Everyone has the right to try to express themselves in any language, including English.

Last Wednesday, the 23rd, American producer Jack Endino posted the following sentence Facebook page

"Brazilian bands, why do you sing in English? I can't understand a word."

The producer's post triggered numerous responses from Brazilians outraged by the statement. Journalist Lucas Nobile, from Folha de São Paulo, published an article on the 26th compiling a series of responses from Brazilian artists. Andre Matos was one of those invited to write a reply. His response, however, was edited to fit the article's length.

Read Andre Matos's full response here:

"I think the producer actually shows a certain ignorance regarding the global rock scene, not just the Brazilian one. To give just a few examples, if the advice had been followed to the letter, bands like Scorpions, Europe, Helloween, Nightwish, and others would never have achieved success outside their countries of origin, which don't have English as an official language. And, moving beyond the realm of heavy rock, what about pop phenomena like ABBA, A-ha, Roxette, Shakira, and Celine Dion?"

Tom Jobim, for example, adapted his entire repertoire specifically for the international market. Was he criticized for that same reason?

Everyone has the right to try to express themselves in any language, including English – which is considered the “Esperanto” of modern times – when aiming for an international career. (Perhaps in a few decades it will be necessary to sing in Chinese. The global economic situation also plays a decisive role.)

In my own musical career, from the beginning, the goal was to try singing in English. We were emerging from the dictatorship period in Brazil and learning the hard way, listening to music and often studying on our own. That's why I partly agree with the producer when he says he doesn't understand much of what's being said in the lyrics. I disagree with everything else.

There were certainly some linguistic stumbles early in my career, but these were not what prevented the international success of my bands over the years. The proof is that to this day I have never sung in any language other than English.

Therefore, I refute the statement: it is indeed possible to achieve success both abroad and in one's own country. And, in the latter case, this is also a form of cultural dissemination: how many fans have thanked us for igniting a spark of interest in the language? "Thanks to you, I learned to speak English through your music."

And, to wrap up the discussion, it all comes down to a matter of style. This is an old debate. Rock was born in the USA and was perfected to the extreme in England. In fact, it sounds very good in English, which is a more practical language than Portuguese for this purpose.

This doesn't mean that there aren't excellent compositions in our own language. But unfortunately, they have to contend with the fact that they cannot be exported beyond the few Portuguese-speaking territories. In this respect, even Spanish has a considerable numerical advantage.

Therefore, stylistically, the use of English in rock music is acceptable, regardless of the artist's nationality.
Just as the use of Italian and German was common in operas until the mid-20th century. (“O Guarani,” by Carlos Gomes, one of our greatest composers, premiered in Europe under the title “Il Guarany”; and despite the regional theme based on the work of José de Alencar, neither the libretto nor the arias were in Portuguese!)

I believe we should strive to create a work that prioritizes linguistic perfection: in my view, this is as important as the musical finish itself. But we don't need to ignore our roots and characteristics because of it. It's one thing to be intelligible; it's quite another to sound overly forced. In short, nobody needs to sing with a Texas or Oxford accent to be understood. Because sometimes, even those accents don't understand each other.

And, as a final observation: our esteemed producer poses his question from a rather comfortable position. I'd like to know how he would fare if the language in question were Brazilian Portuguese. Would he be able to achieve results as satisfactory as, or even more satisfactory than, those we are capable of when composing and singing in another language? The question remains.

Andre Matos