Can a professional sing in Russian without an accent? Lara Fabian "Love like a dream"
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- Professional Russian pronunciation coach reacts to Lara Fabian singing in Russian and explains common mistakes that non-native speakers make.
Song: Alone Tonight
Music by: CreatorMix.com
Hey guys)) I'm sorry that I do not sound kind in this video. Being in front of the camera makes me quite nervous😶
It just validates the fact that she is a human being with the voice of an angel! in another video of the same song the audience is in tears, she touches peoples hearts with her voice, that is what makes Lara so loved world wide and that is more special than being able to speak a language perfectly.
More information on Lara Fabian:
Lara is recognized as one of the best vocalist ever seen on earth and all professionals list her in the top vocalist tier with Barbra, Whitney, Mariah, Celine, Lisa Fischer, ....
In my personal opinion, she is even the best.
There are a few vocal characteristics that are her signature: her famous resonance for instance that allows her to sing acapella without mic in venues with 8,000 attendees. Her nickname in the singing world is "the ring" due to this. I would also list her amazing phrasing, breath management and her pleasant tone even when belting in her upper register.
So she is one of the best vocalist ever, but on top of that, she adds a few things that make her an absolute package with no equivalence:
• she speaks 2 languages natively (french, italian), and 2 others fluently (english, spanish), can speak a bit of dutch (and sicilian), and understand quite well russian and portuguese. She has sung in 12 languages in total
• she is an amazing songwriter and wrote lyrics for most her songs, in the 4 languages she speaks fluently. She often co-composes the music with the composer.
• she acts and performs on stage as nobody else, she colors and reveals the meaning of every single word in the songs, and her ability to emote, to draw you in is second to none
• she is the sweetest soul on earth, very humble, down to earth and benevolent. She likes to meet others, and her fans are always pleasantly surprised when this happens.
A quick background on her and her career:
She is belgian, her father is flemish, but also has italian roots (her mother is from sicilia) and American roots ( her grandfather is from Detroit). She was raised in sicilia first then in Belgium so she speaks both italian and french as native languages.
She has been classically trained on vocal, piano and songs composition for 10 years ( from 8 to 18) in the Brussels Royal Conservatory.
She is still having vocal lessons and training several times a week today.
She started her career in Canada in the early 90s, more precisely in Quebec, the french-speaking part of Canada.
She had been living for years in Montreal and has also Canadian citizenship. She just moved
Back to Italy a few months ago (temporarily?).
She became very famous in Quebec and then conquered France in 1996/1997 (she topped charts there and some of her songs such as "Je t'aime" or "Tout" became classics of the french music).
In 2000, she was about to penetrate the US Market, with a lot of media initial interest. Her first english song (I will love again), a pop dance song, stayed number one on the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for 58 weeks in a row and number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Her Album ("Lara Fabian") was about to become a massive hit, and the concert "From Lara With Love" was recorded to be broadcasted everywhere in the US.
This concert is legendary, packed with masterpieces (covered by many great vocalists later on).
But a dispute with Sony on artistry directions, and the will from Celine Dion's staff to block her progress in the US, completely broke this plan.
She thus refocused back on Europe and made huge success there, extending her reach to Eastern Europe and Central Asia where she became an absolute superstar through her collaboration with Igor Krutoy during several years. She is absolutely massive in Russia for instance.
She is also a star in Brazil as her song "Love By Grace", used as the soundtrack for a very famous soap opera, topped the charts for months and become a recurrent in the local singing contests since then.
Many of her songs became classics and were covered by the other singing legends: Barbra Streisand, Shirley Bassey, Josh Groban (they are friends and he told she is a role model for him), …
With her success in Europe, Brazil and part of Asia, she is the inspiration of the new generation of vocalists: most of them are coming from there.
Thru their covers of Lara Fabian songs, USA and many other countries are now rediscovering her.
She is Dimash's idol:
I’ve read somewhere that, when he was a child, he was listening her songs every night to get asleep.
He covered many of her songs, most of these were composed by Igor Krutoy and written by by Lara.
