“Babymetal – METALI (feat. Tom Morello)” was released as a digital Single in 2023. The Japanese Title “メタり” has a distinctive style of kana usage. It is written as the nominal form of the made up verb “to do metal”. As with most Japanese lyrics, the translation may vary depending on the person translating it, a bit of text interpretation is always part of the process. You can find the Romaji Lyrics with the translation side by side down below.

Translation

It’s the metal-village festival metal song
festival, festival, come together
make a ring, make a ring
let the party horns dance¹

brothers and sisters of metal-village too
festival, festival, come together
make a ring, make a ring
sing together
like that, like that, heigh-ho²

you’re a fool if you dance, and a fool if you just look on, so let’s dance³
you have to dance and become a fool
like that, like that, like that, heigh-ho
you have to dance and sing
you have to sing and dance
everyone has to dance, dance dance,
we don’t go home.

dance, dance
dance, like that, like that, heigh-ho

shake it, shake it
like that, like that!
sing, sing!

sing! like that, like that, heigh-ho!
shout, shout!
like that, like that
heave-ho! heave-ho!⁴
heave-ho! heave-ho!
heave-ho! heave-ho!
heave-ho! heave-ho!
the people asleep wake up and heigh-ho!

heave-ho! heave-ho!
heave-ho! heave-ho!
heave-ho! heave-ho!
heave-ho! heave-ho!
everyone and anyone⁵ heigh-ho!

~~ you’re a fool if you dance, and a fool if you just look on, so let’s dance
but if you dance to also be a fool
when you dance
do the metal, do the metal! ~~⁶

heigh-ho
heave-ho!
….
(shortened for translation, more heigh-ho and heave-ho follow until the end)

1. Paper horns blown into to celebrate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_horn ↩︎
2. These are shoutings used at traditional festivals. “sore” and “dokkoisho”. This is the same sore used in Megitsune ↩︎
3. lyrics sung during the Awa Odori festival. This is a farely long sentence translated but shorter in Japanese ↩︎
4. more shoutings used at traditional festivals. “wasshoi”. ↩︎
5. the Japanese phrase used here literally translates to “the cats and bamboo lids also” which has the meaning of “everyone and anyone” ↩︎
6. This part is spoken in a traditional way of japanese theater, called kabuki ↩︎

Romaji

Original Text

メタ村祭りのメタ音頭
祭りだ 祭りだ 寄っといで
輪っかになって 輪っかになって
ピーヒャラ 踊ろう!

メタ村ニキさん ネキさんも
祭りだ 祭りだ 寄っといで
輪っかになって 輪っかになって
みんなで 歌おう!
そーれそれそれ どっこいしょ!

踊る阿呆に見る阿呆
同じ阿呆なりゃ踊りんちゃい
そーれそれそれ どっこいしょ!
踊らないんじゃ歌いんちゃい
歌わないんじゃ踊りんちゃい
ここで踊らにゃ 踊らにゃ 踊らにゃ
帰れない!
踊れ! 踊れ!
踊れ! それそれどっこいしょ!
揺らせ! 揺らせ!
そーれ! そーれ!
歌え! 歌え!

歌え! それそれどっこいしょ!
叫べ! 叫べ!
そーれ! そーれ!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
寝ても覚めてもどっこいしょ

わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
猫も杓子もどっこいしょ

～踊る阿呆に見る阿呆
同じ阿呆なら踊るでしかし
ここで踊らにゃ
いつ踊る
メタり　メタり～

どっこいしょ! どっこいしょ!
どっこい どっこい
どっこいしょ! どっこいしょ! どっこいしょ!
どっこい どっこい
どっこいしょ! どっこいしょ! どっこいしょ!
どっこいどっこいどっこいしょ!
どっこいしょ! どっこいしょ!
どっこい どっこいどっこいしょ!

わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!
わっしょい! わっしょい!