# Does Robyn even understand her song "Call Your Girlfriend"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 12, 2011, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-robyn-even-understand-her-song-call-your-girlfriend/605898 "2011-12-12T12:53:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-robyn-even-understand-her-song-call-your-girlfriend/605898/61 "2011-12-14T03:31:30Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > **Bup** , are you similarly confused by Ben Folds Five’s “Song For The Dumped”? No, nor do I mind the bounciness of Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks.” This one really sits wrong with me, though. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-robyn-even-understand-her-song-call-your-girlfriend/605898/62 "2011-12-14T05:05:22Z")
> [@xenophon41](#): > > I do prefer the cover, though I think it shows the strength of the original composition. Actually I have had a nagging feeling for the past several hours that the tune is ripped off from something else. I can’t think what though. (It is a little bit like Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely,” but it feels like there is something even closer.) ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-robyn-even-understand-her-song-call-your-girlfriend/605898/63 "2011-12-14T10:03:52Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Two of the singers in _Abba_, and the group\* Ace of Bass \*sang songs in English that they didn’t understand. I sing _Adeste Fideles_ and some of the Latin is beyond me. > > I really suspect, because of her delivery, that she doesn’t ‘get’ what she’s singing. Well, [here](http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-april-21-2009/the-stockholm-syndrome-pt--1) is a clip where, at around 03:15, Robyn chats in English with a guy from the Daily Show. (In her Stockholm apartment, no less… She also shows him her “recycling station.”) If I remember correctly, she moved to the States after her initial success in Sweden in the late 90’s, so it makes sense that she speaks English fluently at this point. In the second part of the same clip, one of the ABBA dudes (one of Sweden’s many “bearded gnomes,” as the clip concludes) is interviewed, in English, as well. And [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQyiNBJcWOA&feature=related) is the entire ABBA crew, all chatting away in English, too. As for Ace Of Base, all I’ll say is that… [Uffe was a Nazi](http://downunderground.blogspot.com/2011/04/commit-suiside-uffe-was-nazi-mini-cd.html). ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-robyn-even-understand-her-song-call-your-girlfriend/605898/64 "2011-12-14T13:08:33Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Careful. One more consecutive post and you’re officially in Crazytown. I just wish there was a “merge post” feature. Just consider that one post but helpfully tabbed and separated by individual postings. ---
**Author:** ![kombatminipig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5ac83/32.png) [@kombatminipig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kombatminipig)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-robyn-even-understand-her-song-call-your-girlfriend/605898/65 "2011-12-14T13:15:32Z")
My lordy… Robyn is very comfortable in English, even though she has a slight Swedish accent. And no, the video has nothing to do with the song, it seems to be mostly a riff of 80’s dance movies. I guess that she and the producers figured that an ordinary video would mostly be cliché and trite, so they did something fun with it instead. Lastly, not to sound snarky or nationalistic, but Sweden is hardly a 3rd world country when it comes to popular music. The US seems to enjoy [plenty what we produce anyway](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Martin). ---
**Author:** ![planetcory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/planetcory/32/1032_2.png) [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-robyn-even-understand-her-song-call-your-girlfriend/605898/66 "2011-12-14T13:50:24Z")
Don’t know if there’s any significance, but halfway through she starts doing the [Electric Slide](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A4YVLceWFU), a line dance regularly performed at weddings and such. Fantasizing about marrying the guy perhaps? Though, it’s probably not much deeper than her just wanting to do the electric slide. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-robyn-even-understand-her-song-call-your-girlfriend/605898/67 "2011-12-14T21:04:52Z")
> [@bup](#): > > No, nor do I mind the bounciness of Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks.” This one really sits wrong with me, though. Now there’s some serious irony. “Foster the People” singing a song about going around and shooting people. That’s not very fostering. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-robyn-even-understand-her-song-call-your-girlfriend/605898/68 "2012-01-09T16:47:58Z")
I just saw this episode and saw Robyn’s … odd … performance. I have no comments about the song itself. But Robyn’s stage persona made me feel like I was watching a time warp back to the 1980s. It seemed weirdly like a parody of some kind of Madonna-Cyndi Lauper-Human League-Olivia Newton-John-type dance pop act. But I don’t think it was meant to be a parody. ---
**Author:** ![StandardWilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@StandardWilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StandardWilly)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2013, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-robyn-even-understand-her-song-call-your-girlfriend/605898/69 "2013-11-12T11:29:37Z")
Look i’m really late to this discussion. but i was late to hearing the song so now i’m where you guys were almost two years ago, but i totally “get” your question. i think. I think it because a version of this same question occurred to me and my reasoning was this: both the lyrical and structural aspects of this song are more complex than your standard pop song. And that’s also apparent from the many replies here. I think whoever really wrote it knew exactly what they were doing. There’s a technical and lyrical savvy to this song that frankly i question whether the girl in the chicken suit doing aerobics was capable of pulling off. Nothing against her singing and dancing, but this song seems more sophisticated than its performer and it wouldn’t be the first time the real person doing the heavy-lifting was hidden behind a co-writing credit. I’m just saying. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-robyn-even-understand-her-song-call-your-girlfriend/605898.md?page=3)