Ruth Lorenzo must feel like a punching bag. In recent weeks Spain’s Eurovision contestant has faced bruising in all directions. First Brequette fans filed a petition to have Ruth’s victory overturned. Now the Real Academia Española (RAE) — the prestigious body that oversees the Spanish language — is criticizing this señorita for singing “Dancing in the Rain” partly in English.
20Minutos.es reports that José Manuel Blecua, director of the RAE, wrote to Leopoldo Gonzalez-Echenique, the president of RTVE, expressing concern that Ruth isn’t sticking strictly to Spanish. RAE says it was compelled to act after officials in many Latin American countries wrote to them to complain about Ruth singing in ingles.
It’s known that she has recorded three versions of the song—in English, Spanish and a mixed version. Blecua’s worst nightmare is that Ruth sings in English.
But Ruth probably doesn’t want that either. After all, the song was originally penned in English and then Ruth insisted that Spanish be introduced into the text. She sang a hybrid version at the Spanish national final. You can read the lyrics here.
http://youtu.be/vHjMlA8QVrM
What do you think? Should Ruth choose to sing a Spanish version, an English version, or a version with both languages? Let us know in the poll below.
And thank you to wiwireader “Pastora Soler haha” for tipping us off to the news!
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Charles you said that “we Europeans have embraced the ideal of being plurilingual speakers and open minded about other languages” what hypocrisy coming from an English native speaker! The UK is the worst country in Europe for the promotion of Languages even those native Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, Irish and Cornish etc! Also those learning other languages/becoming 2nd language speakers eg in French, German and Spanish etc are decreasing! She should only sing in Spanish! And every other country should sing in their own language, the English language is destroying cultures and languages still to this day! And this is… Read more »
Whats the fuzz about? Soraya sang “Come on and take me… come and shake me”
and D Nash sang “I love you mi vida”…
¿¿¿????SO??????
@Mr. M: You are true, a lot of Hispanics in south America fought hard to learn English for all kinds of reasons and surpass any political confrontation there is between the USA and south American countries. But there is absolutely no BS on the “enemigo” theory because you just need to recall all those politically charged speeches from Hugo Chavéz or Fidel to mentions these as examples and their huge influence in so many south American people to believe that the USA was the “enemy” while probably these politicians were the true “enemies” to themselves. So yes there was and… Read more »
To be honest, Spain wonders why they don’t win… they have very strong acts (Pastora Soler, Daniel Diges.. etc.) that only sung in Spanish, most songs that win now are in English. Yeah, you have the odd exception as in 2007 with Serbia but that was 9 years after a song fully in another language won. The Spanish public chose Ruth, if the RAE didn’t want a Spanglish entry winning why did they let it enter?
I call BS on this one. Most Latin American countries don’t give a sh!t about Eurovision (I’m in Latin America) and couldn’t care less about what or who Spain sends to the contest.
Probably these guys from RAE are in reality Spaniards who don’t wanna see a Spain ESC representative singing fully in English so they threw this “curved ball” to Latin America, LOL.
@Charles BS on that “enemigo” theory as well. Most people in Latin America are actually very interested in learning/speaking English.
Whatever RAE, the English part is just in the chorus! And why should Latin America bothered? This is way too far, it’s just a song contest. I don’t care about the language that she would use in Copenhagen as long as the language doesn’t ruin the substance of the song. To be fair, people will remember one particular country because the song that sent to Eurovision is a great song, not because of their language. But it is indeed great to see all the countries singing with their own language..
The language switch is sort of odd so I’d love it if she stuck to full Spanish. But in the end, it’s her decision, and the song will be pretty good regardless. Good luck/Buena suerte!
