Check this out, my wife told me.
She knows I’m fascinated with multilingual musicians and had a feeling I’d enjoy Kelly Clarkson’s performance of her latest hit, “I Dare You” in, English, Spanish, and well, let’s see if you can figure out the other four languages.
My wife and I then watched Clarkson’s interview with The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon. Clarkson got a head start on learning romance languages because as a kid she sang opera songs. She had wanted to perform a song like “I Dare You” in multiple languages for several years.
When asked to record all six versions of “I Dare You” in four days, Clarkson could have balked. No way, not now. Too much to learn all at once.
The urgency of this worldwide pandemic and the need for global unity propelled her to step outside her comfort zone. She collaborated with five singers to keep us connected while in quarantine. The song’s message: Choose love.
The Spanish version, “Te Reto a Amar,” has taken control of my heart and feet, my vocal cords and mouth. I love that the English and Spanish videos show the words, too.
After making a lot of rookie pronunciation mistakes in Spanish, I can see the letters and know how to pronounce them correctly.
Because Spanish and English share so many letters—some with different sounds—it’s common for Spanish learners to develop poor pronunciation habits that can distract native speakers.
You may have already mispronounced “Te Reto a Amar” because the English R sound does not exist in Spanish.
To prevent the proliferation of this misapplication, we’ll deploy the Slow-Motion Spanish™ technique: Simplify. Go with what you know. Crawl. Walk. Run.
If the language you know best is English, say this slowly:
ted duh-DEBT-oh ah MOD
Again: ted duh-DEBT-oh ah MOD
A bit faster: ted duh-DEBT-oh ah MOD
When you feel like you’ve got it down, and if you haven’t done so already, say them out loud as you mesh English with Spanish.
“Te Reto a Amar”
Congratulations, you just crushed it like Kelly Clarkson and her duet partner Blas Cantó. You may not be ready to perform the song on the Tonight Show. That’s okay. We’ll leave that up to Jimmy Fallon.
You see, Clarkson has entreated Fallon to sing a non-English version of “I Dare You” with her when the Tonight Show returns to its regular format, when we can hug a friend again.
What language would you like to see Fallon try: Arabic, French, German, Hebrew or Spanish?