Out of my mind I can list:
○ Adagio (She wrote it and is the original performer),
○ Mademoiselle Hyde (she wrote it and is the original performer),
○ Love of Tired Swans (she wrote the song in French under the title "Je t'aime encore" and was the original performer of the french then the russian versions, Dimash covered the russian version)
○ Ascolta La Voce / Vocalize (this was a pure vocalization and she was the original performer, then lyrics were added for Dimash and it was rebranded as "Know")
She also wrote the lyrics of Dimash's song "Your Love".
And she covered "Love is like a dream" before him (song from Igor Krutoy originally performed by Alla Pugacheva).
Finally, they also performed "Ti Amo Cosi" together, in trio with Aida Garafulina: this is a song that she performed originally with Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Sumi Jo then again later with Dmitri and Alina Yarovaya, before this new trio with Dimash and Aida.
Dimash is now also working with Igor Krutoy: Igor and Dimash connected after his Adagio cover, also endorsed by Lara.
Igor came back from retirement and composed severals songs for him after it.
Many other top vocalists from the current generation covered her songs, some have Lara as a role model and big inspiration:
○ Floor Jansen (Adagio),
○ Polina Gagarina (Adagio, Je t’aime),
○ Diana Ankudinova (Tomorrow is a lie),
○ Morissette Amon (Broken Vow),
○ Gabriel Henrique (Love by Grace),
○ Cakra Khan (Broken Vow),
○ Katrina Velarde (Broken Vow),
○ Regine Velasquez (Broken Vow),
○ Giulia Falcone (Adagio, Caruso, Je suis malade, Je t'aime),
○ Forestella (Je suis Malade),
○ Almira (from 4th Impact band) (Broken Vow),
○ Gigi de Lana (Broken Vow)
○ Julie Anne san Jose (Adagio, Broken Vow),
○ Rimar ( Adagio, Broken Vow, Know),
○ Il Divo (Adagio)
○ Daria Bentsa (I guess I loved you),
○ Sarah Geronimo (Broken Vow)
○ Laura Bretan ( Adagio, Caruso),
○ Jackie Evancho (Je t’aime, Caruso and Broken Vow, BV rewritten as « Imaginer » by Lara for Jackie),
○ Amir (Je t’aime),
○ Vitas (Adagio),
○ Anastasia Luna (Adagio),
○ Jeck (Je T’Aime),
○ Evgenia Fanfara (Adagio),
○ Anna Eriksson (Je suis malade),
○ Choi Sung Hoon (Je suis malade),
○ Soprano Turetsky band (Adagio)
○ Majda Roumi (Adagio),
○ Harrison Craig (Broken Vow),
○ Petra Berger (Adagio, Broken Vow),
○ Katerina Maslova (Je t’aime, I guess I loved you)
○ Sevara Nazarkhan (Je t’aime)
○ ....
NB: Lara did cover Caruso , Je suis malade, and Love by grace, these are not her originals, but I mention these here as the related artists were attracted to cover it again after listening to Lara’s version.
Today, Lara still has an amazing voice and tone and can still reach the 5th octave with resonance ; she still offers these emotive renditions that are her unique signature.
In June 2022, she kicked off a WW tour and stunned her fans once again with 5 magical concerts in Canada. She completed the europe part in September/October and I attended a concert from this tour. It was packed and she was again spectacular.
On April and May 2023 she had again a wonderful concerts in Tbilissi, Georgia, and in Ouzbekhistan and Kazakhstan.
Sorry if I was long, but I hope this gives some context on Lara.
🇨🇦 As Eric Sicard says below, Lara is a language genius, but she does admit to not being perfect ! Lara is completely fluent in 2 languages (French & Italian) and mostly fluent in 2 others (English & Spanish) ! She has a very good understanding of 8 others (including Russian) ! It is hardly fair to criticize ! The few mistakes she made do not create problems for the audience to enjoy the performance ! Just you !
I am sorry that did not make it clear in this video that the goal was not to criticize Lara, she is awesome, but to demonstrate to Russian learners commonly mispronounced sounds. Thank you for your feedback.
Not like Celine Dion.She is one and only amazing Lara Fabian❤.Best female live performer.Greeting from Croatia👍
Hahah))) Got me there! Agree! Lara is the best!
Lara is a language genius, she is native in italian and french. She is fluent in english and spanish.
