Brian Amador

Two Sides to “Bilingual”

September 14, 2023 by Brian Amador

Updated from a previously published post.

The growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S. (around 18% of the population in 2023) has led to increased demand for audio content targeted to that demographic. All genres of voiceover work, from commercials and explainer videos to e-learning, corporate narration, promos and more, are incorporating Spanish and bilingual content. And the increased demand has brought an expansion of VO talent offering their services in Spanish, from fluent native speakers to those who learned a little Spanish in high school.

I think anyone seriously involved in Spanish or English-Spanish bilingual voiceover work would agree that it’s not a good idea to sell yourself as a Spanish-speaking talent if you are not able to speak the language fluently, expressively and with an impeccable accent. In this regard, there are obvious advantages to hiring talent born and educated in a Spanish-speaking country.

But it’s not an absolute necessity. There are U.S.-born Spanish speakers who are completely bilingual – native speakers who can speak both English and Spanish and switch effortlessly between the two languages.

Full Bilingualism = Value Added

In my career as an English/Spanish bilingual voice actor, my standards are exactly the same for both languages: perfect, native pronunciation and expression. Surprisingly, I’ve found that sometimes being a native English speaker is just as important as being a native Spanish speaker. Being fully bilingual has advantages:

It’s important to recognize errors in translation and be able to make suggestions to correct them. Sometimes English expressions are translated directly into Spanish; if you are familiar with the colloquial expressions in English, it may be easier to find the best Spanish equivalent.
Some translation problems are due to grammatical errors or ambiguities in the source text. If you have a complete command of written English, you can more easily identify and correct these errors.
In overdubs, errors in translation may be due to the translator misunderstanding spoken English words because of the speaker’s accent or dialect. As a native English speaker, I am able to understand many different accents (although I admit I still watch “Masterpiece Theatre” with the subtitles on!)
For recordings of a specified duration, mastery of both languages makes it easier to adapt translations to fit in in a given time without sacrificing the meaning of the source copy.
It’s an extra perk for the client to be able to use the same voice talent in English and Spanish and have both languages sound natural and conversational.

Quality is What Matters

Given the growing importance of the Spanish language in the United States, and just as a matter of principle, the standards for Spanish and bilingual voiceover should always be as high as they are for English. It is as important for creators of content in Spanish, as it is for English-language creators, to find speakers who have a perfect command of the language, whether they are “native” or ”imported” speakers. There are two sides to “bilingual”. In some cases, mastery of English may be just as important as mastery of Spanish.

Amador Bilingual Voiceovers Brian Demos

Corporate Narration: Communicating Within, Without, and About Your Organization

July 12, 2021 by Brian Amador

Since launching Amador Bilingual Voiceovers full time in 2009, we’ve responded to hundreds of requests for bilingual corporate narrations. As the diverse Hispanic population grows in the U.S., so does the need for narrations in neutral Latin American Spanish, or Hispanic-accented English, to reach a particular demographic. As a result, our whole family has been asked to deliver:

institutional reads
diversity and inclusion training modules
product installation and use tutorials
training/onboarding
human resources initiatives
corporate culture programs
B to B and B to C branding/marketing

We always welcome the opportunity to flex our acting muscles on projects requiring a variety of voice acting skills.

Communicating in a Diverse Market

Companies have long used corporate narration for internal communication, training, building their brand, and informing audiences about their products. With the restrictions on movement and gathering brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to communicate with a remote audience has expanded. At the same time, the U.S. Hispanic population continues to increase in size and diversity. As a result, there’s an ever-growing need for narrations recorded in neutral Latin American Spanish or Hispanic-accented English.

As the demand for corporate narration increases, so does the variety of styles needed to communicate messages effectively. Different considerations dictate how a particular narration needs to be voiced. Who is the intended audience? Employees? Prospective clients? The general public? Whichever the target audience, the voice talent needs to deliver the right performance to reflect the corporation’s values and make the message connect. The narration needs to be clear, engaging, and genuine.

Finding the Right Recipe

We’ve been called on for a wide variety of narrations in unaccented English and Spanish, and we’ve also seen a growing demand for Hispanic-accented English. It became obvious that many clients wanted voiceover with an accent, but they didn’t know just how much of an accent they wanted. We saw this unmet need as an opportunity. And so, the Revolutionary Accent-o-Meter was born! It’s a handy tool we invented to allow our clients to choose the exact degree of accent they want.

