & music: Aleksa Šantić
Bosnia, Serbo-Croatian, 2016

Divanhana is dedicated to sevdah, the urban traditional music of Bosnia & Herzegovina. Established in 2009 by students from the Sarajevo Music Academy, the group enriches its repertoire with classical, jazz and pop elements and mixes its trad repertoire with original compositions. Emina is based on real people. It takes place in the old town of Mostar, where the poet Aleksa Šantić lived. Next door to his sister’s house lived a Muslim family and in the neighbors’ garden he saw the beautiful Emina Sefić, whose father was a prominent imam. The song’s lyrics were first published in a literary journal in 1902 and the became the basis for one of the most popular sevdalinka songs of all time, performed by many artists over the past century. In 2010 a bronze statue of Emina was unveiled in Mostar. The song also has the distinction of touching all three of Bosnia’s communities: It is a poem by a Serb writer, focused on a Bosniak Muslim woman, both living in a neighborhood that is today inhabited mostly by Croats. For this reason—and for the song’s cultural importance—its text has been proposed (as reported on the news site Balkan Insight) as the lyrics for Bosnia’s wordless national anthem. Postscript: Emina’s great-granddaughter, Alma Ferović is a renowned Bosnian soprano, having collaborated with Elton John and A.R. Rahman, among others.
Last night when I came back from the warm hammam/I passed by the old imam’s garden/And there in the garden, in the shadow of a jasmine/Emina stood with an ewer in her hand…/Wind blew from the branches, and down her stunning back/It untwined her thick braids/Her hair started smelling, like blue hyacinths/And to me a storm started inside my head…/The old poet has died, Emina has died/The empty garden of jasmine was left behind/The pitcher is broken/The flowers have withered/The song about Emina, will never die

Yvonne Chaka Chaka: Umqombothi / African Beer
Lyrics & music: Sello “Chicco” Twala, Attie van Wyk
South Africa, Xhosa/English, 1988

Yvonne Chaka Chaka is a South African icon, a singer-songwriter, humanitarian, entrepreneur and educator who was raised by a single mother in the era of apartheid. Nelson Mandela said that her songs helped sustain him in prison, Miriam Makeba called her “my baby,” and Hugh Masekela called her “my mad niece.” Umqombothi, her most popular song, is a tribute to the South African beer made from maize, maize malt, sorghum malt and yeast.
I work hard every day/To make my beer/Wake up early every morning/To please my people with African beer/I make sure the fire burns/To make my beer/My special beer/Umqombothi is African beer/You’re a real spitfire/I work hard to make them happy/Every weekend/Makes them party to the rhythm/Makes them dance with magic beer/I wanna make you happy (Umqombothi)/I wanna make you smile (Umqombothi)/I wanna make you dance (Umqombothi)/Dance, I’ll make sure there’s a party/Where they drink my special beer/Umqombothi is magic beer/Umqombothi is African beer

Romano Drom: But Te Trajiz / May You Live Long
Lyrics & music: Antal Kovács
Hungary, Romani, 2019

The quintet Romano Drom are guardians of traditional Olah Gypsy music and also the vanguard of contemporary Hungarian Roma sound, mixing old standards with new compositions. Led by Antal Kovács, who founded the ensemble with his late father in 1999, they sing love and drinking songs, dances and ballads of hardship, often punctuated with vocal jousts and rolling onomatopoeia. But Te Trajiz, from their 2019 album Give Me Wine, offers tender harmonies honoring a graying matriarch, surrounded by her adoring offspring.
When you were young, there were none more beautiful than you/Now your hair has turned grey, you are getting on in years nicely/You have raised your children/The children are adults now, may find your joy in them!/May they take care of you and may you live long beside them/In great tranquility

Totó la Momposina: El Pescador / The Fisherman
Lyrics & music: Jose Barros, Sonia Bazanta [Tóto la Mompasina]
Colombia, Spanish, 1993

A fourth-generation musician, Tóto la Momposina is a folk singer-songwriter who combines Afro-Colombian, Spanish and Indigenous elements in her music. She has won three Latin Grammy Awards—including the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013—and numerous other honors. In 1982 she was part of the Colombian cultural delegation that traveled to Stockholm to perform at the ceremony awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature to Gabriel García Márquez. Composed in traditional Colombian-Caribbean cumbia style, El Pescador is a joyous ode to the fishermen of Colombia’s rivers and coasts.
As the current rises/With oars and nets/The wooden canoe/Heads for the shore/(The fisherman) talks to the moon/(The fisherman) talks to the beach/(The fisherman) has no fortune/Only his nets/The fishermen return/With their cargo to sell/To the port of their loves/The moon waits smiling/With its magical splendor/The arrival of the brave/And cheerful fishermen

Lulu Santos: Como Uma Onda / Like a Wave
Lyrics & music: Lulu Santos, Nelson Motta
Brazil, Portuguese, 1983

Prior to his career as a singer-songwriter, guitarist and star of MPB, rock, pop, funk and other styles, Lulu Santos was a journalist and music critic. He wrote Like a Wave (subtitle: “Zen Surfing”) with his frequent writing partner, the journalist-songwriter-producer Nelson Motta. According to Motta, the lyrics were inspired by Jorge Luis Borges and the book Zen in the Art of Archery, by the German philosopher Eugen Herrigel.
Someday nothing will again be/The same way it was/Everything passes/Everything will always pass/Life drifts away/Like the sea/Coming and going away incessantly/All that we see now is not/The same as we saw it a second ago/Everything in this world changes, all the time/There’s no use in running away/Or lying to yourself now/There’s so much life outside/Just like a wave on the sea/Just like a wave on the sea/Just like a wave in the sea

Woodie Guthrie: This Land Is Your Land
Lyrics & music: Woodie Guthrie
U.S., English, 1944

Guthrie was one of the most influential folk singer-songwriters in American history, a bridge between the old American ballads and traditional English and Scottish folk music of the nineteenth century and the folk revival of the mid-twentieth. From Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen and Jerry Garcia and well beyond, dozens of pivotal folk, rock, country and punk artists, in America and overseas, acknowledged him as a major influence. Guthrie said he wrote This Land Is Your Land because he was tired of hearing Irving Berlin’s God Bless America, preferring an anthem that stressed equality, as in his key lyric, “This land was made for you and me.” The song has had numerous cover versions, especially in the 1960s. It has also sparked more than a dozen foreign versions, from Canada to Turkey, from Sweden to Guyana, with lyricists substituting local geography and landmarks for those mentioned in the original American version.
This land is your land/This land is my land/From California/To the New York island/From the Redwood Forest/To the Gulf Stream waters/This land was made for you and me/As I went walking/That ribbon of highway/I saw above me that endless skyway/I saw below me that golden valley/This land was made for you and me/I roamed and rambled/And I′ve followed my footsteps/To the sparkling sands of/Her diamond deserts/And all around me/A voice was sounding/This land was made for you and me

Aya Nakamura: Djadja / Liar
Lyrics & music: Aya Danioko [Aya Nakamura], Le Side
France/Mali, French, 2018

Born in Mali, Aya Danioko adopted France as her homeland and took her professional Japanese surname from a TV superhero character—and it fits her superstar status. Raised in a traditional griot family, her music is the height of modernity. She became an internet star before she ever released an album and she’s now the most listened-to French female artist on Spotify. Her style blends Afrobeat, zouk, R&B and pop, and her lyrics—like those of daring songwriters before her—either undermine or enrich the French language, depending on who you ask. Djadja, from her eponymous second studio album, is a smackdown aimed at a trash-talking ex.
Hello papi, what’s up?/I’m hearing atrocious things about me behind my back/Apparently I’m chasing you?/What’s wrong with you, you must be crazy/What did you expect, that we wouldn’t see each other again?/I could put you on blast if I wanted to, but that’s not my thing/According to the rumors, you had me in your bed/Oh Djadja [liar]/There’s no way Djadja/I’m not your bitch Djadja/Claiming your killing it in catchana*/You’re thinking of me, I’m thinking about making money/I’m not your mom, I won’t lecture you/You’re talking about me, there’s nothing to say/You wanted to get me but you didn’t know how/You were playing a role, you’ll end up in hell…
*slang term for a sex position

Pussy Riot: Чайка / Chaika
Lyrics & music: Pussy Riot
Russia, Russian, 2016

Wiyaala: Village Sex
Lyrics & music: Noella Wiyaala
Ghana, Sissala/English, 2018

Just as Candace Bushnell created Sex and the City, singer-songwriter Noella Wiyaala describes sex and the village. The song, lead track from her album Sissala Goddess, mixes music and attitude. Wiyaala’s outlook balances respect for some traditions, like pre-marital abstinence and deference to elders, with advocacy of modern ideals, such as women’s rights, including comfort with their sexuality. Her style blends West African folk, Afropop and arena rock. Wiyaala’s surname means “the doer,” which describes both her music and her humanitarian work, from making her own performance dresses and jewelry to serving as a UNICEF ambassador.
Katinbajaga is excited because of vagina/Whatever they say/Kintin is very quiet/They’re talking about vagina/And he gets so excited/Wow! Wow! Wow!/Katinbajaga is excited because of vagina/Not because of pounded yam/ Not because of corn food/Not because of rice/Not because of money/Not because of beer! But Vagina!/They say the thing is sweet, oooh/They say the think is nice, ohhh/Sweet beyond sugar/Sweet beyond toffee/Sweet beyond chocolate/Sweet beyond toffee

Abba: Dancing Queen
Lyrics & music: Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Stig Anderson
Sweden, English, 1976

