Glossolalia!

This week Tony and I explored some nonsense… Across comedic, pop, and experimental music, artists have often set aside conventional lyrics in favour of glossolalic vocals. Glossolalia is defined by the use of non-lexical syllables or invented vocal sounds that resemble speech but carry no fixed semantic meaning. On the show we explored examples of nonsense lyrics and glossolalic vocals, and how they have been used to challenge expectations around meaning, communication, and expression.

The Goons & The Muppets

Written by Spike Milligan and performed by The Goons, The Ying Tong Song (1956) emerged from the anarchic radio comedy The Goon Show. The song is built largely on repetitive nonsense syllables and restricted musically to only two chords. It was conceived partly as a wager on Milligan’s part that such minimal material could still produce a hit. Its refrain – often misquoted but never clearly defined – privileges sound over sense, and the title itself reportedly grew out of a mangled pronunciation joke. Despite (or because of) its absurdity, the song reached No. 3 in the UK charts in 1956 and returned to the charts again in the 1970s, demonstrating the commercial reach of deliberate silliness (and winning Milligan his bet).

Mah Na Mah Nah (1969) was originally composed by Italian film composer Piero Umiliani for an exploitation documentary. It  was first titled Viva la Sauna Svedese,and paired with rather suggestive visuals. The lyrics consist entirely of rhythmic nonsense syllables, closer to scat singing than language. The song later gained international recognition through repeated appearances on Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and The Benny Hill Show, where its call-and-response structure and exaggerated delivery became comic centrepieces. Its cultural afterlife has largely eclipsed its more steamy, sauna-centric origins… Interestingly, the Muppets’ version interpolates Lullaby of Birdland by George Shearing (1952) in its improvisatory passages.

Adriano Celentano & Talking Heads

Prisencolinensinainciusol (1972) is Adriano Celentano‘s completely sincere attempt to explore how American English might sound to non-English speakers. The song is sung entirely in invented phonemes, and is intended to mimic the cadence, stress patterns, and flow of English without containing actual words. Celentano described the song as a reflection on communication barriers, loosely inspired by the Biblical Tower of Babel. Celentano later recorded a version with real Italian lyrics on his 1994 album Quel punto named Il Seme del Rap.

I Zimbra (1979) adapts the Dadaist sound poem Gadji Beri Bimba by Hugo Ball, a founding figure of the early 20th-century Dada movement. The original text was designed as “anti-language,” rejecting logic and coherence as a response to war and cultural collapse. Talking Heads set Ball’s syllables to a dense, rhythm-driven groove on their album Fear of Music. Ball’s full poem makes for interesting reading:

Cocteau Twins & Sigur Rós

Elizabeth Fraser’s vocal performance on the Cocteau Twins‘ Heaven or Las Vegas (1990) is characterised by a deliberate resistance to clear transcription, combining partial words, glossolalia, and fluid, non-standard phrasing. Although the song does have written lyrics, they are often obscured by melodic elongation, reverb, and pitch treatment, making semantic clarity less important than timbre and contour. Robin Guthrie’s production – built from multiple layers of processed guitar, chorus effects, and dense harmonic voicings – places the voice within the overall texture rather than above it. In this context, Fraser’s singing functions as a melodic and emotional layer, comparable to an instrumental line. The track illustrates how ambiguity and reduced intelligibility can operate as a compositional choice, encouraging listeners to engage with atmosphere and feeling rather than narrative.

Von (1997) represents Sigur Rós’ first use of “Vonlenska,” also known as Hopelandic – an invented vocal style consisting of non-lexical syllables with no fixed grammar or vocabulary. Rather than conveying explicit ideas, Vonlenska emphasises emotional resonance and melodic shape. Lead singer Jón Þór Birgisson’s (“Jónsi”) vocals operate independently of semantic content, allowing listeners to respond to mood rather than narrative. This approach became central to the band’s later work, including an entire album (() – or “the brackets album”) sung in the invented language.

Rapper’s Delight vs The Ketchup Song

Our soundslike this week explored two glossolalic songs: Rapper’s Delight by The Sugar Hill Gang (1979) and The Ketchup Song (Asereje) by Las Ketchup (2002). In the latter song, Diego enters a nightclub in Spain. His favourite song – Rapper’s Delight – comes on, and Diego dances and sings along. “Aserejé, ja, de je, de jebe tu de jebere …” is an incorrect and Spanish-tinged imitation of original song’s chorus: “I said a hip-hop, the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop …”

Glossolalia Quiz

For our quiz this week, you heard famous nonsense and glossolalic songs (backwards) – guess the artist and song!

As always, find the show and blog at joebennett.net/5live, with occasional Instagram extras at @joebennettmusicology. With a new show comes a new Spotify mega-playlist, which contains all songs featured on the show:

And you can still listen to our old mega-playlist here.

• Words: Joe Bennett, John Pierce O’Reilly

• Audio production: Joe Bennett, Rafi Waters