French: ZOË - 'Mon coeur a trop aimé'

Title: 'My Heart Too Fond'. Zoe is also the name of a French nuclear reactor, which is unfortunately all I get when I Google her name, so if you know anything about her, please leave a comment once you've viewed her latest single:

French: Louane - 'Avenir'

Title: 'Future'. Louane is an actress a well as a singer. This is her most successful single to date, reaching number one in France and number three next door in Germany:

French: RIDSA - 'Le c'est die'

Title: 'The Die Is'. Ridsa has two successful albums, but this is his first song to make into the French top ten. I'm sure it will be the first of many.

French: Louane - 'Nos secrets'

Title: 'Our Secrets'. Louane was discovered in the second series of The Voice of France. As well as in the French speaking countries of Europe, her music has also achieved chart success in Germany and Austria, which is rare for songs that are not sung in German or English.

French: Maître Gims - 'Brisé'

Title: 'Breeze'. Maître Gims was born in DR Congo but grew up on the outskirts of Paris. He has had two successful albums so far.

French: Kate Ryan - 'Ella Elle L'a'

Title: 'She's got the Ella' or something like that. Kate Ryan has had many international hits since 2001, singing in both French and English. She represented Belgium at Eurovision in 2006 with 'Je T'Adore', which occasionally sounded more like she was singing 'Shut That Door'.

French: Zaz - 'Eblouie par la nuit'

Title: 'Dazzled at Night'. Zaz has had considerable success with her music and not just in French speaking countries. Her albums have also charted in Austria, Germany, Poland, Spain and Russia.

French: Fréro Delavega - 'Le Chant Des Sirènes'

The title translates as 'The Song of Sirens'. Fréro Delavega are a duo that found fame after taking part in series 3 of The Voice in France.

Pilot episode

I love listening to music in various languages, but it's often difficult to know where to look for new music in languages other than English, especially here in the UK where the mainstream media pretends that other languages simply don't exist.

So I've started this blog to give an accessible English language gateway to music in other, mainly European, languages.

It's mainly going to be about the music, so let's start with a sample from across the continent, starting with the great Unheilig from Germany, singing 'Wir sind alle wie eins' (We are all as one) of course in German:

Can you believe the great German public turned down the opportunity to send that to Eurovision? Schockierend! The Eurovision Song Contest and its various national selection processes are a big source of my foreign language music.

Let's go to Sweden, home of mighty Melodifestivalen, arguably bigger than Eurovision itself! Here's living legend Linda Bengtzing singing 'Ta Mig' (Take Me) live at Melfest Semifinal 4 in 2014:

Melodifestivalen is incidentally what inspired the name of this blog. In 2015 there were 7 songs per semi final, with the most hotly tipped song appearing as 'song number 7', which when said in Swedish sounds a bit like 'Melody Shoe'.

To France now, with Black M's huge hit from last year, 'Sur Ma Route' (On My Way):

To round of this first post, here with helpful English subtitles is the Netherlands' Ruth Jacott with 'Vrede' (Peace):

I welcome your comments and suggestions for songs and languages you'd like to see me feature. E-mail me on sotonbus@googlemail.com

Thanks for watching!