ABBA is Sweden’s greatest musical export and one of the most successful music acts of all time, and at the pinnacle of their massive output is Dancing Queen, a global hit that reached number-one status from Ireland to Australia, the United States to the Soviet Union, Portugal to South Africa. It also holds a unique number-one distinction. In 1995 the song received the first International Standard Musical Work Code: T-000.000.001-0.
Friday night and the lights are low/Looking out for a place to go/Where they play the right music, getting in the swing/You come to look for a king/Anybody could be that guy/Night is young and the music’s high/With a bit of rock music, everything is fine/You’re in the mood for a dance/And when you get the chance/You are the dancing queen/Young and sweet, only seventeen/Dancing queen/Feel the beat from the tambourine, oh yea/You can dance, you can jive/Having the time of your life/Ooh, see that girl, watch that scene/Digging the dancing queen

Yusuf Güney: Heder Oldun Aşkına / I’m Lost Because of Your Love
Lyrics & music: Rafet El Roman
Türkiye, Turkish, 2009

Güney was born in Trabzon, on the Black Sea coast in northeastern Turkey; he moved to England with his family when he was 14. He has frequently collaborated with Rafet El Roman, another expatriot Turkish singer-songwriter. They worked together on Güney’s 2009 debut album, from which Heder Oldun Aşkına was a breakout hit.
Should I absolutely die for you?/I am wasted from loving you/For whom is the longing, for whom is the nostalgia/Can’t you love, have you no heart?/You disappear for no reason/Then you offer regrets and apologies/To your attitudes I have neither reason nor response/Either end it or let me go/The thing called “love” ends somewhere/And when it ends, it hurts

Thanh Lam: Dong Song Lo Dang / Innocent River
Lyrics & music: Viet Anh
Vietnam, Vietnamese, 2009

Gundecha Brothers: Navkar Mantra / नवकर मन्त्र
Lyrics: Traditional/Music: Ramakant Gundecha, Umakant Gundecha
India, Sanskrit, 2006

The Navkar Mantra is the most significant mantra in Jainism and one of the oldest in continuous practice, dating from between 200 and 100 BCE. The Gundecha Brothers (Umakant and Ramakant) were a singing duo of the dhrupad genre, the oldest of the major vocal styles of classical Hindustani music. After Ramakant’s death in 2019, his son Anant replaced him in the duo.
I bow to the Arihants/I bow to the Siddhas/I bow to the Acharyas/I bow to the Upadhyayas/I bow to all of the Sages of the world/The five-fold salutation completely destroys all sins/And among all auspicious mantras, it is indeed the foremost auspicious one

Steve Earle: Galway Girl
Lyrics & music: Steve Earle
Ireland/U.S., English, 2000

Atahualpa Yupanqui: Los Ejes de Mi Carreta / The Axles of My Wagon
Lyrics & music: Atahualpa Yupanqui
Argentina, Spanish, 1960

Born Héctor Roberto Chavero Aramburu, Atahualpa Yupanqui was of Quechua and Basque origins and he adopted his stage name in homage of two legendary Inca kings. As much an ethnographer as an artist, he became a towering figure of twentieth century Argentine folk music, though because of his leftist political activities he spent long periods in exile, first in Uruguay and later in France. Los Ejes de Mi Carreta is a song in milonga style that draws on the gaucho experience.
Because I don’t grease the axles of my wagon/They call me careless/But if I like the way they sound, why should I grease them?/Just following the road is monotonous/The journey is long and there’s nothing to entertain me/I don’t want the silence/Because I have nothing left to think about/I had, but that was long ago/Now I no longer think/The axles of my wagon/I’m never going to grease them

Siti Nurhaliza: Bukan Cinta Biasa / No Ordinary Love
Lyrics & music: Siti Nurhaliza
Malaysia, Malay, 2003

Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore essentially constitute a single music market with a population of more than 300 million. And within this culture zone Siri Nurhaliza Tarudin is the most successful musical artist, a singer, songwriter, actress and entrepreneur, having won more than 300 local and international music awards. She performs in a variety styles and in addition to Malay has recorded in English Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Javanese. Bukan Cinta Biasa was the lead track to E.M.A.S., her ninth studio album.
There are so many stories/Some of happiness, some of sorrow/The love I wish to write/Is no ordinary love/Two different beliefs/The problems aren’t the same/I don’t want him to doubt/Why do they always ask?/My love isn’t a piece of paper/My love is the same vibration/No need to be forced/No need to be searched/Because I know there are answers/If I could change everything/So that no one could be hurt…/But that’s impossible/I am helpless/Just remain and believe there are answers

Wiera Gran: Trzy listy / Three Letters
Lyrics: Jerzy Jurandot/Music: Leon Boruński
Poland/France, Polish, 1955

Trzy Listy is a dramatic song, consisting of three drafts of a letter a woman is writing to her former lover. But the wrenching lyrics are no match for the drama that surrounds the song itself. Composed by Leon Boruński with lyrics by Jerzy Jurandot, the song was scheduled to debut as part of a Warsaw theater revue on September 3, 1939. But Hitler’s troops invaded Poland on September 1, putting an end to normal life and also lowering the curtain on a golden age of Polish song and cabaret. Under Nazi rule, Boruński and Jurandot, both Jewish, were confined in the Warsaw Ghetto, where for a brief time culture continued; in the ghetto they met the singer and actress Wiera Gran, who finally gave the song its opening performance, providing entertainment to a community living on borrowed time. Boruński  was murdered by the Nazis, but Gran and Jurandot survived the war. In 1955 Gran finally recorded Trzy Listy in Paris.
It was very late/My God, what does it matter?/I simply didn’t notice the passing of time/I was sitting and thinking, how to write to him/and that I’m writing for the last time…/Farewell, I know everything/You won’t see me again, if you’re unhappy with me/Please burn this letter, so that it doesn’t fall into her hands/Burn it and forget me/Just tell me why/In return for so many days…/How could you…/Farewell, but know one thing/I hate you much more than I once loved you/And then I went through the letter, slowly and carefully, and tore it up/Oh, God, no!/I can’t say it like this!/Don’t let him know I’m suffering so much…

Ejigayehu “Gigi” Shibabaw, feat. Abyssinia Infinite: Gela / ️ገላ️ / My Dear One
Lyrics & music: Ejigayehu Shibabaw
Ethiopia, Amharic, 2001

Traditionally, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church didn’t allow women to sing, but that changed in the 1970s, right around the time Gigi Shibabaw was born, and she learned to sing in church. But her father didn’t approve and so she left home to pursue her music dreams, going first to Kenya and eventually arriving in San Francisco. She produced a few albums for the Ethiopian expatriate community and Gigi—her eponymous breakthrough album— in 2001. Next came Zion Roots, with her band Abyssinia Infinite, and several family members singing backup vocals. Afrobeats Worldwide praised the music on Zion Roots as “textured and elegant, complimenting rather than crowding Gigi’s searing, evocative voice,” adding that “she shifts easily from a whispering purr to a full-throated wail and, in the process, [her] vivid and alluring personality emerges.” One of the standout tracks on Zion Roots is Gela, a love song, that opens with the sound of an Ethiopian lute.
You are like a bird flying over the countryside/I stare at you, I can’t take my eyes off you/Wherever you go, I’ll follow you/My love is like a river that flows forever/Gela, Gela, Gela, Gela, Gela/You’ve got my heart, even if I resist you our love is an unbroken bond/You are the sun that brightens my life… I can’t live without you

Elaha Soroor and Kefaya: Charsi / چرسی / Hey, Weed Smoker
Lyrics: Elaha Soroor/Music: Giuliano Modarelli
Afghanistan/U.K., Persian, 2019

Though she grew up in a conservative Afghan family that found refuge in Iran, Elaha Soroor was destined for independence. She was 17 when the family returned to Afghanistan and she became a journalist, taught girls how to read, advocated for women’s rights and became a singer of Persian folk and pop songs. Even in the relatively liberal era before the return of the Taliban, smoking marijuana, partying and generally having a good time in a mischievous way was something only Afghan men could do. Women were and remain excluded and forbidden to take part to any kind of expression of hedonism and pleasure. In Charsi, Soroor (who now lives in London) challenges custom by inviting a man to smoke together and enjoy life in an equal way.
Hey, weed smoker with the come-to-bed eyes/You’re high as a kite!/Listen to your lover; I need to tell you something/You’re not my owner, handing out orders/And I’m not the napkin in your pocket/On which you can wipe your face any time you want/Let’s get high together on our love/I will show you what we can do as equals/Forget the macho stuff/It won’t help us to be happy together/Forget other people’s rules, and let’s drink!/Hey weed-smoker with the come-to-bed eyes/You’re high as a kite/Listen to your lover/Don’t listen to the mullah’s empty words/Let’s take to the dance floor like whirling dervishes/Doing religion the way drunks do!

Kanazoé Orkestra: Fantanya / Poverty
Lyrics & music: Seydou Diabaté
Burkina Faso, Dioula, 2016

Seydou Diabaté, known professionally as “Kanazoé,” was born into a griot family in a village in Burkina Faso where, it is said, the local artists don’t just play the balafon, they speak with it. Trained by his father from the age of five, he would use his instrument to lead traditional ceremonies or to encourage workers in the fields. Eventually he made his way to France where he assembled his band of Burkinabé and French musicians, playing African and western instruments. His lyrics cover issues of family, love, society and the role of music. In Fantanya, from his debut album, he addresses the roots of poverty.
The poor are tired, they cry/Ah poverty is a terrible disease/Leaders of Africa, if you do not rise, Africa will lose its values/My brothers, our land is rich/It is fertile, it is generous/There is gold, there are diamonds/Rice grows here/Why is Africa still poor?/We can endure hunger or bear poverty/Every day, whatever happens, we are at work/Why do we not sleep at night because of worries?/Why do children die of hunger?/We find gold at home, but it goes abroad/We find diamonds here, but they also go abroad. We grow coffee … We grow rice … And yet we are hungry!