Let’s review the different types of corporate narration that are most frequently requested:

Reaching Out: External Corporate Narrations

This type of narration uses storytelling to promote a corporation’s values, products or services. Corporations spend a great deal of time and money building a consistent brand. Voiceover talent needs to understand this in order to provide a performance that successfully connects with the audience. You’ll find examples in a YouTube playlist in the Corporate Narrations Services page of our website.

Brian narrated this web video in English

Reaching In: Internal Corporate Narrations

This type of narration is made for employees and/or management. The goal is usually to help members of the staff learn certain skills or practices in order to meet the corporation’s needs. Once again, you’ll find some relevant examples on our Corporate Narration Services page.

Making it Connect

For the most part, corporate narrations require a voice that can be persuasive and authoritative, yet friendly and trustworthy. Pronunciation needs to be flawless, and the pacing easily intelligible while also engaging. The voice actor’s goal is to put themselves in the listener’s shoes; to empathize with the listener. To bring the message to life. And that is always our end goal. Years of training and simply doing the work for so many brilliant companies we’ve been honored to serve have helped us get there. Count on us.

For more information about corporate narration, or to hear examples of our work, check out our Corporate Narration Services page.

Words That Matter

April 27, 2021 by Brian Amador

Events in the United States this January have given us a lot to think about. We watched in horror as our democracy was imperiled on January 6th. The shock of the insurrection is still in my heart. Yet, thankfully, my fear has been replaced by the hope that took hold as we watched the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, and the broad condemnation of the insurrection.

Watching the inauguration, full of gorgeous music and inspiring poetry that healed and uplifted us, and seeing the actions taken in the first days of the new administration, it’s evident that compassion, justice, truth, science, competence and even civil discourse are back! And seeing a proposed cabinet that looks like America in its diversity feels like a dream come true.

Nominees include: Deb Haaland for Secretary of the Interior (from Brian’s home state, New Mexico), who if confirmed will be the first ever Native American cabinet secretary; Dr. Miguel Cardona, a talented son of the Puerto Rican diaspora, who hopefully soon will be our Education Secretary; and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who grew up in a segregated town in Louisiana, chosen for UN Ambassador. And in contrast to the previous administration, all of President Biden’s nominees have actual, relevant experience in the areas in which they’ll be working. Our family is so grateful for this.

Adapting to the “New Normal”

When the pandemic began we realized that, while we were set up perfectly to work at home, we, too had to stretch and grow. 2020 was a year of learning. We started collaborations with numerous new clients, recording countless health trainings and PSA’s around COVID 19, political spots, web videos, and much more. Many of our clients had to adapt and innovate due to the pandemic, and we were able to help them thanks to our professional home studio and remote recording capacity. Fortunately, we also got to deepen our long term working relationships with some of our favorite regulars, something we never, ever take for granted.

New Projects with Old Friends – from Clients to Friends

There are certain clients whose vision has aligned with ours from our very first meeting; that’s what happened with Planet Nutshell. They’re a one of a kind, full-service animation studio that has been creating compelling media since 2008. We’re thrilled to feature them here.

Every project Planet Nutshell has asked us to participate in resonates with our values. And they have a frequent need for bilingual content, which of course, just happens to be our specialty. Together we’ve worked on a wide range of projects promoting positive social change, as well as small and large scale projects for a wide variety of clients showcasing education, science, healthcare, music, Latino empowerment, and much more.

In 2020, Planet Nutshell approached us about a different kind of project. Founder (and now friend) Josh Gunn knows that we’re musicians and that Brian is a composer. He asked Brian to write music for an animated short film “Azúcar”, a poignant immigration story. As Josh describes it:

“Azúcar is the story of a mother and son who have journeyed over 1500 miles to get from Honduras to the US border in search of a better life. The film follows them on the night of their attempted crossing, when nothing goes to plan.”

Brian is thrilled to contribute his musical skills to this beautiful story. The film should be released soon. Meanwhile, you can see the trailer here.

Planet Nutshell Casts a Wide Net

We also got to collaborate with Planet Nutshell as voice actors on a variety of their clients’ projects. They created inspiring animations for the Latino Victory Project’s “Tu Voto” (“Your Vote”) campaign, and asked us to provide bilingual voiceovers. The project was aimed at turning out Latino voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina. It was a wonderful experience and a perfect opportunity to honor our Hispanic roots through our voices at a critical time.

