Bonjour à tous et à toutes ! Today’s Tune for Tuesday is by Carla Bruni, a French-Italian singer-songwriter who is also the wife of Nicholas Sarkozy. You may already know Quelqu’un m’a dit, as it was very popular throughout Europe when it was released in 2002, reaching the top ten in Italy, Portugal, Germany and Switzerland.

This song is great for French learners, as she sings very clearly and the lyrics contain examples of a number of different tenses. Can you identify the 3 tenses found in the chorus? Let us know in the comments! If you need some help, you can find the lyrics online by clicking here, or if you’d like to hear the song played more slowly, we recommend watching the YouTube video below and selecting a slower playback speed by clicking on the settings symbol.

Carla Bruni sings mainly in French and English but we’d also recommend, especially for Coffee Break Italian listeners, checking out Le ciel dans une chambre, which contains both French and Italian. We hope you enjoy listening to this song and all the others in our Spotify and YouTube playlists which you can find below.

Salve a tutti! This week, we’re bringing you a Tune for Tuesday from the so-called Principe dei cantautori (“The Prince of the singer-songwriters”). Francesco De Gregori is an Italian poet and folk-rock singer who has been an important figure in Italian music since the 1970s. And the good news for us is that his song Buonanotte Fiorellino is a great way to practise our Italian greetings! We hope you enjoy listening to this song on your way to work, while doing the shopping or whenever you would normally have music on.

If you’re a Coffee Break Italian learner, try listening to the song without looking at the lyrics at first and see how much you can understand. Then, click here to find the lyrics and read them as you listen to the song. If you’d like to hear the song played more slowly, we recommend watching the YouTube video below and selecting a slower playback speed by clicking on the settings symbol.

Let us know in the comments what other songs in Italian you know and like. We’d love to hear some of your suggestions of others to add to our Spotify and YouTube playlist!

This week, our Tune for Tuesday comes from Austrian composer, Franz Schubert. Schubert (1797-1828) was a very famous composer of the early Romantic period, who was especially well-known for his vocal compositions, known as Lieder (German for “songs”). Wanderers Nachtlied is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe set to music by Schubert in 1822. We hope you enjoy listening to this performance of this beautiful Lied by German opera and Lieder baritone, Matthias Goerne.

Coffee Break German learners, for a test of your comprehension, see how much of the lyrics you can understand! We recommend finding them online and reading them as you listen if you’re finding the words difficult to pick out. Or if you’d like to hear the song played more slowly, we recommend watching the YouTube video below and selecting a slower playback speed by clicking on the settings symbol.

Do you know any other composers of Lieder? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Remember, whatever language you’re learning, you can enjoy our playlist of songs in many different languages and of a variety of genres by scrolling down.

¡Hola! This Tuesday, we’re listening to La vuelta al mundo by Puerto Rican group, Calle 13. Their music is a fusion of a number of styles, notably hip-hop and Puerto Rican reggaeton. They have had huge success within Latin America and further afield, holding the record for winning the most Latin Grammy Awards.

While you’re listening to La vuelta al mundo, think about how you would translate the repeated expression in the chorus, “dar la vuelta al mundo”. If you think you know, let us know in the comments!

You can find the lyrics by clicking here or if you’d like to hear the song played more slowly, we recommend watching the YouTube video below and selecting a slower playback speed by clicking on the settings symbol.

We hope you enjoy this song and check out the rest of our multilingual Spotify and YouTube playlists below.

Bonjour tout le monde ! This week’s Tune for Tuesday comes from French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. Often considered one of the greats of French popular music, he wrote songs influenced by a variety of genres to create a distinctive style. This week we’re listening to his song La chanson de Prévert, inspired by Jacques Prévert’s poem, Les feuilles mortes. There have been many musical interpretations of this poem, in French and in English, translating as Autumn Leaves.

Have a listen to Gainsbourg’s version this week and listen out for when he sings “les feuilles mortes” – it’s good practice hearing how to pronounce that tricky word for “leaves”, and a good example to remember how the sound and spelling of mort change when it agrees with a feminine noun!

To find the lyrics to the song online, click here, or if you’d like to hear the song played more slowly, we recommend watching the YouTube video below and selecting a slower playback speed by clicking on the settings symbol.

Have you heard any other songs by Serge Gainsbourg? Or any other poems by Jacques Prévert? Share some of your favourites in the comments below!

Ciao a tutti! We couldn’t possibly talk about Italian music without mentioning Italian opera. We’re sure that many of you are familiar with Luciano Pavarotti, an Italian operatic tenor (the term used to describe a higher male voice). He was one of the most successful operatic singers of all time and was particularly well-known for his performances in bel canto opera roles (Italian for “beautiful singing”, bel canto is the term used to describe this Italianate style of operatic singing).

Have a listen to Pavarotti’s performance of La danza, written by Italian composer, Rossini, in 1835. This energetic song is fun to listen to and the music perfectly describes what the title suggests – a dance!

For Coffee Break Italian learners, don’t be disheartened if you struggle to understand the fast lyrics at first. To help you, we recommend reading the lyrics as you listen, which you can find by clicking here. Or if you’d like to hear the song played more slowly, we recommend watching the YouTube video below and selecting a slower playback speed by clicking on the settings symbol.

We’d love to hear what you think of La danza in the comments! To discover more songs of a range of genres and from many different countries, scroll down to find our full Spotify and YouTube playlists.