She speaks a bit of russian, duch and portuguese.
She has sung in 12 languages.
ua-cam.com/video/MZ3GxqlPzwc/v-deo.html
And she writes songs in 4 of these ( french, english, italian ans spanish)
When she speaks french, she automatically (almost unconsciously) switches to the local flavor based on where she is. In France, she uses the French accent. In Belgica she uses the belgian accent. And in Quebec, the quebec accent.
In italian, her native accent is from Sicilia but when she sings Caruso she uses instead the accent from Naples (where the song has been written and thr song story is located). That has been noticed and reported by stunned italian reactors.
When she sings or speaks English, she is almost native, just a few vowels modifications ( partly for better resonance, partly from the french language heritage, which reminds listeners of Celine Dion).
Some americans listened to her english interviews and said she speak english better than them 😂
Spanish reactors said she is very good with an accent coming from Spain and not south america.
Israel reactors said her hebrew pronunciation are actually quite good for a non-jew singer.
Just a side note to tell that thru her collab with Igor, Lara wrote lyrics in several languages for most of their songs. She even wrote the lyrics of the song Your Love for Dimash.
Thank you for sharing more information about Lara! She is so amazing!!!! I'm glad to meet someone who loves and appreciates her as much as I do. As a performer, she is a great inspiration for me.
@@AccentFreeRussian My pleasure, I will post 2 comments with 1/ her personal and career background, 2/ a recommended playlist. She is stunning as an artist and even more as a human being, very humble,caring, benevolent and empathetic.
Very interesting video! I love Lara Fabian and I always wondered what native Russian speakers think about her Russian while singing this song. The song is amazing btw and I really admire those brave enough to attempt such a difficult song in a language with so many unique sounds (at least for me). Thank you for your analysis!
Glad you liked it!
She has a heavy accent, but who cares when listening to that fabulous voice?! 😁
@@EllanaTs hee Ellana ,glad to see you here ,anna is about the Russian lanquage , love her explanation althoug it sometimes confusing ,have you seen the analyse of Tired Swans?
@@eannemarie739 Hi, Annemarie! ❤️
No, not yet. Wishing you a great weekend! 🌷
@@EllanaTs Same to you darling although we meet ofcourse at Dimash's 🤩whitout a doubt 🇳🇱⚘️🌷
Here is a short list of suggestions to start a journey with Lara:
Songs she wrote:
• Adagio (english version) : ua-cam.com/video/bqoS-KOLV_4/v-deo.html (covered among others by Dimash, Floor Jansen, Dame Shirley Bassey, Il Divo)
• You are not from here (english): ua-cam.com/video/Vv8XFXKXRLI/v-deo.html
• Broken Vow (english): ua-cam.com/video/kJBGCI8aSE4/v-deo.html (covered by Barbra Streisand, Josh Groban, Gigi de Lana, Almira (4th impact), Morissette Amon, Katrina Velarde, Regine Velasquez, Cakra Khan, Harrison Craig, ...)
• I guess I loved you (english): ua-cam.com/video/EwI-HIfSyqU/v-deo.html
• Je t'aime (french): ua-cam.com/video/l826rlBOn9w/v-deo.html (covered by Polina Gagarina, Amir, Giulia Falcone, …)
• I am A-WA (english):
ua-cam.com/video/mKLdLox918A/v-deo.html
• Tu es mon autre (French, duet with Maurane):
ua-cam.com/video/kfQbUMZXhAE/v-deo.html
• Si tu m’aimes (French):
ua-cam.com/video/Wg-Zv9cWuDE/v-deo.html
• Pas sans toi (French):
ua-cam.com/video/H12LGDnl6pI/v-deo.html
• Par Amour (French):
ua-cam.com/video/rjrTd8VeP64/v-deo.html
• Llora (Spanish):
ua-cam.com/video/8Fh35Foo9CA/v-deo.html
• Dites-moi pourquoi je l’aime (French):
ua-cam.com/video/-85T-iR7dfc/v-deo.html
• Mademoiselle Hyde (English):
ua-cam.com/video/SZm-lhuSyI4/v-deo.html (covered by Dimash)
• Quedate (Spanish):
ua-cam.com/video/cX0CPdBV75E/v-deo.html
Original songs but she didn’t write these:
• For Always (Soundtrack of Spielberg’s A.I. movie, english, duet with Josh Groban):
ua-cam.com/video/V4dttmn3ppU/v-deo.html
• I will love again (english):
ua-cam.com/video/RuNPZwN13Q0/v-deo.html
When she covers a song, she often makes it her own.
