SaMDiL: Same Music, Different Language / Alyff Luqman Zulhairy and Ariff Imran Anuar Yatim

Translation has always been closely tied to lyrics. There are many songs from all around the world that uses foreign languages, therefore, to be able to understand the meaning of the songs, the lyrics have to be translated through a translation process. Lyrics, on the other hand, are a part of the music where people can sing and harmonise with the rest of the song. However, currently, lyrics from foreign language songs are translated in a straightforward manner, which is only translated to be able to understand the meaning of a song but given less consideration on its “singability”. Thus, people will end up with an end product that is not fulfilling, as they get to know the meaning, but could not sing along to it in a language that they recognise as the melody and rhythm do not match. In this project, several songs from Malaysian artists were selected and translated into the target language to be understood, and also singable. The clients were contacted through WhatsApp, where feedback from the translated lyrics was given. By the end of this project, it can be concluded that there is room in the translation industry to be given focus on this kind of translation and its importance.