Handy English

I've been thinking on why many non-English speaking musicians (or wannabe musicians) write songs in English. First obvious reason is that English currently is lingua franca. But that answer didn't satisfy me, i thought there's something more going on.

And finally i got it yesterday night.

When i started to write songs, first three or four were also in English. I tried to write some lyrics in Latvian, but i found it very difficult and didn't succeed. At that point i didn't try to put the finger on the reason why there is such a paradoxical problem (i should be better with Latvian, after all). But the reason is this: English language is incredibly rich with one syllable words. One syllable words are extremely handy for songwriter, since, when putting lyrics to melody, you (usually) have to match the heavy beat of the bar (i'm not sure if that's correct term) with the stressed syllable of the word. Which means it will sound awkward, if you, for instance, start the song with heavy beat, but the word itself has a stress on second or third syllable, in other words there is a limitation.

With single syllable words there is no problem, you can arrange them as you wish, change order, no problemo.

Beatles' "Hey Jude" first verse has 29 words, 25 of them are one syllable.

ABBA's "Take a chance on me": 81 words, of them 75 - one syllable words.

Britney Spears "Oops, i did it again": 45 and 38

The first song i ever wrote (in English, obviously): 32 and 29.