Some amazing covers she made:
• Je suis malade (french, song from Serge Lama): ua-cam.com/video/eHSyk4SGtuY/v-deo.html ( her version was covered by Forestella, Giulia Falcone, …)
• Caruso (italian, song from Lucio Dalla): ua-cam.com/video/BP2KnLemT78/v-deo.html
• Perdere L'Amore (italian, song from Massimo Ranieri): ua-cam.com/video/mcmhCfH9OfQ/v-deo.html
• Yentl Medley (Papa can you hear me + A piece of sky, chained , cover of her idol Barbra Streisand, english): ua-cam.com/video/zW8lalHMwxk/v-deo.html
• I will always love you (cover of Dolly Parton / Whitney Houston, english): ua-cam.com/video/4f-wx-ue89U/v-deo.html
• Love by grace (cover of Wynona Judd, english):
ua-cam.com/video/8V0pGXZxxzE/v-deo.html (her version was covered by Gabriel Henrique)
• Calling You (cover of Jevetta Steele, english):
ua-cam.com/video/KkfXEb_VyLM/v-deo.html
• Voir un ami pleurer (cover of Jacques Brel, french): ua-cam.com/video/FR7LfGytwO4/v-deo.html
Also a few famous duets:
• Requiem pour un fou (with Johnny Hallyday, french) :
ua-cam.com/video/zR1rkt_0biA/v-deo.html
• The Prayer (with Michael Bolton, english):
ua-cam.com/video/M__6PFD1YEw/v-deo.html
• La Solitudine (with Laura Pausini, italian):
ua-cam.com/video/Bgv-jUZH60w/v-deo.html
• Il y a (with Isabelle Boulay, french): ua-cam.com/video/F61JEarOwuo/v-deo.html
• Et maintenant (with Florent Pagny, french):
ua-cam.com/video/Mi0E0pLLxf0/v-deo.html
And her famous trio:
• Ti Amo Cosi (with Dimash and Aida Garafulina, italian):
ua-cam.com/video/XaQFfqC3lnU/v-deo.html
A Lara é maravilhosa, em qualquer língua. Duvido que você possa cantar com paixão e em várias línguas como a Lara faz. Não sei porque o UA-cam me recomendou este vídeo, sei lá kkkk
Thank you for sharing your feedback. Lara is wonderful, no doubt!
Она просто хочет иностранцев научить, как правильно делать произношение в русском языке. Что Вы придираетесь? Все знают, что Лара Фабиан очень талантливая певица. Но кто изучает русский язык она на примере Лары Фабиан показывает, где неправильно произношение у неё. И она не говорила, что Лара Фабиан плохая певица. Это ничего же плохого она не сказала. Просто так эффективно показать, как работать над произношением.
@@user-gx7gl2wo4z Точно! Спасибо большое за поддержку!
criticizing Lara is heresy 😄😉.
More seriously, about Dimash, despite all his vocal talent, if you had to analyze his English or French pronunciation, you would need two boxes of stabilo.
lol As French, I confirm your words and Dimash stays an excellent singer
Hahah! That is so true! I can't really judge little phonetic nuances in any other language, though.
Question: how much of the less-than-ideal pronunciation is due to the modifications that always happen in sung lyrics vs spoken in any language I'm familiar with? Obviously she has an accent. However, she has a very good ear & was taught what to sing phonetically by native speakers. Knowing of her technical prowess as a vocalist employing vowel-modification etc in the 4 languages she is fluent in, I'm left wondering how many of these variations are due to 1) necessity/choice for vocal effect 2) being taught by native Russian speakers in a way that differs from the standard?
