“The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain!”

It was a rainy, gloomy morning here in Seville, and the weather reminded me of a fun fact that I had come across:

Many people are familiar with the song “The Rain in Spain” from the 1956 musical My Fair Lady. In the song, Eliza Doolittle is finally able to speak without her Cockney accent and pronounce the vowel sounds in accordance with Standard British/Received Pronunciation, as taught by Professor Henry Higgins. The vocal exercise “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain” is a big breakthrough, and starts off the song of the same name.

However, in Spanish translations, the rhythm of directly translating that line wouldn’t flow very well in the song, so instead, the lyric is: “La lluvia es maravilla en Sevilla” (“The rain is marvelous/wonderful in Seville”). So, hooray for Seville!

The video below is a clip from a Spanish dub of the 1964 film adaptation starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. The song itself starts closer to the 2:21 mark.