# Who´s this Iso(a)bel(la) everyone sings about?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 21, 2007, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972 "2007-09-21T12:03:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2007, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972/1 "2007-09-21T12:03:39Z")
Lately I´ve been listening to some Miranda Sex Garden music and they have a song called Isabella; before that I knew Isobella by Enya and another Isobel by Bjork.
MSG song is in Italian so I still don´t grasp the lyrics quite well, Enya´s in Irish Gaelic and only Bjork had the good decency of singing it in English… I suppose they have something in common though, MSG says something about Isabella dancing around in a praire (I think) on a world of her own; Bjork sings about her living by herself on a forest. Don´t ask me about what Enya says though!.
I tried to search some reference about this character but I´ve came empty handed.
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### Author:  [@xnylder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xnylder)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2007, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972/2 "2007-09-21T13:32:29Z")
There’s an [opera](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabeau) named Isabeau (related name) and a popular [French Canadian tune](http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiISABEAU;ttISABEAU.html) as well. Here’s the [story](http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001722) of _“Isabeau s’y promene”_ in English.
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### Author:  [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972/3 "2007-09-21T14:21:41Z")
The Iguanas also have a song about Isabel. (“Oyo Isabel,” or that may just be the start of the refrain.)
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### Author:  [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2007, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972/4 "2007-09-21T14:26:40Z")
Moved to Cafe Society.
**Gfactor** , General Questions Moderator
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### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2007, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972/5 "2007-09-21T16:13:43Z")
Jimi Hendrix sang about the oddly spelled “Izabella.”
(Of course, Jimi was oddly spelled himself, come to think of it…)
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972/6 "2007-09-21T18:52:39Z")
I spent a little time stumbling around in Yahoo, looking for Isabella folklore and Saint Isabella. Queen Isabella, who bankrolled Christopher Columbus, also was instrumental in starting the Spanish Inquisition. She may or may not be the same gal as Saint Isabella. I ran out of patience at that point.
Isabella and Isabel are fairly common names in Spanish speaking places. The songs about Isabella could be about individual women with that name. It is a lovely name, and the iambic lope of it is easy to plug into lyrics.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2007, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972/7 "2007-09-21T19:00:30Z")
My son, now in fifth grade, has no less than three girls named Isabel in his class. I guess it had an uptick in popularity a decade ago.
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### Author:  [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2007, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972/8 "2007-09-25T10:28:32Z")
[QUOTE=xnylder]
There’s an [opera](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabeau) named Isabeau (related name) and a popular [French Canadian tune](http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiISABEAU;ttISABEAU.html) as well. Here’s the [story](http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0001722) of _“Isabeau s’y promene”_ in English.
[/QUOTE]
I´m still not convinced about that, at least both the songs by Miranda Sex Garden and Bjork talk about a woman living on her own, so this salior lusting gall doesn´t seem to fit.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2007, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972/9 "2007-09-25T12:59:46Z")
[QUOTE=AskNott]
I spent a little time stumbling around in Yahoo, looking for Isabella folklore and Saint Isabella. Queen Isabella, who bankrolled Christopher Columbus, also was instrumental in starting the Spanish Inquisition. She may or may not be the same gal as Saint Isabella. I ran out of patience at that point.
[/QUOTE]
Definitely NOT. There’s currently some weirdos trying to get Isabel de Castilla beatified, and good luck on that one. If it was going to happen, it would have happened several centuries ago.
The most common St. Elizabeths are two queens, but of Hungary and Portugal.
**Ale** , my WAG is that it’s simply a name that sounds “exotic” to non-Hispanic writers. Sort of an upper-class _Delores_ (typo included) or _Lupita_.
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### Author:  [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2007, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972/10 "2007-09-25T15:32:55Z")
All I can think of is the Michelle Pfeiffer character in Ladyhawke.
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### Author:  [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972/11 "2007-09-25T15:57:58Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew]
Jimi Hendrix sang about the oddly spelled “Izabella.”
[/QUOTE]
That’s just how you string a right-handed Isabella for a left-handed player.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2007, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-this-iso-a-bel-la-everyone-sings-about/419972/12 "2007-09-25T16:56:50Z")
Who is this [Ysabella](http://www.ysabellabrave.com/) who sings?