Stan Rogers: The Field Behind the Plow
Lyrics & music: Stan Rogers
Canada, English, 1981

Rogers had higher profile songs. Northwest Passage is an unofficial Canadian national anthem, while Barrett’s Privateers is a contemporary sea shanty beloved by the Royal Canadian Navy. What The Field Behind the Plow offers is a palpable sense of Canadian soil and toil, delivered with aching melancholy, palpable hope and the artist’s rich baritone.
Watch the field behind the plow turn to straight dark rows/Feel the trickle in your clothes, blow the dusk cake from your nose/And hear the tractor’s steady roar, O you can’t stop now/There’s a quarter section more or less to go/And it figures that the rain takes its own sweet time/You can watch it come for miles, but you guess you’ve got a while/Ease the throttle out a hair, every rod’s a gain/There’s victory in every quarter mile…/In an hour, maybe more, you’ll be wet clear through/The air is clearer now, pull your hat brim further down/And watch the field beneath the plow turn to straight dark rows/Put another season’s promise in the ground

Farid El Atrache: Ya Ritni Tir / يارتني طير / I Wish I Were a Bird
Lyrics & music: Farid el-Atrache
Egypt, Arabic, 1939

Farid El Atrash was a singer, composer, virtuoso oud player and actor. He was born to a Syrian Druze family that moved to Egypt when he was a child and had an illustrious career that lasted 40 years, starting in Cario nightclubs and on radio, and moving on to star in more than 30 films and compose scores for more than 40. His music style was classical Arabic and Egyptian, with occasional western tropes. Focusing on romantic ballads, he also composed some religious and patriotic songs. Ya Ritni Tirwas the song that launched his radio career.
I wish I were a bird/I would fly around you wherever you go/My eye on you/But this wish is like a dream/I wish my lover and I owned the world/I would not leave for a second/But it is all “If” and “If”/As a word does not make a house exist/I wish I were a hair of your eyelash/That I could hear your heartbeat/Or that I was one of your slaves between your hands/Day and night/But it is only a wish

Buika: No Habrá Nadie en el Mundo / No One in This World
Lyrics & music: Javier Limón
Spain, Spanish, 2008

Concha Buika is an acclaimed and much decorated singer, poet, composer and producer. Born in Mallorca three years after her parents arrived as political refugees from Equatorial Guinea, she began her career singing in Madrid nightclubs; her musical pallet includes flamenco, copla, soul, jazz and pop. No Habrá Nadie en el Mundo is from her 2008 album Niña de Fuego, a collection of flamenco and ranchera songs about women facing loneliness and betrayal.
There’s no one in the world who can cure/The wound left by your pride/I can’t understand how you hurt me after having given me so much love/I thought about singing all the verses to you on your return/The kind that speak about love and suffering/When you come back I’ll devour you with my kisses/And we’ll fly high, up to where the clouds move slowly/My lips slide along your body slowly, so slowly that time will stop for sure

Indila: Dernière Danse / Last Dance
Lyrics & music: Adila Sedraïa [Indila]
France, French 2013

Between 2009 and 2013 Indila did backing vocals for several rappers. Then, in November 2013, she pretty much exploded on the music scene as an artist in her own right, with the release of Dernière Danse. In short order the song became the lead track of her debut album, for which she composed all 10 songs. In 2023, the music video for Dernière Danse—about the courage to weather storms—became the first French-language song to exceed one billion views on YouTube.
O my sweet suffering/Why persist? You are doing it again/I’m just an unimportant being/Without him, I’m a little paranoid/I walk alone in the Métro/One last dance/To forget my deep sadness/I want to run away so it all starts again/Oh, my sweet suffering/I move the sky, the day, the night/I dance with the wind and the rain/A little love, a bit of honey/And I dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, dance/And in this noise, I’m running, and I’m afraid/Is this my turn? Here comes the pain/All over Paris, I let myself go/And I’m flying away, fly, fly, fly, fly

Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe: Osondi Owendi / One Man’s Meat Is Another Man’s Poison
Lyrics & music: Osita Osadebe
Nigeria, Igbo, 1984

In a 40-year career, Osita Osadebe became one of the most prominent musicians in Nigeria’s history—called the “Doctor of Hypertension” for the soothing impact of his music, infusing highlife with strains of merengue and rumba. Osondi Owendi, his most acclaimed song, is about finding spiritual direction and discovering one’s own purpose.
As humans we are all unique, each person has their own destiny/It is within the texture of this world that we find ourselves and our unique role becomes clear…/But even in our different garbs, we can all come together and enjoy each other’s company through music

Benito Lertxundi: Loretxoa / Little Flower
Lyrics & music: Benito Lertxundi
Spain, Basque, 1993

Lertxundi led the revival of Basque music that began in the 1960s. As a song, Loretxoa is a double metaphor about nature and the Basque nation—letting a flower and a child grow, free of constraints, with the capacity to reach their full potential and to bear fruit.
In the middle of the meadow/A little flower sits/A child by its side/Looks at the flower/The flower says to the child/”Set me free/I was born to be free/Not to be bound”/Understanding the flower/Cannot survive/The child wants to remove the thorns/To give it new life/Then he will have/Strength and value/Able to give/Abundant fruit

Bela Shende & Ajay Atul: Apsara Aali / अप्सरा आली / Comes the Nymph from Heaven
Lyrics: Guru Thakur/Music: Ajay Atul
India, Marathi, 2010

Shende is a leading Bollywood playback singer. Her rendition of Apsara Aali in the Marathi-language film Natarang helped make the song a cult classic, not to mention winning 13 major film awards for Shende’s vocals, as well as for the lyrics and the composing duo Ajay-Atul.
My soft skin is enchanting/I’m bathed in moonlight/Bedecked in gold, drenched in silver/I wear the shimmer of rubies…/Looking like moonlight has descended on the stage/I am a thunderbolt that has struck the court of Indra/Here comes the nymph, straight from the heavens/Her presence lights up the earth/Her moonlit smile brightens the stage/Here comes the nymph, bathed in moonlight/My face is so beautiful, I am a priceless diamond, I am a rose in full bloom/My blouse, the silent sufferer/Complains about the heavy burden it has to bear/My tiny waistline beckons you/As does my chin, and my lethal eyes

Afrika Mamas: Ilanga/The Sun
Lyrics & music: Sibongiseni Shabalala
South Africa, Zulu, 2021

Afrika Mamas is an ensemble of six single mothers who perform in the Zulu a cappella style isicathamiya. They began under the influence of Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the genre’s male pacesetters, and over 25 years the Mamas have become peers, performing around the world. Advancing beyond standard soprano-alto mode, they also encompass tenor and bass, achieving spellbinding harmonies with call-and-response phrasing, Gospel overtones and periodic ululation. Ilanga, the title track of their fifth album, honors a couple’s first meeting as a treasured memory. The song was written by Sibongiseni Shabalala, son of Joseph Shabalala, the founder of Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
Ilanga means both “sun” and “day”. This is a song about never forgetting the day a couple met, a special memory that will be treasured forever in their hearts.

Roberto Carlos: Detalhes / Details
Lyrics & music: Erasmo Carlos, Roberto Carlos
Brazil, Portuguese, 1971

Roberto Carlos is Brazil’s equivalent of Elvis, widely known simply as “The King.” In the 1950s and 1960s he was the leading figure of the Joven Guarda (Young Guard) movement of Brazilian rock and pop and has been an influence on generations of artists. He is the best-selling Brazilian singer of all time. Though he doesn’t have a single signature song, Detalhes—a ballad of love and longing—comes as close as any.
Don’t even try to forget about me/I will live in your life for a long time/Such small details of the two of us/Are too great to forget and they will remain present/For all time, you’ll see/If another long-haired guy shows up on your street/And makes you miss me, it will be your fault/The loud roar of your car and the old faded jeans/Or something like that, immediately you’ll remember me/I know some other guy must be whispering/Words of love in your ear/Words of love, as I once did/But I doubt he feels as much love as I do/And even the mistakes of my bad Portuguese/In that moment you will remember me

Nakajima is a singer, songwriter, actress and radio DJ with a prodigious oeuvre. She has released more than 50 albums and has also written songs for numerous other artists. Tapestry, about the threads that bind people together and the chance encounters that sometimes mold our lives, is one of her most enduring songs.
We have no clue/Why we cross paths/We never know/When we’ll cross paths/Where were you, did you live your life?/Two separate stories beneath a vast sky/The vertical thread is you, the horizontal thread is me/The cloth woven from it/Might just keep someone else warm some day/Frayed traces of a day I spent/Unsure why I was alive/Frayed traces of the day I fell/As I ran after my dreams/What will those threads become?/I trembled in the wind, feeling unsure…/The vertical thread is you, the horizontal thread is me/People call coming across a thread/That you were meant to meet… “happiness”

Arooj Aftab: Mohabbat / محبت / Love
Lyrics: Hafeez Hoshiarpuri/Music: Arooj Aftab
Pakistan/U.S., Urdu, 2021

Arooj Aftab is a Pakistani-American singer, composer, producer and film editor. Her music range is wide, embracing neo-Sufi, jazz, Hindustani classical and western classical. Mohabbat, from her album Vulture Prince, is an expression of longing based on a ghazal by the poet Hafeez Hoshiarpuri. The song earned Aftab the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Global Music Performance.
Seeing how you have ample lovers around you/I will not be one of them/This is sad, as I love you the most, the sadness of this is equal to the sadness of all the world…/And even if I do somehow get to be one of your lovers/The sadness of my time spent in separation from you will be all that consumes me

Rivermaya: Kisapmata / Blink of an Eye
Lyrics & music: Rico Blanco
Philippines, Tagalog, 1996

Mercedes Peón: Marabilla / Wonder
Lyrics & music: Mercedes Peon
Spain, Galician, 2000

Mercedes Peón was in the forefront of the Galician folk revival in the 1990s and part of her development was a kind of musical shapeshifting. She spent the first 15 years of her career—before releasing her first album in 2000—going deep into traditional music. With her first studio album Isué she exuded energy and mastery, mixing her powerful voice with bagpipes, percussion and some electronic enhancement—though in a literally wondous departure she recorded Marabilla in a church full of open space, with just voice and accordion.
I marvel at the land/I wonder, is it the sea?/I marvel at the flowers/Wonderful, are the colors/I marvel at children/My eyes amaze me/I marvel at the old/Knowledge in abundance/If I want to hear the beauty that surrounds me/I will hear my own sound/If I want to listen to the universe around me/I will listen to my own sound….