It depends on if you want her to do well. The fact is songs sung in Englsh do far better. Almost 50% of Europeans can speak conversational English…. only around 15% speak Spanish. It’s far easier to connect with a song if you actually understand it. In the last 15 years..14 of the winning songs have been in English. In the history of Eurovision 28 winners have sung in English…only 2 have sung in Spanish (and that was way back in 1968 and 69). If she wants to win..if Spain wants her to win…then she should sing wholly in English.… Read more »
I’m not surprised with this criticism coming from RAE. There is a very strong protective attitude towards the Spanish language, which I personally praise, but has its downfall: it can be so prudish and so narrow-minded against other languages. And it’s true to say that such behaviour does show off much evidently in South American countries, which have a very conflictive relationship with the English language because of the EUA. In Spain things aren’t so restricted and not so conservative as far as foreign languages are concern: Spanish people today understand that learning and expressing in other languages does not… Read more »
Both.
This is a massive overreach. At most, RAE can make pronouncements regarding proper Spanish usage, including for example attempts to expel English loan words from Spanish, like their French counterparts. Railing against Spanglish is totally within their remit. What they can’t do is decide when people can use English as English, which is what “Dancing in the Rain” does. That said, I don’t think the English parts need to be understood literally to carry the song; The pattern of sound textures is what matters. If it works as well in pure Spanish, and Ruth likes it, then that would be… Read more »
Her song, her performance therefore, her choice! She can sing in any language format she chooses to, what the hell as it to do with anyone else?
She most probably as an affiliation with UK because she finished fifth in X-Factor.
Will the RAE apologise to her if she was to win the Eurovision…SHUT UP RAE Please!
I hate this mediocre conservative postition about languages, not only spanish, and not only in the Eurovision. Welcome to the new era, languages is spelled with an “s” at the end, denoting plurality, diversity and cultural enrichment, I speak english, spanish and very very very little dutch, and it has been an awesome experience I don’t understand this FEAR (almost phobia) to a whole new way of expressing the world. This reminds me the stupid case of the CocaCola ad, the americans were so angry because in that ad was sung a multi-language version of a american song, or the… Read more »
Singing in English we don’t show nothing personal. This is Spain, we sing in Spanish if don’t like it with hands over their ears. I don’t like that she sing in English, not even the middle of the song. We sing every year in Spanish because we think that EUROvision is a day to show the culture, of each country, language is culture, something personal, and English is not our culture. For us is pathetic every year Sweden singing in English or Norway etc or Russia… Is EURO-vision, not ENGLISH-vision, please … I want the Eurovision song contest to see… Read more »
I don’t care what language she sings in to be honest. I don’t like the song, but hearing it in full Spanish might make me like it more.
The original song is a mixed one. It should remain mixed.
I’m hispanic and I think they’re crossing the stupid line yet again. It’s her song and it’s a really old and matterless issue. Sebastian Tellier already went through it, and nobody batted an eyelash at Soraya, D’NASH or Rodolfo. Be thankful you got someone with a decent skill in English
I´m from Spain and I really feel ashamed about “RAE”… When Rosa sang “Europe´s living a celebration” they said that “the english tittle was PATETIC”. WTF!!!!???
“RAE says it was compelled to act after officials in many Latin American countries wrote to them to complain about Ruth singing in ingles.”
Ruth represents Spain, not Latin America. The end.
And I am Latin American.
ESPAÑA, TIENEN UNA ESPECTACULAR REPRESENTANTE Y SI DE GANAR SE TRATA LO INTERNACIONAL DE SU TALENTO LES FAVORECE, CREO QUE ELLA LLEVA CLARAMENTE A ESPAÑA EN SU PERSONALIDAD, EN SU VOZ Y EN LA CANCION, POR FAVOR DEJEN DE CRITICAR Y SEGUIR AFERADOS A ESTAR SIEMPRE EN EL FONDO, DIGO DESPUES DE MANDAR AL CHIQUILICUATE ESE, DEBERIAN TENER LA BOCA CERRADA, ESTO ES ARTE PURO.
RAE is always bothering me ^^” (yes, I’m from Spain). Firstly, they change some spelling rules which I’m not used to writing (they’ve done it many times) and now they’re bugging with this. Let US decide if we want the song in English or in Spanish. What a nuisance! -.-
Well talking about being closed-minded… maybe we should go back to the language restriction era and force countries to sing in their mother language only again…
I wonder what’s so wrong in Ruth singing in english? Admittedly spanish is a beautiful language, but nobody would die if Spain ever sent an english-only entry for a change…