We’ve selected some of our favorite love songs in French, Italian, Spanish, and Mandarin. With the purchase of select red boxes* from January 27 to February 15, you’ll receive one of our four iTunes EPs as a gift. Within a few days after your purchase, we’ll send along an email that contains your personal iTunes code for downloading the compilation of the language you bought.
We commissioned visual artist J Vazquez for the album artwork of our EPs. His pop sensibility and strong painterly streak seemed ideal for capturing love in different languages. The results couldn't be better. Each cover was created on a large canvass with a "mixed technique." Combining collage and pigments ranging from oil to tar, each work conveys a unique sense of the culture. The beauty of a real physical painting supporting an entirely digital EP has made us very happy. Check him out at www.javaroa.com.
*The following programs are eligible: Fluenz French 1+2, Fluenz Italian 1+2, Fluenz Mandarin 1+2+3, Fluenz Spanish 1+2+3, and Fluenz Spanish 1+2+3+4+5. Users must have access to the US iTunes store to download the EPs.
When we think of love music in French, our minds turned to those slow, intimate songs that are all about the lyrics. As we worked on the playlist, the velvety sounds of the language kept blowing us away. We hope our selections do justice to them. We couldn't resist starting with "the" song from Carla Bruni's pre-political days, followed by our favorite Caribbean crooner Henri Salvador. We then move to a classic from the great Serge Gainsbourg. All in order to close with royalty: the music of Chiara Mastroianni (daughter of none other than Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni) and, of course, the Queen herself, Edith Piaf.
From operas to the greatest film scores of all time, as well as one of the richest traditions of European pop, we just didn't know where to begin. Finding five great love songs in Italian while trying to illustrate the breadth of the music is no minor feat. We hope our offering will delight many, as it will surely miss something that someone considers indispensable. We start off with the strong pop of Anna Tatangelo before moving on to more loungy tunes with Mondo Candido. From there we combine classics such as Gianmaria Testa with more lounge. The last piece is instrumental, but when music needs to speak Italian, there is no one like Ennio Morricone.
Music in Spanish is all about love, or rather, tragic lust. This made our selection of the five perfect songs an impossible task, at least as difficult as reaching bliss without tragedy. Alejandro Sanz opens Rojo with his energetic verb and wit, followed by the now iconic recording of two Latin American rockers, Gustavo Cerati and Andrea Echeverri. We then chose the greatest of all crooners, Hector Lavoe, singing "Sombras Nada Más." To recover from the harshest song in the Spanish language, we offer the neo-flamenco Chambao. And for the encore, we've selected a cowboy song from the Venezuelan plains, in the beautiful voice of Caetano Veloso.
As virtual prisoners of Won Kar Wai's lyric films of love and loss, Faye Wong plays a huge role in how we think of music in Mandarin. When the sound of love comes to mind, we actually see her in Chungking Express. Mercifully, the temptation to make the entire playlist about Faye Wong gave way to a larger picture. 红色 opens with the jazzy Coco Zhao, followed two timeless melodies by our favorite singer turned actress. We then sampled the more classical Fei Yu Ching and close with the moving notes of Tan Dun and the incredible Yo-Yo Ma in the soundtrack to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
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