You know how many French words/phrases I hear in English songs? Coup de x, raison d’être, déjà vu, etc

Not just songs. F***ing english “sprinkles” are everywhere and it’s annoying beyond words. “Myllärin by Helsingin mylly”. 11 cases out of 10 it sounds imbecile, not cool.

It’s almost always bigger languages.

Karel nese asi čaj by Jiří Korn and Vilém Čok

This Czechoslovak song is mostly in Czech but also features number sequences from (in order of appearance): German, French, Italian, English, Czech. (The younger singer, Vilém Čok, was not explicitly anti-Communist but the censor ruined his career anyway because this song was “too weird”, and it didn’t recover except for the 1-minute intros to Ducktales and Chip’n’Dale he sang in 1990. That was recently ruled illegal even by 80s standards but the censor got a slap on the wrist. Čok was audibly laughing at the verdict because there was little else he could do.)

Another non-English ones that come to mind are 1980s parodies of the countless Italian hits from back then (Sarà perché ti amo, Made in Italy, Ti amo, L’italiano etc.) by Jaroslav Uhlíř and Karel Šíp with some self-referential humor. I think that’s why my aunt, a language teacher, learned Italian first and only got good at English after failing to find a job in the 00s.

But otherwise, the foreign-language content people mostly consume is English, and the songs reflect that. (Even imported words − do you think „fajn“ (pronounced fine) as seen in „One, two, three, všechno, co je fajn, se smí“ (a line from the aforementioned song) is from German fein meaning “delicate”?)

Not just songs, but all the other languages showing up in English comes up conversationally too! When you did something wrong, there’s the “mea culpa”. Or in the courts, there are tons of Latin phrases like “nolo contendre”. I’ve had “perritos calientes” (hot dogs, literally hot puppies) in Spain, but never have I had a “giant cheese” (quesadilla) or “little donkey” (burrito) in the states. And we just borrow other phrases as-is like “Je ne sais quoi” and schadenfreude.

In Dutch we have a term called “borrowed words”, those are words we stole from a different language.

For example “Portefeuille” is a Dutch word, but it originate from the French. Another example is “computer”, we do not have/use a Dutch variant.

Using these words in a song will sound like your described. But it’s actually still Dutch

If you listen to Gothic, Medieval, or Metal music, they mix different languages all the time. Finnish and English. Italian and French. And anything can be mixed with Latin. It’s quite normal.

laughs in sigaretta

Multilanguage songs are the best thing. It’s part of artistic expression, and a reminder to ourselves that at some point, all humans came from a different place.

As if US music isn’t full of random Spanish words

Oh well, que sera sera…

Spanish phrases or even entire Spanish verses aren’t unheard of in English-language music

Yes, but english has like 30% or original germanic roots and rest is a mix of french, latin, spanish, greek and you name it. I would hazard a guess that english is one of the most loanloaded languages in the world.

Bismillah, No!

♫ Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi Ce Soir ♫

Yes, I can imagine. It’s done literally all the time, in every genre.

I don’t have to because there are?

It’s not unheard of there to be English language tracks that drop in random French, Italian or Spanish words and phrases

It’s just regular cultural exposure to other languages ultimately. No rule says you need to stick to one language in a song, so some musicians throw in some stuff from other languages they’ve heard, because why not