Which Song Will Inspire You to Learn a New Language? (Part I)

I am great believer in using music to help learn a new language. In fact, I think I bought a Spanish language music cassette (remember them!) before I even bought a dictionary.
So what songs will inspire you to learn a second language? I decided to find out what some of the most famous songs are in a few other languages.

Spanish

I have 3,042 songs on my PC. I would guess that about 2,000 are in English and 1,000 are in Spanish. The rest are in Gaelic although I don’t understand a word of it, I am afraid. I only mention this because when I searched online I couldn’t find any definitive answer to my question about which was the most famous Spanish language song. I therefore decided to base my answer on the song I have most versions of. The winner is, therefore, the classic Bésame Mucho. For Spanish lessons Brighton has a great beach for wiggling your hips on, even if you are more likely to find tea rather than piña colada there.

German

I know surprisingly few songs in German and I guess that you do too. Why is this? Is it because it is a language which doesn’t lend itself to melodic lyrics the way Spanish does or it is because the Germans don’t usually move their hips like Ricky Martin or Shakira? In fact, the only German song I have ever owned was called Rosamunde and made me want to slap my thighs rather than move my hips. I guess the most popular German song is that one about all those balloons. Still, the Germans produced some of the world’s finest classical music. If you want German lessons Birmingham seems like a pleasant setting for dreaming about those balloons and that omnipresent 80s video.