Wazimbo: Nwahulwana / Night Bird
Lyrics & music: Humberto Carlos Benfica [Wazimbo]
Mozambique, Ronga, 1988

Singer-songwriter Wazimbo is regarded as one of the greatest voices in the annals of Mozambican music. He is also the leading voice of marrabenta—a style blending Mozambican dance music with Portuguese folk—and was for many years lead vocalist of the Orchestra Marrabenta Star de Moçambique. In Nwahulwana, his signature song, he describes a young lady he refers to as “my sister,” throwing her life away with a different man every night.
Maria, my sister, who will marry you?/I ask because it is your way to go out at night/It’s not productive to giving you a home, dear/You are a night bird, moving from bar to bar after dark/Who will marry you?/It is sad, Maria, that you cannot stay at home after night falls, Maria

Roberta Sá: Samba de um Minuto / One Minute Samba
Lyrics & music: Rodrigo Maranhão
Brazil, Portuguese, 2007

More than anyone else, it was Carmen Miranda who transformed samba from a local Brazilian phenomenon to international renown. So when the Olympic games came to Rio de Janeiro in 2016—which just happened to be the samba centennial—the honor of channeling Miranda’s spirit and singing her repertoire at the closing ceremony went to the artist Roberta Sá. It was her smooth take on the edge of bliss and blues that made Sá’s Samba de um Minuto (from her 2007 album whose title means “What a Beautiful Strange Day to Feel Joy”) a modern classic of the genre.
Slow down/Forget what time it is outside/Forget the expensive rhyme/Listen to what I’m saying/Give me a minute of your attention/My pain is not something you can play with…/And if the pain is from missing you/And the longing is something you can fix/In my heart, something new/Will set me free at last

Aynur Doğan: Koçerê / Nomad Girl
Lyrics & music: Traditional
Türkiye, Kurdish, 2010

Aynur Doğan (who often uses just her first name professionally) is an acclaimed Kurdish singer and songwriter whose life has been shaped by her art and whose commitment has been deepened by the tensions, displacement and harassment Kurds often face in Turkey. She is known for combining Kurdish tradition with contemporary western sound. According to Yo-Yo Ma, with whom she has collaborated, “To hear Aynur’s voice is to hear the transformation of all the layers of human joy and suffering into one sound.” Koçerê is from her 2010 album Rewend.
Dark night, it’s pitch black/I have lost my senses, the darkness has made me mad/I am without place or time/Like a parched thistle swept by the wind/Like a pair of cranes, and a pair of wild ducks/I flew and came to the edge of the village/They say that the kisses of young girls are entrusted to the homes of their fathers/Like the prey of a merciless eagle/I was swept high and mercilessly plunged deep

Sanaa Moussa: Wea’younha / و عيونها / Oh, Your Eyes
Lyrics & music: Wasim Al-Kurdi
Palestine, Arabic, 2010

Sanaa Moussa is a Palestinian folk singer from a musical family who had dreamed of recording an album since she was four years old, watching her grandmother sing Ottoman-era songs as she dyed fabric. The young girl’s dream came true when she released her debut album Ishraq, focused on the lives and voices of Palestinian women. The collection’s 10 tracks—which include Wea’younha—channel joy, separation, love, war, marriage, lullabies and loneliness.
My little bird, you’d swear that her eyes are like cups/Cups full of coffee/Your beautiful, dark eyes/Oh your eyes, your eyes, your eyes/My little bird, you’d swear her teeth were white coral/White coral mixed with pearl/My little bird, her hands carry clouds in them/Clouds that hang over the meadows/My little bird, you’d swear that her eyes are like cups/Cups full of coffee/Your beautiful, dark eyes/Oh your eyes, your eyes, your eyes

Tanya Tagaq: Tongues
Lyrics & music: Tanya Tagaq Gillis, Jesse Zubot, Sumach Valentine, Saul Williams
Canada, English/Inuktitut, 2022

Tagaq is a much-honored Inuk singer, songwriter, novelist, actor, visual artist and activist. It was while studying at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design that she developed her signature form of Inuit throat singing; according to the Canadian feminist magazine Herizons, going solo “wasn’t a creative decision but rather a pragmatic one—she simply didn’t have a partner to sing with.” Tagaq’s 2022 album Tongues is adapted from Split Tooth, her best-selling and award-winning “mythobiography”—a cross between fiction and memoir. The title track is an assertion of identity and psychic healing.
They took our tongues/They tried to take our tongues/We lost our language/And we didn’t/Inuuvunga (I am an Inuk) You can’t take that from us/ You can’t take our blood/You can’t take that from us/You can’t have my tongue/Inuuvunga (I am an Inuk) You can’t have my tongue/Tukisivunga (I understand) You can’t have my tongue/I don’t want your god/Put him down/I don’t want your shame/It doesn’t belong to me/You can’t have my tongue/Inuuvunga (I am an Inuk)

Amadou & Mariam: Sabali / Patience
Lyrics & music: Damon Albarn, Maryam Doumbia, Marc-Antoin Moreau
Mali, Bambara/French, 2008

Writing in Songlines magazine, Nigel Williamson asked, “Is it possible for any article about Amadou & Mariam not to include the words ‘blind married couple’ in the opening sentence? It is an odd kind of badging when we’re talking about musical communication that, after all, engages our ears rather than our eyes. As Mariam puts it, ‘People know we are blind, but it is our work that counts, so perhaps we should simply describe them as virtuoso guitarist and soulful singers, two musicians with musical roots deep in West African tradition but with a restless desire to innovate and experiment.’ They have innovated and experimented their way into the hearts of listeners around the world ever since they met while performing in the Eclipse Orchestra at Mali’s Institute for the Young Blind. Their style has been called Afro-blues, combining of Malian music with Cuban, Middle Eastern and Indian instruments. Sabali is one of their most renowned songs.
The world is a place of amusement/We have a good time with that/Audience!/Patience! Patience is worth everything/Patience! Patience is good/If you love someone, patience is worth everything/If you love a man, patience is worth everything/If you love a woman, patience is worth everything…/Patience, patience, patience is good/Baby, I’m talking to you/With you, baby, life is beautiful/With you, baby, this is for life/Baby I give you a great big kiss/I’ll hug you tight/Bye-bye!

The Supremes: You Can’t Hurry Love
Lyrics & music: Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, Eddie Holland
U.S., English 1966

The Supremes were the most storied girl group in music history, the most commercially successful of Motown’s artists and the most successful American vocal ensemble, with 12 number-one singles on the Billboard charts. The trio was immortalized in the Broadway musical and film Dreamgirls, and their impact on the music world is beyond measure. You Can’t Hurry Love focuses on a mother’s advice about love and also demonstrates the influence of gospel music on R&B and soul. Of course, the group was also the platform from which lead singer Diana Ross launched her phenomenal solo career. In 1976 Billboard named Ross “female entertainer of the century.”
I need love, love/To ease my mind/I need to find, find/Someone to call mine/But Mama said/”You can’t hurry love/No, you just have to wait”/She said, ”Love don’t come easy/It’s a game of give and take/”You can’t hurry love/No, you just have to wait/You’ve got to trust, give it time/No matter how long it takes”/But how many heartaches/Must I stand/Before I find a love/To let me live again?/Right now the only thing/That keeps my hangin’ on/When I find my strength/Yeah, is almost gone/I remember Mama said/”You can’t hurry love/No, you just have to wait…”

Raça Negra: Cigana / Gypsy
Lyrics & music: Gabú
Brazil, Portuguese, 1992

A São Paulo-based ensemble that performs samba and pagode, Raça Negra has sold more than 40 million records, making it the best-selling group in Brazilian music history. Cigana is one of their best-loved songs.
Don’t let time run out on our love/I do everything, even the impossible, and you take me for granted/I love you like crazy/I’m dying little by little/You seem to be happy stepping over me/Desperately I cry for you…/My heart needs your love/So come, mistreat me once and for all/I miss you and the cruelty that drives me crazy/If I lose you, lose you, lose you/I won’t be able to take it/I’m always suffering, wanting you, I was born for you/Gypsy

Aziza Brahim is the voice of the Sahrawi people, a role she was likely destined to play—her grandmother, Al Khadra Mabrook, was a renowned Sahrawi poet. Brahim has divided her life between Spain and the Algerian refugee camp where she was born, just a few months after her mother fled the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. Julud, dedicated to her mother, combines intimate and stark desert poetry with an unyielding faith in the Sahrawi struggle.
You are the essence of my life, and its strength/You are the pride in my words that crosses all frontiers/You are like the night and the stars/Your voice goes beyond the top of the clouds/You are the smiling breeze of today/You are an example of humanity and of fight/Resist, immortal, resist

Soum Bill: L’un pour l’autre / Made for Each Other
Lyrics & music: Soum Bill
Côte d’Ivoire, French/Maninka, 2003

Afrobeat artist Soum Bill was the lead singer and composer for three major bands in Côte d’Ivoire before starting his solo career in 2000. His ability to combine modern music with traditional Ivoirian rhythms injects dynamism into his songs. L’un pour l’autre is one of his most widely hailed works.
Baby, you and me for life/We were made for each other/Like a tired soldier after a long march, I come to your fountain in hope of drinking/On my back I drag a heavy burden/I come to you haggard in hope of rest/(I was told): “You will leave your father and mother and you will love a woman, this is the will of God“/I have chosen to love you/On my way I took many blows and I always had to start over/These are the blows of life, my tears, my sorrows/In my greatest distress I knew everything I had been looking for all my life was so close/In my greatest distress God wanted me to know what would make me happy/I was only waiting for you

Darwika Lal Josh & Sundar Shreshta: Resham Firiri / रेशम फिरिरि / My Heart Flutters Like Silk in the Wind
Lyrics & music: Buddhi Pariyar, Traditional
Nepal, Nepali, 1969

