Ken Lee (2008)
added Sep 01, 2009 at 10:28PM UTC
part of a series on Phonetic Translations
About
Ken Lee (“Can’t Live”) is a phonetic interpretation of Mariah Carey’s 1993 cover single and Badfinger’s classic love song “Without You” performed by Valentina Hasan, a contestant who auditioned for the Bulgarian TV show Music Idol in February 2008. Although Ms. Hasan didn’t make the cut to the next round of competition, her audition clip quickly spread through Bulgarian internet hubs and gained over four million views within the first month of debut on YouTube.
In an interview that took place in July 2008, Hasan explained to the Bulgarian media that she had no knowledge of English. She had just learned the song by heart and by ear, by listening to it repeatedly on a cassette recorder, and “sang it the way she felt it.” You can watch the interview clip below.
Karaoke Version & Lyrics
| Garbled Version No one ken to ken to sivmen, |
Proper English Version No I can’t forget this evening |
Remixes & Parodies
Appearances in Mainstream Media
Music Idol: Take Two
The popularity of the video encouraged Music Idol producers to invite Hasan back to sing the song live a few weeks later. By this time, Hasan had had more training with the English lyrics, made fewer errors, and poked fun at her own interpretation by singing the final verse in her original style. This video was also posted to YouTube and received over 13 million views (all clips totally) by the first half of May 2008.
Interview Footage
Mariah Carey’s Reaction To Ken Lee:
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by jumpropeman
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by jumpropeman
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Meme Details
Origin
American Idol
Year
2008
Tags
non-english, bulgaria, american idol, viral video, humiliation, TV