I also got a huge kick out of voicing a series of whimsical animations recorded for Kentucky Educational Television focusing on music education, and my daughter Alisa Amador had the pleasure of recording the story of Lucille Packard, founder of Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital. A while back, when folks could still go to museums, I recorded for the “Culture Pass NYC” animated video. (Sigh… those days will return now that the vaccine is here, so long as we’re all patient. What a treat it’ll be to go to museums again, right?) You can see these animations and more created by Planet Nutshell at the top of this playlist.

You can also check out the rest of their remarkable work at PlanetNutshell.com.

¡Gracias Joshua! It has been a pleasure working with people engaged in helping others understand this beautiful but sometimes complicated world.

A friendly reminder

I’m saying adiós for now. I share this amazing professional experience with you all because I have faith that reading about resilient efforts to better our world through creativity will brighten up your day. Our voices, our talent and our values can reshape our daily approach to life! Take care, stay safe and remember that the light will always be found at the end of the tunnel. We truly look forward to whatever inspiring projects 2021 sends our way from our terrific clients and new ones too, so we can bring their words to life to the best of our ability.

– Rosi

Latinx Power: Bilingual Political Voiceover for Inclusive Government

January 26, 2021 by Brian Amador

Voting is the most effective way to make your voice heard on the issues that matter most to you.

Did you know that according to the Census Bureau’s 2019 estimates, the U.S. Hispanic population reached a record 60.6 million? That’s an increase of 930,000 over the previous year! If we come out to the polls to flex our power, we can drive necessary change in our country.

The Spanish language and a Call to Action

We’re passionate about social, economic and environmental justice, and we love lending our voices to progressive causes and candidates. Over the years we’ve worked in this industry, we’ve had the privilege of collaborating with media producers on many powerful ads targeting Hispanics. During election season these opportunities become even more meaningful.

We recently recorded “Nuestro País” – A call to action for immigrants to vote, for Just The Truth PAC, the featured video in this blog post. My wife and partner Rosi, our son Zia and I used our voices to advance and expand our democracy, making this one of our favorite projects. The 2020 election marks the first time that Hispanics are likely to be the largest racial or ethnic minority in the electorate, representing 18.4% of the total U.S. population. It could be argued that Spanish is becoming a compulsory second language in business, advertising and politics.

The Latinx community has come together in inspiring campaigns and narratives aimed at effecting change. The Latino Victory Project campaign is an ambitious, progressive effort to build political power within the Latino community. Rosi was honored to have been selected to provide the voiceover for this powerful Latino Victory profile video, currently featured on the organization’s Facebook page for election season 2020. Latino Victory’s goal is to win elections for local, state and federal offices; it advocates on behalf of the Latino community by advancing a positive narrative about Latino values and influence.

ABVO has been entrusted to voice a wide variety of bilingual and Spanish ads, videos and eLearning tutorials meant to inform, guide and inspire our Latinx population. We believe it is crucial for us all to be informed so that we can consciously exercise our right to vote. We take pride that our work has reached so many bicultural, bilingual, and Spanish speaking people. We know that multiculturalism has been the trend for a while now. As a bicultural family, we embrace this reality and the opportunity to reach out to previously underserved audiences.

This November, we in the Latinx community have the opportunity to make our voices heard. Our community deserves representation by leaders who will step up and effect change on the issues that affect us. Our family has already voted. If you can do so, vote for the future! Vote for those who can’t vote! But more importantly, let’s vote for progress in this country. Because we’ve never faced a more consequential election.

In saying adiós for now, we would like to share with you an amazing project ABVO had the pleasure of collaborating on. It’s a tiny film with a big idea: to ask viewers across the world to take a minute to vizualise the better future we could have, even in the midst of this pandemic: “Imagine.” The speakers include Pope Francis, Nobel prize winner Dr. Mario Molina, UN climate treaty negotiator Christiana Figueres, and Indigenous leaders Hindou Ibrahim and Benki Piyako. It features a beautiful score by legendary composer Max Cooper, animation by award-winning experimental filmmakers/artists the McGloughlin brothers, and Spanish overdub narration by our very own Rosi Amador.

Until next time, keep your ojos on the premio!

This election season, make sure to stay safe by taking all necessary precautions when you exercise your right to vote.

