The majority of viewers of the Eurovision Song Contest are not hardcore fans. They watch the songs for the very first time the night of the grand final, so chances are they will mishear a word or phrase (or several). After the top 5 misheard Eurovision lyrics of 2014, our readers chimed in with their own misheard lyrics, which are the basis for this post. Prepare to ask yourself, “Did that really happen?”
“Same Heart” – Israel
What we heard: “I touch your dick”
Correct lyric: “Ata shotek” (Or in plain English: “You are silent”)
Skip to 1:18 to hear the first line of the song in Hebrew. Hebrew is a very difficult language to get to grips with. So it’s fair to assume that most of us, including hardcore Eurovision fans, would have struggled to understand what Mei was saying. Could this be why Israel suffered a shock exit this year?
“Rise Like a Phoenix” – Austria
What we heard: “Rise like a penis”
Correct lyric: “Rise like a phoenix”
This can be found at 0:57 in the video. Now obviously the song title says it all, but considering Wurst means sausage in German, some people may have heard something anatomical. Ironically, there’s an actual Conchita Wurst parody based on this misheard lyric.
“Undo” – Sweden
What we heard: “Undo myself”
Correct lyric: “Undo my sad”
Skip to 0:52 to hear this questionable line. While we were overjoyed when Sanna finally won Melodifestivalen, we were also baffled about what “Undo my sad” actually means. Some of us thought we’d undo ourselves as we worried Sanna was trying to undo her SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).
“Shine” – Russia
What we heard: “You are my Russian sun”
Correct lyric: “You are my rising sun”
This can be found in the second line of the chorus, so you’ll need to skip to 1:11. Earlier this year we questioned whether the lyrics of “Shine” related to the annexation of a certain disputed territory, an event which unfortunately resulted in the sisters getting booed from the audience after Russia qualified from the semi-final.
“Amazing” – Estonia
What we heard: “Do you hear me Sweden?”
Correct lyric: “Do you hear me screaming?”
This can be heard at 0:43 in the video. We can hear Tanja screaming “Stay amazing lie”, which makes little sense to us. However, others must’ve thought she was screaming out for Sweden to give points to Estonia. While it may not be the full douze points, the Swedes did give 5 points to Tanja. Sadly, this was not enough to prevent Estonia from taking an unexpected early exit.
Photo: Thomas Hanses (EBU)
Here’s your answer V_AUS: http://wiwibloggs.com/2014/05/01/mei-finegold-connect-lyrics-song-good-song/48612/ 🙂
Back on the topic of Mei, I never got the line “I’m skinning you out”. What does that mean anyway? I heard it as “spinning you out” (reminding me of a washing machine), or maybe “spitting you out”. Glad I wasn’t alone in thinking Estonia was singing “Stay, amazing light”. I’ve lately wondered if you asked a bunch of English speakers to sing in languages like Hebrew, Azeri, Russian, Latvian, Danish on TV, whether people from the respective countries would be quite so forgiving about us distorting or mutilating their language.
@ Robyn I SO TOTALLY HEAR YOU!
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Your comments guys just made my day:D
“Do you hear me Sweden?” ahahaha
I swear I heard Latvia singing ‘I created the plan for the Chinese WAR’.
I thought Tanja sang “Stay amazing life”.
I’m amazed there are people who could even tell Dilara was singing in English.
I genuinely thought the Azeri song “Start A Fire” was sung predominantly in a foreign language (assumed to be Azerbaijani) apart from the titular line start a fire, literally only yesterday did someone tell me she was actually singing in English.
Replayed the vid, and think I managed to hear the words “nightfall” and “teardrops” in there somewhere, but as a native english speaker, the song really did sound like it was all in a foreign language.
i thought the Georgian song had ‘Space junk’
Concerning Sanna’s “Undo my sad”: I still see no problem in understanding what “undo my sad” is because you have to fully read the whole lyric to grasp the meaning of this “sad” refers to … using an adjective as a substantive has always been poetically stylistically accepted and proves to be meaningful … unless you just don’t care or even gonna bother to know that but expecting the next big chocolate cake recipe where every word has no double meaning and one plus one only equals two … I did relisten to the whole performance and allow me to… Read more »
If they sing in English, most likely a lot of mispronunciations will occur making it sound laughable and embarrassing .. yet they just wanted us to understand the lyrics (although in most cases, there is nothing relevant to understand in the first place). If they sing in their native language, everybody will complain no one can understand a damn word … Are we being too weird or too kitsch about this whole lyric thing? Is it fun to hear them sound pathetic in English? Is it boring to hear them sing their native language?
@Willy Lee Adams
I listened to Same Heart again, and to me it sounds like in my mouse. To me it sounds like she either is in to beastiality of she has a new name for her genitals. I think the song has been ruined for, and it was my favourite this year, after my UK ofcourse.
I swear the Georgian Entry was saying “Space Jam”
@ Anthony my comment was tongue-in-cheek… though it was meant seriously for those here “hardcore eurofans” who are native speakers and seem unable to make out the lyrics. I mean, we all have difficulty understanding something here and there, even when it is the singer’s (and our!) native tongue 😉
Agree with Sweden. Until like a month before Eurovision I thought she was saying ”Undo myself” also, which made more sense than ”my sad”. If you begin with the eastern block who all sang in English you would need only one article for them. No one would believe me that e.g Dilara was singing in English. I had read the lyrics, but when she sang live I did hear ” But may de slidest lighd stard ou fire” and at the first verse ” But no one sees the beer and cold” than the bitter cold, not to mention pepoule… Read more »
Bear in mind Marcelo N, unlike us hardcore Eurovision fans where we all get to hear it more than once, a majority of Eurovision viewers would only hear the entries once, before making that difficult decision of making their mind up in several minutes.
Well… Dilara -bless her soul- deserves a whole article on her live singing 😉
(Here’s when I get torn to bits by the Azeris, maybe except Rashad and a couple more hehe)
First and foremost, Zack is spot on: give us any song in any unrelated language (unrelated to the one/s we speak) and we’ll destroy it 😛
But hey, native speakers of English, what’s up with your ears? I mean, please! A professional Swedish singer (or most any Swede for that matter) singing “self” for “sad”? Y’all hearing “Sweden” for “screaming”? (the /m/ sound is distinctly noticeable in every known language to have it) “Russian” for “rising”??
Far-fetched to state the very least…
I also thought Dilara sang “someone’s selling guns and roses”
I thought Estonia’s song was “Stay amazing light”
My friends actually thought Dilara was singing in another language and were shocked to realize it was English. I still hear “foodstamps” and not “footsteps.” But to be fair, I’m sure I’d butcher Azeri if I tried to sing it…
I’m so glad you mentioned same heart. I heard it the first time I heard it, but I still love the song. It should have been in the first artical. If you listen to the next line, it sounds like she is singing, “I need you young”. She turned in to a MILF with those lyrics. Who said eurovision is for the family. Lol
not at all
I thought Dilara Kasimova from Azerbaijan was singing ‘someone’s selling guns and roses down the square’.
I’ve had trouble Undo. ”Undo my sad” just didn’t make any sense to me, so i thought she said ”Undo myself” until a few weeks before the final. Also, i thought estonia’s song was saying ”Stay amazing life” for some reason 😛
I mean, no. Maybe the first one is understandable but the others are just ridiculous aren’t they?
I always though that Dilara from Azerbaijan was singing “and may these ladders light” until I looked up the lyrics and realised that she was singing “and may the slightest light”…