Most translators are brilliant at grammar and vocabulary. But songs are not grammar – songs are feelings set to melody. And feelings hide in the tiniest corners of a language: in the way a word falls on the beat, in the warmth of a vowel, in the little sigh between two lines.

I was born in Germany, spoke only German until I was eight. Then I was moved to Australia. Suddenly I had to dream, laugh, cry and sing in English – at school, with friends, on the radio. English became just as much “home” as German ever was. Years later I came back to Germany, studied, worked, fell in love again with German poetry and Schlager. I even taught English as a TESOL teacher in Australia, helping others find their voice in a new language.

This lifelong ping-pong between two cultures gave me something very rare: true mother-tongue intuition in both German and English. I don’t translate word for word – I translate heart for heart, rhythm for rhythm.

When I turn the tender German “Mein Palomino Girl” into “My Palomino Girl”, the cowboy sunset feels exactly the same. When I bring an English pop chorus into German, it still makes 15,000 people raise their phones and sway in perfect unison.

Because for me, both languages aren’t learned – they’re lived. And that, I believe, is what you hear (and feel) in every translated line. ♡

– Evelin