Resham Firiri is among the most widely performed Nepalese folk songs. Based on traditional village sources, it was composed by Buddhi Pariyar, who gave the song to the popular singers Sarwika Lal Josh and Sundar Shreshta to perform. Though there are many interpretations of its meaning, at the heart of the song are a love story, the mountain lifestyle and the natural beauty of the Himalayas. The song is typically accompanied by the sarangi, a bowed lute.
My heart flutters like silk in the wind/I cannot decide whether to fly or sit on the hilltop/To the dog, it’s puppy, puppy; to the cat, it’s meow meow/Our love is waiting at the crossroads/One-barreled gun, two-barreled gun, targeted at a deer/It’s not the deer I aim at, but my beloved/By aeroplane, motor car or bullock cart/If your heart feels the same as mine then come/The tiny baby calf is in danger at the precipice/I couldn’t leave it there, let’s go together, my love

Paolo Conte: Via Con Me – It’s Wonderful / Away With Me – It’s Wonderful
Lyrics & music: Paolo Conte
Italy, Italian/English, 1981

Conte is a singer-songwriter, pianist (and lawyer) known for his grainy voice and his blending of Italian sounds with jazz, boogie and French chanson. His most iconic song, Via Con Me is a dreamy, existential gambol and a hymn to escape. The song has been used for the soundtrack to more than a dozen films. The 1981 album on which it appeared did not sell well at first, but the runaway popularity of Via Con Me made it a hit over time.
Away, away, come away from here/Nothing ties you to these places anymore/Not even these blue flowers/Let’s get away from this gray weather/Full of music and men you used to like/It’s wonderful, it’s wonderful, it’s wonderful/Good luck my baby, it’s wonderful/It’s wonderful, it’s wonderful, I dream of you/Chips, chips/Du-du du-du-du

Nancy Ajram: Ah W Noss / اه و نص  / I Mean It
Lyrics & music: Ayman Bahjat Amar, Tarek Madkour
Lebanon, Arabic, 2004

Dubbed the Queen of Arab Pop, Ajram is a singer and television personality and one of the best-selling Middle Eastern artists of all time. Ah W Noss was the title track of her blockbuster fourth studio album, which became a massive hit in Egypt as well as in her native Lebanon, and led to her first world tour.
There’s nothing that comes like this/Calm down my love and be like you used to be/Hey, my boy. listen to me, pamper me/You will have my eyes as well/My love come closer, look/If you are angry, be only half angry/Otherwise, I’ll leave, yes and I mean it/And for sure you will be the loser

La Argentinita: ¡Anda Jaleo! / We Are Going to Revolt
Lyrics & music: Federico García Lorca, Encarnación López Júlvez [La Argentinita]
Spain/Argentina, Spanish, 1931

Franco & TPOK: Mamou / You See?
Lyrics & music: Franco Luambo Makiadi
D.R. Congo, Lingala, 1984

By the mid-1980s, nearly 30 years after its founding, the pioneering Congolese rumba band TPOK Jazz was still going strong, led by Franco Luambo and now featuring the voice of Madilu System. Mamou—also called Tu vois? (You see?)—one of their biggest hits, describes two women arguing, accusing one another of infidelity and worse.
What did you say?/What did  you say Mamou?/You say that I am always reporting you to your husband/You say that I am causing trouble in your marriage…/Oh Mamou, I am shocked Mamou/I always thought you were my friend/You know that I know all your secrets/What shocked me today Mamou is that you have gone to insult me at Moussa’s place/You said I am a prostitute/In reality you know that I was married, I was divorced and I had children/Yet today you, a person I trusted, have defamed me, defamed me

Anastasia Moutsatsou: Ola Ta Diskola / Όλα τα δύσκολα / All the Hardships
Lyrics & music: Andreou Giorgos
Greece, Greek, 1994

Moutsatsou was one of the leading performers of Greek traditional and art song from the 1980s into the early 2000s. Ola Ta Diskola is from her landmark 1994 album Secret Signs.
Tell me sweet things, my love/A few things before we part/The night has become a knife in my heart/And a road with no return/We lived through all the hardships together/And yet we’re losing each other when we are at our best/Who will hurt the most, my love, during our last kiss?/The pain will be the same for both of us/When the glass breaks/We lived through all the hardships together/And yet we’re losing each other when we are at our best

Boukman Eksperyans: Kè m Pa Sote / My Heart Doesn’t Leap
Lyrics & music: Theodore Beaubrun Jr., Daniel Beaubrun, Mimerose Beaubrun
Haiti, Haitian Creole, 1991

A mizik rasin (roots music) band that started in the 1970s, Boukman Eksperyans announces their allegiances with their name—taken from Dutty Boukman, an 18th century voudou priest who led a religious ceremony that is considered the birth of the Haitian Revolution; and their homage to The Jimi Hendrix Experience. They are known for their experimentation and also for their political edge. Their most emblematic song from more than four decades performing is Kè m Pa Sote (My Heart Doesn’t Leap)—signifying “we are not afraid”. The song became an anthem in protests that led to the toppling of a dictator.
I’ll call the samba, I’ll call out samba/This hurts, oh/Look what those guys do to me/My blood is running, samba/They give me a burden to carry/I’m not going to carry it/The burden is too heavy/I’ll reel underneath it…/Don’t go meddling in other people’s affairs/Don’t go messing in other people’s business…/My heart doesn’t leap/I’m not afraid, I’m not afraid this year/Boukman Eksperyans in Carnival/I’m not afraid

The Everly Brothers: All I Have to Do Is Dream
Lyrics & music: Boudleaux Bryant
U.S., English, 1958

Though the Everly Brothers (Don and  Phil) were regarded as a rock and roll duo, there was always a country edge to their sound, from the Tennessee twang in their close-harmony singing to their steel-string acoustic guitars. From Bye-Bye Love in 1957 to Cathy’s Clown in 1960, they had one of the most feverish runs of any artists of their time—and that was just the opening chapter of their long career. The pinnacle was their ballad All I Have to Do Is Dream. Among many other distinctions, it was the only song to ever reach No. 1 simultaneously on three Billboard lists (Top 100, Best Selling in Stores and Most Played by Jockeys); and it later reached No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B list as well.
When I want you/In my arms/When I want you/And all your charms/Whenever I want you/All I have to do is dream/Dream… dream, dream/When I feel blue/In the night and I need you/To hold me tight/Whenever I want you/All I have to do is dream/I can make you mine/Taste your lips of wine/Any time, night or day/Only trouble is, gee whiz/I′m dreaming my life away/I need you so, that I could die/I love you so, and that is why/Whenever I want you, all I have to do is dream… dream, dream, dream/Dream

Abdel Halim Hafez: Qariat al Finjan / قارئة الفنجان / The Coffee Cup Reader
Lyrics: Nizar Qabbani/Music: Mohamed El Mogy
Egypt, Arabic, 1976

Few artists can match the accumulation of triumphs and sorrows of Abdel Halim Hafez. Born in 1929, his mother died from childbirth complications and his father died shortly after; he lived in an orphanage for several years until his aunt and uncle took him in. But there was no denying his musical talent; he entered the Arabic Music Institute in Cairo at age 14 and rose to be one of the greatest Egyptian singers of all time, and a renowned actor. Known as “The Dark Nightingale,” he was adored by fans—filling not only arenas but also stadiums—and he became friend to kings and presidents. In 1974 he read Nizar Qabbani’s poem “The Coffee Cup Reader” and was so taken with it that he recruited the composer Mohamed El Mogy to put it to music; the project took two years and it was the last song Hafez would sing. A childhood parasitic illness had plagued him all his life and he died of liver failure in 1977, at age 47. Despite his many love songs, he never married.
She sat with fear in her eyes/Contemplating my overturned cup/She said, Don’t grieve, my child/You are destined to fall in love/My child, he who sacrifices himself for his beloved/Dies as a martyr/For so long, I’ve foretold and prophesized/But never have I read a cup like yours/Never have I seen sorrows similar to yours

Los Kjarkas: Imillitay / Little Girl
Lyrics & music: Ulises Hermosa Gonzalez
Bolivia, Quechua/Spanish, 1989

The most successful Andean folk band of all time, Los Kjarkas spread their influence farther and deeper by establishing two schools for teaching Andean folk music, one in Bolivia and one in Ecuador. Singing in Quechua and Spanish, they have performed all over the world. Of their more than 350 songs, Imillitay is the best known.
You said you loved me, but it’s not true/You toyed with me and I loved you anyway/I’m always trying to forget you but I can’t/Your memories are thorns that hurt my soul/Wheeling, wheeling, little girl, like the golden hummingbird/Wheeling, wheeling, little girl, you have abandoned me

Les Cowboys Fringants: L’Amerique Pleure / America Is Crying
Lyrics & music: Jean-François Pauzé
Canada, French, 2019

A folk-rock band with a distinct country edge, Les Cowboys Fringants represent a key element in Quebec’s musical-political culture, with intelligent and sometimes subversive lyrics that appeal to the intellectual and working class alike. L’Amerique Pleure (America Is Crying) is the reflection of a truck driver who travels regularly between Florida and Quebec and observes the cracks in the American dream represented by inequality, overconsumption and the breakdown of community. The song won the 2020 Félix Award (the most prestigious music honor in Quebec) for Song of the Year and Video of the Year.
Get up one more day/Same time as the sun/Face still a little pallid/From four hours of sleep (yeah!)/Pull a few puffs from a cig/Pop some vitamins/Cup of dishwater coffee/Just to get my color back/I take the Florida Turnpike/Tomorrow night in Montmagny/A trucker’s life ain’t the greatest/But you get to see places (yeah!)/Above all it makes you realize/That behind the beautiful landscapes/There are so many inequalities/And suffering on folks’ faces/The question I ask myself is/With all the hypocrisy/How do these people still believe in life?/I glance in my rear-view mirror and see all America crying

