Music Without Borders
Music has no passport and no borders. A melody can travel farther than words.
My music has been written, translated, or adapted into 20 languages, allowing each version to develop its own character while preserving the original emotion and message.
It all began when I noticed that a surprisingly large number of people were listening to my music in Vietnam.
One day I decided to take one of my most popular and peaceful songs and translate it into Vietnamese. In the description, I added a simple message:
”This song is dedicated to my Vietnamese friends.”
The response was remarkable. My audience in Vietnam continued to grow, and even today Vietnamese listeners remain my largest group of followers. After Vietnam come the United States, South Korea, Thailand, and Brazil, although the rankings vary depending on the style of music.
That experience inspired me to translate and adapt more of my songs into different languages. These were never simple translations. Each version received its own musical arrangement and identity. I wanted every language version to feel like a genuine song rather than a direct copy of the original.
I have never created music according to commercial trends or market expectations. Instead, I follow my own musical instincts. Over time, I began to notice that different styles of music resonated with different audiences around the world.
This has also led me to conduct a few musical experiments.
At one point I was told that people in Asia do not listen to Blues music. I decided to test that assumption for myself. What I discovered was that Blues can find an audience there as well—provided it is presented in a way that resonates with local listeners.
At least in Vietnam, historical and cultural factors seem to influence how Blues and Country music are received. Slower, more reflective styles often connect better than music that strongly emphasizes American cultural imagery.
What I eventually realized was that most of these language projects did not begin with a marketing plan. They began with people.
Some languages entered my music through listeners.
Others entered through friendships and chance encounters.
Thai was one of those languages.
At the time, I was in a relationship with a woman from Thailand who was living in Finland. I began sending her Thai-language versions of my songs simply because I wanted to share my music in a language that was familiar to her. What started as a personal gesture eventually became another step in my multilingual music journey.
Somali and Arabic entered my music through an unexpected friendship.
While living in Finland, I became acquainted with a Somali writer. Through our conversations, I learned more about the experience of living between cultures and about the feeling of belonging neither completely to your new home nor to the country you left behind.
Those discussions inspired me to write several songs about racism, identity, and what it can mean to be Somali in Finland while feeling disconnected from one’s homeland. The songs found an audience and continue to be widely listened to today.
The addition of Nepali was not planned either.
One day, while chatting with a cleaning team that regularly visits my home, the subject turned to music. When I mentioned that I had created songs in many different languages, one of them smiled and asked:
”Do you have any songs in Nepali? I’m from Nepal.”
I jokingly replied that perhaps I would have one by the next time he visited.
What began as a joke soon turned into a challenge.
I started listening to contemporary Nepali music on Spotify, paying attention to the instruments, arrangements, and overall style. Before long, I had created a couple of songs inspired by modern Nepali pop.
One of those songs, एक्ली नारी (Lonely Woman), became something I never expected: a Blues song performed in Nepali. Today it has been played around 1,500 times on SoundCloud. For a song born from curiosity and a casual conversation, that was a surprising result.
Every language has taught me something new.
Some songs have travelled across continents. Others have helped me understand cultures and people I might never otherwise have encountered. In the end, this project has never really been about languages alone.
It has been about people.
And the journey continues.
Music Without Borders was never really about languages.
It was about people, chance encounters, and the stories they brought into my life.
The music simply followed.