Ken Lee

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Part of a series on Misheard Lyrics / Phonetic Translations / Buffalaxing. [View Related Entries]

About

Ken Lee ("Can't Live") is a phonetically interpreted rendition of Badfinger's 1970 soft rock hit single "Without You" as covered by Bulgarian aspiring singer Valentina Hasan during her audition for the singing competition TV series Music Idol in February 2008. Upon its online debut on YouTube, the video instantly went viral due to its highly potent cringe comedic value, in a similar vein to the stardom of American Idol contestant William Hung.

Origin

On February 7th, 2008, Valentina Hasan, a 29-year-old aspiring singer from the village of Zvezdelina in Bulgaria's Kardzhali Province, participated in an audition for the second season of Bulgarian singing competition TV show Music Idol. From the beginning, Hasan puzzles the panel of judges by stating that she is going to sing Mariah Carey's "Ken Lee," a misinterpretation of the song's chorus "Can't Live" and an erroneous title for the British band Badfinger's 1970 soft rock song "Without You" as famously covered by Mariah Carey. As she begins sing the lyrics of the song in broken English, or Engrish, the judges soon lose their composure upon realizing that she is singing her own unique interpretation of "Without You."

Although Hasan didn't make the cut to advance to next round of competition, her audition clip was subsequently uploaded to YouTube^[5] by user ArathBenedek, which quickly spread through Bulgarian internet forums and garnered more than four million views within the first month of its debut. As of mid-February 2016, the YouTube video has accrued over 16.3 million views.

Spread

Between February and March 2008, the Bulgarian Pop Idol sensation was heavily covered in the Bulgarian media, as well as some major English-language news outlets, including Reuters^[7], ABC News^[10] and NineMSN^[12], and Internet humor sites like Viral Blog^[3], eBaumsworld^[4], TrendHunter^[9] and Neatorama.^[8] On March 13th, 2008, Urban Dictionary^[2] user Tibi submitted an entry for "Ken Lee" with a tongue-in-cheek definition, describing it as a "hit song by a bulgarian female singer/linguist."

On Mar 22nd, 2008, YouTuber B3liz uploaded a karaoke version of Hasan's "Ken Lee" cover, accompanied by phonetically translated lyrics in English.

Garbled Version

No one ken to ken to sivmen, nor yon clees toju maliveh. When i gez aju zavateh na nalechoo more, new yonooz tonigh molinigh, Yon sorra shooo, yes ee shooo, ooo. -Ken leee tulibu dibu douchoo Ken Lee, Ken lee meju more. Ken Lee tulibu dibu douchoo Ken Lee, Ken lee meju more

Proper English Version

No I can't forget this evening Or your face as you were leaving But I guess that's just the way the story goes You always smile but in your eyes your sorrow shows Yes, it shows I can't live if living is without you I can't live I can't give anymore I can't live if living is without you I can't give I can't give anymore

Examples

Music Idol: Take Two

The popularity of the video eventually prompted Music Idol producers to invite Hasan back for an encore live performance a few weeks later. By this time, Hasan had underwent more training with the English lyrics, so she made fewer errors and poked fun at her own interpretation by singing the final verse in her original style. The video of her encore performance was also posted to YouTube^[6] and received over 13 million views (in aggregate) by the first half of May 2008.

Interview Footage with Hasan

In an interview with a Bulgarian TV crew in July 2008, Hasan explained that she had no formal knowledge of English when she auditioned for the show, and she had just learned the song by listening to it repeatedly on a cassette recorder and "[singing] it the way she felt it."^[1]

[This video has been removed]