Femi Kuti: Beng Beng Beng
Lyrics & music: Olufemi Olufela Anikulapo Kuti
Nigeria, English, 1998

Joe Arroyo y La Verdad: La Rebelión (No la pegue a la Negra) / The Rebellion (Don’t Hit the Black Woman)
Lyrics & music: Joe Arroyo
Colombia, Spanish, 1988

Many great artists can measure their success by the awards they receive in the course of their career, and Joe Arroyo certainly had those. But the list grew considerably after the salsa singer died in 2011, at age 55. Colombia’s RCN channel broadcast a soap opera based on his life; the city of Cartagena, his birthplace, erected a bronze statue of him; and he received a posthumous Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. La Rebelión tells the story of a slave couple in 17th century Cartagena; the slave owner abuses the wife, and her husband avenges her by starting a rebellion. It is one of the most renowned Colombian songs, one of the greatest salsa songs of all time and an anthem of Black pride throughout Latin America.
I want to tell you, my brother, a bit of black history/In the 1600s, when the tyrant ruled the streets of Cartagena/There came those slave traders, [with] Africans in chains/They stained my land with lifelong slavery…/An African couple, slaves of a Spaniard/He treated them very badly/And hit his Black woman/It was then that the heroic black man rebelled/And avenged his love/And you can still hear him yelling at the gates/”Don’t hit my Black woman, don’t hit the black woman”/”Hey man! Don’t hit the Black woman”/”Hey, respect my lady”

Fleetwood Mac: Dreams
Lyrics & music: Stevie Nicks
U.K./U.S., English, 1977

For many critics and fans, Rumors, Fleetwood Mac’s eleventh studio album, is the band’s magnum opus. It won the 1978 Grammy for Album of the Year and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2003. Of the 11 tracks on the original pressing, four (Go Your Own Way, Don’t Stop, You Make Loving Fun and Dreams) reached Billboard Top 10 status. Behind the scenes, perhaps the most salient fact is that during the album’s recording in Sausalito, California, all five band members (including two intra-band couples) had relationships in the process of unraveling. Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham were fighting constantly, stopping only when they worked on songs together. Against that backdrop, one day when Nicks wasn’t needed in the main studio, she took a keyboard and went into a separate sound room that had a black velvet bed and Victorian drapes. “I sat down on the bed with my keyboard,” she recalled. “I found a drum pattern, switched on my little cassette player on and wrote Dreams in 10 minutes.” The band’s relationships passed into oblivion. Dreams passed into legend.
Now there you go again, you say you want your freedom/Well, who am I to keep you down?/It’s only right that you should play the way you feel it/But listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness/Like a heartbeat, drives you mad/In the stillness of remembering what you had/And what you lost…/Oh, thunder only happens when it’s rainin’/Players only love you when they’re playin’/Say women, they will come and they will go/When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know/Now here I go again/I see the crystal visions/I keep the visions to myself/It’s only me who wants to wrap around your dreams…

Wanting Qu: Wǒ de gēshēng lǐ / 我的歌聲裡 / You Exist in My Song
Lyrics & music: Wanting Qu
China/Canada, Chinese (Mandarin), 2012

A Chinese-Canadian singer-songwriter and pianist, Wanting Qu swept several Chinese music awards in 2012 for her album Everything in the World and it’s standout track, You Exist in My Song. She also made headlines by becoming the first Chinese artist signed to the Vancouver-based Nettwerk label, becoming the city’s first tourism ambassador and also for dating Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson for several years.
Without any preparation/Without any worry/You just appeared in my world/And brought wondrous excitement/Unconsciously I didn’t know how quietly it had slipped away/No more news from you/Only memories left/You exist deep in my memories/In my dreams, in my heart, in my song…/I still remember how we were/Entering that bustling alley, suddenly side by side/We were strangers, passers-by/We both had the same feeling/One gaze, one heartbeat/Unexpected happiness/As if destined to enter a dream/The world so big, and yet we met/Can it be our fate, can it be heaven’s wish?

Lepa Lukić: Od Izvora Dva Putica / Од извора два путића / A Fork in the Road
Lyrics & music: Petar Tanasijević
Serbia, Serbo-Croatian, 1967

The folk music revival of the former Yugoslav republics can be traced to the 1960s, when composers began writing new material that drew on traditional styles and instruments. Alternatively, it can be traced to one song: Lepa Lukić’s massive 1967 hit Od Izvora Dva Putica. There are alternate versions of how the song came to be, but the common theme is that it emerged from a meeting of Lukić and composer Petar Tanasijević on a bus to Belgrade. In one version the composer was entranced when he heard her singing on the bus; in another he was annoyed and asked her to be quiet—but later saw her perform on stage and was overwhelmed.
A fork in the road/Leading in two directions/I don’t know which will take me to you faster, my love…/I walked with you/One goes through the orchards, above our village/There once your mother saw us arm in arm/She gave me with all her heart/A flower from your garden/Take it, take it, you are our darling/Summer is over, autumn is coming/You write less and less/You’re forgetting me

Jim Croce: Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)
Lyrics & music: Jim Croce
U.S., English, 1972

One of the classic male torch songs of all time, Operator stands out as one of Jim Croce’s most iconic works. The song is one side of a conversation with a telephone operator, as the narrator tries to reach his former girlfriend, “living in L.A., with my best old ex-friend Ray.” Croce said the song was inspired by his military service, during which he would often see lines of soldiers waiting to use an outdoor phone on base, some calling wives or sweethearts who had written Dear John letters. The song also captures a moment in time: When he asks the operator to forget about the call, he tells her, “You can keep the dime.” Operator relates a minor tragedy that preceded a major one: The following year Croce died in a plane crash at the height of his career.
Operator, well could you help me place this call?/See, the number on the matchbook is old and faded/She’s living in L.A.,with my best old ex-friend Ray/A guy she said she knew well and sometimes hated/But isn’t that the way they say it goes?/Well let’s forget all that/And give me the number if you can find it/So I can call just to tell ’em I’m fine, and to show/I’ve overcome the blow/I’ve learned to take it well/I only wish my words could just convince myself/That it just wasn’t real/But that’s not the way it feels

Edmundo Rivero: Cambalache / Bazaar
Lyrics & music: Enrique Santos Discépolo
Argentina, Spanish 1935

Cambalache is the tango that refused to die, a cry against corrupt society that was banned by successive Argentine dictatorships from the 1930s to the 1970s. It was written by Enrique Santos Discépolo, a renowned composer, actor, screenwriter and actor, and performed by singer-composer-impresario Edmundo Rivero.
That the world was and always will be a filthy place/That I’ve always known/In the year five hundred and six/And in the year two thousand, too/There always have been thieves, traitors and con men, happy and bitter people/But, that the twentieth century is a display of insolent malice, nobody can deny anymore/We live sunk in a fuzz/All in the same mud/Today, it happens, it is all the same/To be decent or corrupt, to be ignorant, a genius, a pickpocket/Generous or a swindler/All the same, no one better than the other/No failing grades or merit valuations/The immoral have caught up with us…/Yes, our age is like a junk shop/Hectic and without rules/Those who don’t squeak get no grease/Those who will not steal are fools

Tania Saleh: Laysa fi alhabat eadlu / ليس في الغابات عدل / No Justice in the Forests
Lyrics: Khalil Gibran/Music: Tania Saleh
Lebanon, Arabic, 2017

A singer-songwriter and visual artist, Saleh is one of the founders of Lebanon’s independent alternative music scene. Her 2017 studio album Intersection addressed the tension between decades of political turmoil across the Arab world and the parallel universe of classical and modern Arabic poetry and music. In No Justice in the Forests, she puts a poem by Khalil Gibran to retro-modern music.
There is no justice in the forests/No, and there is no punishment/If the willow tree laid its shadow on the sand/The cypress does not accuse it/Of betraying the book/Human justice is like ice/It melts with sunrise/Give me the ney and sing/Singing is the justice of hearts/The sound of the ney will remain/After all guilt is gone

Maaike Ouboter: Dat Ik Je Mis / That I Miss You
Lyrics & music: Maaike Ouboter
Netherlands, Dutch, 2014

People who lose parents during childhood often develop heightened empathy and resilience. Maaike Ouboter’s parents died when she was in high school and in 2013, at age 21, she channeled her feelings into the television show “The Best Singer-Songwriter in the Netherlands.” Dat ik je mis, her audition song, explored not only loss but also strength through memory. Within two days of the song’s broadcast it was Number 1 in the Netherlands; within six weeks it achieved platinum status. In 2015 she turned her star appearance into an album and Dutch critics are near unanimous in lauding her as a master lyricist who composes songs with layers of sadness and optimism—in her own words, “the lightness of melancholy.”
You kiss me, you hush me/You hug and reassure me/You catch me, you miss me/Forever comfort and unscare me/You call me, you hear me/You save and disrupt me/Believe me and rob me/You suppress me and daze me/You breathe and you live in me/Shiver and shake me/Confide in me as if you were alive/Protect me from bad dreams which turn up…/The way you speak to me, your laugh/Your voices softened like an angel’s/In my dreams, limitless voids flow through/You calm me, you tame me/You stir and you move me/I miss you, I miss you/I grab at and clasp you/I stir and command you/To stay with me in the dark nights…

Zeca Pagodinho: Verdade / It’s True
Lyrics & music: Carlinhos Santana, Nelson Rufino
Brazil, Portuguese, 1996

Born Jessé Gomes da Silva Filho, Zeca Pagodinho is one of the most renowned samba and pagode artists of all time. He started composing songs for Portela, one of Rio de Janeiro’s premier samba schools, as a teenager. To date he has released 20 studio albums and an equal number of live albums and compilations. Verdade, his signature song, is a celebration of the discovery of love.
I discovered that I love you so much/In you I found my peace/I found out, without meaning to, what life means/It’s true!/To win your love I pulled off a little witchcraft/Like a deft capoeirist I took you by surprise/I knocked your feelings off/I played with your heart/I led you to the riverbank for a dinner with bread, wine and flowers around/And enough light to guide your way/It was a total redemption of love/It’s true!/My love, you light me up/Our bed is like a web/Your look is a light that shines/My path, like the brightness of a full moon…

Lee Mi-ja: Tongbaeg Agassi / 동백아가씨 / Camellia Maiden
Lyrics & music: Lee Mi-ja
South Korea, Korean, 1964

Henri Dikongué: Nasi Kane / No One Is Safe
Lyrics & music: Henri Dikongué
Cameroon, Duala, 2000

When Dikongué arrived on the Cameroonian music scene in the mid-1990s, he gave an acoustic response to the prevailing electronic music and dance culture. Stylistically, he mixes makossa, bikutsi, reggae, rumba, samba, salsa, jazz and flamenco. Nasi Kane is from his 2000 album N’oublie jamais (Never Forget).
In our society where no holds are barred/We must remain on our guard and move at our own pace/No one is safe from the ceaseless, wanton aggression that has invaded our districts and cities/Do we have to hide and submit in order to live happily and in peace?

