Why do I sing in Catalan?

I sing in Catalan because I want to, because it comes from inside, because it makes me feel who I am, because it brings me back to my childhood, because I can't express myself with different words.

I love all languages. I’ve sung in Spanish in a lot of choirs. I enjoy this language and its lexical richness. But when I write a poem or a song, my own language is always there: my mother's language (form Majorca), my father's and grandparents' (from Ibiza), my cousins's (from Catalonia and Majorca) and now, that of my children (one from Valencia and the other from La Franja—a Catalan-Aragonese area), and of my beloved (also from Valencia).

When my heart, my body, my brain, my whole me gets ready to create, write, and sing, it does so in Catalan, and only in Catalan.  

I don’t know how to say “I love you” (in English) with all my passion, I don’t know how to say “te quiero” (in Spanish) with all my strength, I don’t know how to say “je t’aime” (in French) with all my heart. With all my passion, strength and heart I can only say t’estimo or t’estim (I love you in Catalan).

We are always being asked by people from other cultures why we sing, speak, and write in Catalan. But they never ask themselves why they do so in their own language. Sometimes, when I want my Spaniard friends to understand what I feel like when they ask me this question, I write on Twitter, before a very good article in Spanish, the sentence “Interesting article written in Spanish.” But they object to me writing these words. Why?.

Vicenç Salvador

@Vicen76