Friday Music: Carola Standertskjöld

I recently learned about this Finnish singer of the 1960s, and right now I am hooked, both on her musical and her linguistic skills. Let's begin with the latter:

Carola was born into an upper class Swedish-speaking Finnish family. Here she sings in Swedish:





She spent her childhood in Switzerland where her diplomat father was stationed. Whether she learned French there I don't know, but her French sounds very good indeed:





Her father was later transferred to Spain. Carola singing in Spanish:





Her English isn't too bad, either. If you watch the silly video, please watch until the very end! It's worth it.





And her Finnish, too, is perfect:





She died of early onset Alzheimer's disease fairly young but as far as I can tell the fame she deserved was not going to be something she would have achieved by living longer.

The music industry has many similar cases, of talented singers not making it. Very sad.

To finish with, here Carola interprets a Finnish folk song. I'm not certain if the words are traditional, too, but they are worth translating*:

I walked the edge of fields with the young gentlemen,
yeah, yeah, and I walked the edge of fields,
yeah, yeah, and I walked the edge of fields.
Now I think I feel a kick in my belly
yeah, yeah, and a kick in my belly
yeah, yeah, and a kick in my belly.

Well, the gentlemen they tell stories and stories
yeah, yeah, stories and stories
yeah, yeah, stories and stories.
They look you in the eyes and praise you unctuously
yeah, yeah, and praise you unctuously
yeah, yeah, and praise you unctuously.

And how can a girl know every single trick
yeah, yeah, and every single trick
yeah, yeah, and every single trick.
But she is the one who must bear the consequences,
yeah, yeah, and bear the consequences
yeah, yeah, and bear the consequences.

Then winter arrived and snow covered the ground,
yeah, yeah, and covered the ground,
yeah, yeah, and covered the ground.
And the gentlemen no longer want to walk me home
yeah, yeah, and walk me home
yeah, yeah, and walk me home.

They now bow and scrape to other young women
yeah, yeah, to other young women
yeah, yeah, to other young women.
But me they pass by with a haughty mien
yeah, yeah, and a haughty mien
yeah, yeah, and a haughty mien.

I walked the edge of fields with the young gentlemen,
yeah, yeah, and I walked the edge of fields
yeah, yeah, and I walked the edge of fields.
Now I walk with my child the narrow road,
yeah, yeah, and the narrow road
yeah, yeah, and the narrow road.





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*A quick translation by me in which I took some liberties to give the flavor of the lyrics. I'm not sure if I got across that the "gentlemen" would be of a higher social class than the woman singing.