Lila Downs: Tiringini Tsitsiki / Marigold Flower
Lyrics & music: Traditional
Mexico, Purépecha/Spanish, 2004

A singer-songwriter, folklorist and humanitarian activist, Lila Downs Sánchez is a prominent figure on Mexican, American and world stages. Born to a Mixtec Mexican cabaret singer and a Scottish-American professor of art, she  sings in English, Spanish and six Indigenous languages. Marigold Flower is from her Latin Grammy winning 2004 album One Blood. The song evokes the cultivation of the flower and is interpreted as an offering to the Purepechan goddess of life and death.
Marigold flower/It is so true/That you are natural, little girl/We are Purepechas, little mother/We will never be tired of nurturing/The marigold flower/Rejoice rejoice, little mother/Awaiting the light rain/We are Purepechas, little mother/And we will never be tired of nurturing/The marigold flower

Hamelmal Abate: Linur / ልኑር / Let’s Live Together
Lyrics & music: Hamelmal Abate
Ethiopia, Amharic, 2005

A prominent singer of both traditional songs and her own compositions, Hamelmal Abate started performing in a church choir and defied the wishes of her conservative family to become a professional entertainer. She is known for her advocacy on behalf of artist’s rights and reform of Ethiopia’s copyright laws. Linur is from her 2006 album Gize Mizan.
Let’s live together/May the world be full/Don’t tell me to think about it now/Just let me be yours/I fought it and you won me/He blessed me until I fell to my knees/You appreciate that/You are full of heart/Let’s live together, I love you/If you don’t make a nest for me in your heart/I am a bird that has lost its place/I want no other place, just to be close to you/I learned and gave you my hand/I was exposed and lost my heart/I miss you when you are not near/Let me be with you/Let’s live together/May the world be full

Alicia Keys: If I Ain’t Got You
Music & lyrics: Alicia Keys
U.S., English, 2004

One of the most successful and multifaceted artists of the 21st century, Keys is renowned as a singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and producer, having won more than 270 music awards, including 16 Grammys. She has said that If I Ain’t Got You was inspired by the death of the artist Aaliyah, the September 11 attacks and other world-shaking events of 2001. “It was such a sad time and no one wanted to believe it,” she explained. “It just made everything crystal clear to me—what matters and what doesn’t.” The song won Grammy, Billboard and MTV Video Music awards.
Some people live for the fortune/Some people live just for the fame/Some people live for the power, yeah/Some people live just to play the game/Some people think/That the physical things define what’s within/And I’ve been there before/That life’s a bore/So full of the superficial/Some people want it all/But I don’t want nothing at all/If it ain’t you, baby/If I ain’t got you, baby/Some people want diamond rings/Some just want everything/But everything means nothing/If I ain’t got you, yeah…

Chitãozinho e Xororó: Caipira / Country Boy
Lyrics & music: Joel Marques, Maracai
Brazil, Portuguese, 1991

Brothers José Lima Sobrinho and Durval de Lima—known by their professional names Chitáozinho & Xororó—were pioneers of sertanejo music, having sold more than 40 million albums since their debut release in 1969. By the 1990s, when sertanejo became the Brazil’s most popular genre, the duo was at its peak. Their most recent live album—of their concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York—was released in 2023. Caipira, from their 1991 album Planeta Azul, is an homage to roots and identity. If there’s any doubt about the affinity between sertnaejo and American country music, this is the song to resolve it.
What I wear isn’t fancy/I walk, feet on the ground/And the chirping of a bird/Is a song for me/I live with the dust from a hoe/Filling my nose/I tend a well-planted field, serving my country/This is how I am, and I won’t change/Here I have everything/And life is no lie/I’m free as a stream/A wild animal/And proud to be a country boy/Doctor, I don’t have a study/I only know how to work/In this humble house/Anyone who arrives is welcome/If my hands are calloused/If my skin is burned/It’s the strong sun of the hinterlands/This is how I am and I won’t change

Meic Stevens: Nos Du, Nos Da / Dark Night, Good Night
Lyrics & music: Meic Stevens
U.K., Welsh, 1982

A folk singer-songwriter and musician often referred to as “the Welsh Bob Dylan,” Meic Stevens has been one of the most influential figures of the Welsh music scene for more than 50 years. After a single album in English, he decided that Welsh-language song was his mission, even if it wouldn’t carry has name as far—and a grateful nation agrees. Nos Du, Nos Da is the title track of his most iconic album.
Dark night, good night friends/There is no light in our house/Not a single star, no moon…/Here tonight without you/Here tonight without your love/I don’t know what it means/Happy to die for your company/Gwenlli, what is it?/Mocking whisper, pub smoke/I know what’s going on/After the storm comes the thunder/This is not the place for fine things/There are little heads and scarecrows

Silvio Rodríquez: Ojalá / I Hope…
Lyrics & music: Silvio Rodríguez
Cuba, Spanish, 1978

Rodríguez was a pioneer of the Nueva Trova movement, and across 50 years and 30 albums has been regarded as Cuba’s leading folksinger. He is also an icon of Latin American leftist culture and politics, having served 15 years in the Cuban National Assembly. One of his most iconic songs, Ojalá—from his 1978 collection Al Final de Este Viaje—is a brooding reflection, with grateful and spiteful thoughts, about a long-ago first love and muse.
I hope the leaves don’t touch you when they fall/So you can’t turn them into crystal/I hope the rain ceases to be a miracle as it runs down your body/I hope the moon can go out without you/I hope the Earth won’t kiss your steps/I hope something happens that will erase you all of a sudden/A blinding light, a shot of snow/I wish at least death would take me/To not see you so much… always/In every second and in every vision/I wish I couldn’t even touch you in my song/I hope your name is forgotten by my voice

Mircea Baniciu: Scrisoare de Bun Ramas / Farewell Letter
Lyrics: George Tarnea/Music: Mircea Baniciu
Romania, Romanian, 1984

Baniciu has been a leading figure of Romanian folk and rock music since the 1970s, performing solo and with the bands Transylvania Phoenix and Pasărea Colibri. Farewell Letter is a lyrical expression of regret, without harsh judgment, on the end of a relationship.
Honey, what a world between us/Counters of raindrops two by two/And from an eye of unknown longing/How many snows grew on our lips/Listen to me and let me cry/I’m afraid of error and I’m cold/And I don’t want to know any longer/Who loved beautifully and who was wrong/Who took the first step into the night/Who left the game and who stayed/Who always came back/Who lost and who won/Who believed more in the other/Underneath the sky too unknown or too high

Ferhat Göçer: Gül Ki / Laughing Like That
Lyrics & music: Tansel Doganay, Oğuzhan Koç
Türkiye, Turkish, 2008

You don’t need to call him doctor, but Ferhat Göçer is a surgeon who retired in 2015 after 25 years in medicine to devote more time to his music career. One of Turkey’s most popular performers, his stylistic range includes, opera, folk, Canzone napoletana, French chanson, rebetiko and pop. Gül Ki is from his 2008 studio album Çok Sevdim İkimizi (We Loved Each Other So Much).
This morning, who has taken your place?/I thought as I woke up/No one has, no one will/This morning, I didn’t answer the phone at all/It kept ringing but I ignored it/Nothing keeps me from thinking about you/Laughing like that, my darling/Laughing so your eyes don’t wither away, my flower of love…/This morning I wrote your name on pieces of paper/Hung them on the walls/I only want you and the good old days, darling…/You see what I’ve become, understand my trouble/Please return, I’ve missed you/This morning

Lycinäis Jean: Aimer / Loving
Lyrics & music: Lycinäis Jean, Joel Jaccoulet
France, French, 2017

Lycinaïs Jean has the look of today’s pierced, tattooed youth and the soul of romantic poets through the ages. A singer-songwriter of prodigious talent, she has roots in Guadeloupe and Martinique and lives in Paris. Her musical pallet is veined with Caribbean pop, zouk, folk, reggae and R&B; she performs in French and Antillean Creole. Aimer was her first single, a runaway digital hit that in 2017 became the anchor of her eponymous debut album. In a universe of love songs, it stands out from opening breath to the delightful closing vocable, “stabedouba-pap.”
I wanted so much to find someone good like you/I wanted it so much it was obvious…/You, baby, I’m so different from you/So admiring of what you are/Other than you, I wouldn’t miss anything, believe me/Because you complete me/I live and I don’t go crazy anymore/Wohohoh/I thought I was loved before/I even loved without loving/But I was without power, without knowing how to appreciate it/But today/After many stopovers, I’ve finally landed in paradise/It must be said that we have survived the worst life can throw at us/Like the best/We are united in our victory

Eros Ramazzotti: Un’Emozione Per Sempre / A Feeling That Lasts Forever
Lyrics & music: Eros Ramazzotti, Claudio Guidetti, Adelio Cogliati, Maurizio Fabrizio
Italy, Italian, 2003