That is an excellent question! I got a degree in classical singing, so that is a big area of my expertise. As you noticed in the video the majority of the accent comes from mispronouncing ы, the hard and soft hashers, and soft consonants. The problem is that these sounds are unique to Russian, but requires awareness and muscle memory to say them right. Some sounds are so close to the sounds that a person already knows well (in case of Lara Fabian at least French, English, Italian, and German) that she/he substitutes sounds with familiar ones. I worked with many American singers, and majority of them do not hear the difference at first. It takes practice and awareness but the result is amazing!
@@AccentFreeRussian Thank you.
As someone who is learning Russian with French as his native language, I loved this. It seems, though, that many people missed the point and thought you were "criticizing" Lara for "butchering" the language, which you were not. I would recommend that you make your angle clearer in similar videos of singers, as those probably attract a wider audience than other types of videos more directly focused on language.
I can say that my pronunciation of hard consonants is pretty good, as well as that of the "t" followed by a vocal consonant like "v" (I don't have access to cyrillic caracters on the keyboard I'm currently using). However, I'm aware that I make the same mistake as Lara when pronouncing soft consonants; which is to say them somewhat hard, but adding a quick "j" before the next vowel and hope that it makes it sound soft. Soft vs. hard consonants is a completely foreign concept for French speakers, so I think we are taught some shortcuts to try to make it easier to understand, but which make it harder to sound native because we don't quite comprehend what is supposed to happen in the mouth to differentiate the two. Of course, that means that I struggle quite a bit with soft signs at the end of words. In short, I think I need to deepen my understanding of the nuances between hard and soft.
I appreciate your support! You're right the point of showing common mistakes in Russian pronunciation should be more apparent. I'm going to make another video with a better demonstration. Stay tuned)))
I like accents. Why people want to do away with regional accept is a wonder. If we all sounded the same it would be boring.
People want to work on their accent and polish pronunciation when it gets on the way. They're trying to communicate an important for them message but it is not received fully, because a listener focuses more on trying to understand mispronounced words rather then the message.
@@AccentFreeRussian It's ironic, your English grammar has obvious flaws but I comprehend your message . You don't have to be perfect to be understood. Lara is such a dynamic performer, with so many ways to convey her story, that pronunciation is of little consequence when you can deliver like she can.🥰
@@Shoe-shineBoy For sure!!! Totally agree, I'm her fan!! I'm a pronunciation specialist and I used her song to demonstrate some common mistakes in Russian that could be fixed with some exercises. It was my first attempt, I'll do better next time.
i read that Krutoy had a very busy carreer (still has )
Yes, he does :)
Tem que estar,a Lara Fabian não larga o Igor Krutoy e muito menos o Dimash Kutenbergen,não é surpresa nenhuma.
I appreciate that you a specifically dissecting the song to comment on pronunciation. I guess as I don’t speak Russian it wouldn’t make a difference to me but I also believe that as long as the interpretation is correct surely those listening would be more concerned with the music and her beautiful voice
Thank you. You're right, she is a very talented singer!
Le "h" allemand n'est pas soufflé mais aspiré et ce n'est pas facile parce qu'on a l'habitude du contraire
Good to know! Thank you for sharing!
Give Lara a break girl she is not Russian. It's suppose to be a song review, not a Russian speaking lession.
Lara is amazing, no doubt. I'll do better next time showing the purpose of the video. Thank you for your feedback.
It actually is a Russian pronunciation lesson. The clue is in the name of the channel.
@@michaelgoetze2103 Yes, my friend!! Thank you for your support!
Местами "полная каша" в произношении... Лара безусловно талантлива, но с русским текстом пока печально.
Интересно, что ошибки одни и те же. Казалось бы, можно поработать и исправить))
@@AccentFreeRussian при всем моем уважении и почтении труда действительно талантливых исполнителей... они столько сил, труда и таланта потратили на вокал и музыку, ну чуть постарайтесть поправить произношение иностранных песен... Больно слушать 3-4 не правильно произнесеных слова и восприятие всего произведения рушится... это как Вангог вдруг в картине "подсолнухи" написал бы один из подсолнухов шариковой ручкой😟.
@@raylight9258 Я полностью понимаю. У меня такое же складывается ощущение. Я как раз над этой проблемой и работаю, помогаю иностранцем петь без акцента.