Latin Music and Bilingual Voiceover – a Marriage Made in Heaven

October 10, 2019 by Brian Amador

You may know that Rosi and I were professional Latin musicians long before we began our careers as bilingual voiceover actors. Music used to be our full-time gig, but these days it’s mostly voiceover work that puts food on the table and supports our music habit.

We recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the band we founded, Sol y Canto, and the 35th year that Rosi and I have been playing together. To acknowledge these important musical milestones, we held a concert and live recording in Boston. See the preview below!

We were overjoyed to be joined by our very talented daughter Alisa. The last time she recorded with Sol y Canto was over 15 years ago, and Alisa was a small child, singing along with her twin.

Sol y Canto 25th Anniversary Concert Photo collage

Music, Meet Voiceover

In the 1990’s, circumstances conspired to give us a taste of bilingual voice over work, and we liked it. It had quite a few advantages over making a living as musicians. We could live at home instead of on the road. We weren’t constantly organizing tours and rehearsals. And we had our first experience of something else we’ve come to appreciate a great deal: using our voices for a business that’s creative and sustainable for our family!

But the music wasn’t going to let us get away that easily. We’ve never wanted to give it up altogether, and it’s still a huge part of our lives. And now there’s an extra-special benefit. After spending much of her childhood touring with us, our daughter Alisa has grown into a phenomenally talented singer/songwriter. (She’s also become a great voice actor, which is a great way to make ends meet as she develops her musical career.) In the last several years, we’ve had the good fortune to be able to sing with her, both on our repertoire and on her beautiful songs. The recent anniversary concert highlighted the family trio, and it was powerfully moving.

Voiceover, Meet Music

I’m not going to lie. Sometimes there’s a tension between our musical and voice over careers. Sometimes I wish I could spend more time composing and practicing. But there’s also a lot of happy overlap. I get to compose and record music for a lot of projects, especially many of the children’s audio books we’ve narrated. Recently I was commissioned to write a Puerto Rican style holiday song to be “sung” by a puppet (in Alisa’s voice) for a video produced by a national food and entertainment chain. That’s the kind of job that makes me pinch myself to believe I’m getting paid for having that much fun!

Aside from the direct music work that sometimes accompanies voiceovers, music has also seeped into our work as voice actors in subtle ways. All the years of singing have made both of us very aware of our voices, how to modulate them, and how to take care of them. The vocal warmups we do for singing are also great preparation for a voice over session. I also find that awareness of melody and rhythm definitely applies to the spoken word as it does to music. Tuning in to the melody of a character’s speech or accent helps me in developing character voices.

Our voiceover and music careers are a bit like our marriage. Sometimes there are little disagreements, but both sides support and love each other, and we work it out.

Musical Epilogue: The Next Chapter

Our Sol y Canto anniversary concert in Boston was a huge success! We’re documenting it with what we anticipate will be a wonderful CD. The recording captures a very special moment before Alisa’s career takes off and she leaves the nest.

I invite you to listen to our music and consider taking it a bit further. We’ve launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for this album, and we’ve reached more than half of our goal!

We hope you’ll join our musical journey by sharing and contributing to our campaign. For your support, we’re offering some fun perks including your own copy of the music (CD or digital download).

Please help us raise the $10,000 we need to make this dream a reality!

Donate

Thank you – gracias – de todo corazón – from the bottom of our hearts, in advance!

Social Cause Voice Overs: a Labor of Love

May 16, 2019 by Brian Amador

Anyone who follows our work knows that we love working together as a family. They also know we love working for clients who try to make the world a better place. Particularly in today’s climate, we believe it’s more important than ever to use our voices for causes that make a positive impact in the world. Some of our most meaningful work has been for non-profit organizations. We already enjoy the perk of getting paid to do something we love. Doing social cause voice overs brings still more benefits.

The satisfaction of using our talents to help people

A recent project we were excited to work on was for the ACLU of Northern California. It’s an animated video in English and Spanish that is shown in immigration detention centers. The video explains to detainees their rights to communicate with their lawyers and others who can help with their immigration cases. Whatever one’s position on the complicated question of immigration, people can only exercise their rights when they know what they are.

Being a part of something bigger

Rosi did this uplifting voiceover in English and Spanish for the American Cancer Society. The spot highlights the organization’s work to help cancer patients and connect them to a large support network. It also connects the general public to the struggles of those with cancer.

For more information, visit our Voiceover Services for Social Causes page.