Recognized by his distinctive nasal voice, Ramazzotti is an Italian pop and rock star with a wide following across Europe and the Spanish-speaking world. Un’Emozione Per Sempre is an end-of-romance ballad that skirts bitter feelings to focus on the best memories of a relationship. 
I’d like to remember you, with that fiery smile of love/As if it came out unexpectedly, revealing a ray of sun/I’d like to remember you, you know, as a really important story/Even if you were moved only as if by a light song/I’m thinking goodbye words that give me a bad feeling/But in the desert they leave behind they find water to drink/Certain love stories leave an emotion forever/Moments that remain so imprinted in the mind/Certain loves leave a song forever, with words that stay in peoples’ hearts

Helene Fisher: Atemlos durch die Nacht / Breathless Through the Night
Lyrics & music: Kristina Bach
Germany, German 2013

Fischer is Germany’s pre-eminent schlager singer. Atemlos durch die Nacht, from her 2013 album Farbenspiel, is her signature song.
We take to the streets and clubs of the city/This is our night, as if made ​​for the two us/I close my eyes, forget every taboo/Kisses on the skin, like a love tattoo, oho, oho/What’s between us, pictures we’ll never forget/And your expression tells me, this is our time/Breathless through the night/Until a new day dawns/Breathless, out and about/Your eyes draw me out/Feel what love makes of us/Breathless, unshakeable, a fantasy turned real for the two of us/Today we are forever, a thousand feelings of happiness/All that I am, I share with you

Mohamed Rouicha: Inas inas / Tell My Beloved
Lyrics & music: Mohamed Rouicha
Morocco, Amazigh (Berber), 2003

Rouicha was a renowned singer-songwriter who performed in Amazigh (language of the Atlas Mountain Berbers) and Arabic. He was also a master of the loutar, a Moroccan string instrument. Inas Inas was one of his most popular songs.
Tell my beloved, tell her/How should I deal with time’s ups and downs/When I cannot find what to offer her/Poverty reduces arrogance/Oh life, you dislike me, and death does not wish for me/God, you have left me to the heat and cold/Oh brothers, a person like me deserves to cry/I miss my beloved, to whom the road is long

Cold Chisel: Khe Sanh
Lyrics & music: Don Walker
Australia, English, 1978

Charly Garcia, with Sui Generis: Rasguña las Piedras / Scratch the Rocks
Lyrics & music: Charly Garcia
Argentina, Spanish, 1973

Charly Garcia is one of the most important figures in the history of Latin American music, the father of Argentine “rock nacional,” a folk-rock pioneer, and a singer-songwriter of great depth. For more than 50 years he has had a commanding presence as a solo artist and as the central figure of three bands. Rasguña las Piedras was one of his most mythical songs and it spawned myriad interpretations of its meaning—the story of a girl buried alive who tried to scratch her way free and an homage to victims of Argentina’s 1970s dictatorship, among others. Garcia admits to liking the various theories but asserted that the song simply expresses the desire to cure the ills of society and also the urge of individuals to overcome the emotional weaknesses they carry inside.
Behind the walls/That were built up around you yesterday/I beg you to keep breathing/I rest my back/And hope you’ll hug me/Breaking through the wall of my days/And scratch the rocks/And scratch the rocks/And scratch the rocks until you get to me/Barely perceptible/I can hear your words/The rock ‘n roll bands are coming/And they will shake/The worn out walls a bit/And I can hear the questions in your voice…/And at last I can see your eyes/Crying at the bottom/And I start to love you with all my skin/And I dig until I can hug you/And my hands are bleeding/But know we’ll be free to grow

The four members of Ot Vinta are the founders of Ukrabilly, a mashup of Ukrainian folk and American country music that uses humor and energy to carry their sound and also expand Ukraine’s musical culture. The band has been touring since the late 1990s. Babyna Tumba is about a man who inherits his great-grandmother’s house; as he cleans it out, he finds a large cabinet, so loaded (with treasures or junk) that he can’t even make it budge.
Great-grandmother, when she knew her time was up/Dumped everything she had ever acquired into her cabinet/Grandson inherits house and farm/Furniture, mattress, junk and trifles/Rock-a-billy party in the moldering house/The ethno-territory must be cleaned out/Everything in the way must be thrown out/But the woman’s cabinet wouldn’t budge/Not a centimeter forward or back/Grandma’s cabinet/Won’t budge/Neither forward or back

Remmy Ongala & Orchestre Super Matimila: Kipenda Roho / Loving from the Heart
Lyrics & music: Remmy Ongala
Tanzania, Swahili, 1989

Born in the former Belgian Congo, singer-songwriter-guitarist Remmy Ongala moved at age 30 to Tanzania, where he was instrumental in planting soukous into the local music culture. The new variant became known as Ubongo, and Ongala used his music as a vehicle for addressing social issues such as poverty and AIDS with songs that earned him the nickname “Dr. Remmy.” Kipenda Roho, from his 1989 album Songs for the Poor Man, was one of his most popular works.
Loving with the heart/Love is blind and deaf/When one loves, they truly love/When one loves, they are oblivious to everything else/Loving with the heart/Love knows no insect nor animal/Fish in water procreate/When crows gather in the evening, they mate in great numbers/Loving with the heart/Love does not discriminate/If love was discriminatory/The bad would cry/We who are bad would not get anything/We who are weak

Ilham Al-Madfai: Khuttar / خطار / Joy May Visit Unexpectedly
Lyrics: Aziz Al-Samawi/Music: Ilham Al-Madfai
Iraq/Jordan, Arabic, 1999

Known as “The Baghdad Beatle,” Al-Madfai stands out as a singer, composer and guitarist, a blender of Western guitar with traditional Arabic music, and founder of Iraq’s first rock band in 1961. Though he had a considerable following in his native country, he was barely tolerated by the Baathist regimes, and under the repression of Saddam Hussein Al-Madfai emigrated, first to the Gulf and eventually to Jordan, where he continued his career and was granted citizenship. Khuttar is one of his most enduring songs.
Joy might visit us unexpectedly/Hang the lit candles/It might pass through this way/Spray the way with tears/Oh, my heart, where is sorrow?/I hid it from joy’s path (the heart answers)/You always wail with distressed tears (the heart talking)/Your shadow is a mere lying hope/Above the heavens lifted (the prisoner)/Be careful not to cry with sorrow/The sound of sorrow is heard (his heart speaking)

R.E.M.: Losing My Religion
Lyrics & music: Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe
U.S., English, 1991

Singh was an eminent composer, musician and singer who was instrumental in reviving the popularity of ghazals, notably composing many of the traditional-style poems for Indian films. He also composed and performed classical, folk and devotional songs. Tum Itna Jo Muskura Rahe Ho is from the 1982 Bollywood drama Arth.
How is it so that you smile so much/What sorrow are you hiding?/There is wetness in your eyes, a smile on your lips/What’s your condition and why are you trying to hide your sadness/If you keep drinking, it will poison you/These tears that you keeping on drinking/The wounds that time has almost healed/Why do you keep disturbing them?/Fate is a game of lines (of the palm, of the forehead)/You are just being defeated by lines

Whiskey in the Jar, which tells the story of a highwayman who robs a high-ranking official and is then betrayed by his wife/sweetheart, is one of the most widely known and performed Irish traditional songs. In clubs and pubs it is typically sung in spirited fashion but for some reason the leading Irish bands have often recorded more relaxed versions. A prominent exception is The High Kings: On their 2010 album Memory Lane they give the song the exuberance it deserves.
As I was goin’ over the Cork and Kerry mountains/I met with captain Farrell as his money he was counting/I first produced me pistols and then produced me rapier/I said: “Stand and deliver,” for he were a bold deceiver/Mush-a ring dum-a do dum-a da/Wack fall the daddy-o, wack fall the daddy-o/There’s whiskey in the jar/I took all of his money and it was a pretty penny/I put it in my pocket and I brought it home to Jenny/She sighed and she swore that she never would deceive me/But the devil take the women, for they never can be easy/Mush-a ring dum-a do dum-a da/Wack fall the daddy-o, wack fall the daddy-o/There’s whiskey in the jar

Radka Vranková, known professionally as Radůza, is an award-winning singer-songwriter who plays accordion, guitar, ukulele, piano, flute and bagpipes. In addition to her own songs, which run from blues to folk, she is a composer of classical and stage music. Originally released on her 2005 album V hoře (On the Mountain), Bylo nebylo is also the title she gave to her 2023 greatest hits album.
I look back through the hole in the fence/The handle has already lost its copper/You are distant in time and matter/And I’m only letting you in now/I drank more than I should have/It wasn’t good for me/As if I didn’t know that it won’t do anything/As if I didn’t know/There is peace in me/For which I wanted to fly/Beyond the horizon, beyond space…/Before I step out of all my bodies/I understand that the enemy/Whether he meant to be or not/Was the best teacher

Robert Burns is the national poet of Scotland and the greatest poet who wrote in the Scots language. He also penned essays and commentaries (mostly in English) on civil and political themes, and was a source of inspiration for liberalism and the anti-slavery movement. Burns wrote Auld Lang Syne in 1788, based on an older Scottish folk ballad. The song is a part of New Year’s Eve festivities across the English-speaking world; it is also sung across Scotland and in Scottish communities around the world at “Burns Suppers” every January 25, a Scottish national holiday marking the poet’s birthday. The most common English translations of the song’s title are “old times” or “days gone by.” The expression “take a cup o’ kindness” refers to tradition of raising a glass to friendship or remembrance of noble deeds. Robyn Stapleton is renowned for her performances of Scottish and Irish traditional songs; she included Auld Lang Syne on her critically acclaimed 2017 album Songs of Robert Burns.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot/And never brought to mind?/Should auld acquaintance be forgot/And auld lang syne!/For auld lang syne, my Dear/For auld lang syne/We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet/For auld lang syne…/We two have run about the hills/And pulled the daisies fine/But we’ve wander’d many a weary foot/Since auld lang syne