6 Minute English / Can music mend a broken heart?

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript.

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I m Sam.

And I m Neil. There are a million songs about falling in love, and just as many about being broken-hearted. Do you remember the first time you fell in love, Sam?

Yes - I was fourteen and it seemed like every word of every love song had been written just for me!

There s a strong connection between music and love - as Shakespeare famously wrote, If music be the food of love, play on . In this programme we ll be meeting a singer-songwriter who used music to express her feelings of falling in love, and later to mend her broken heart when the relationship ended. And as usual, we ll be learning some new vocabulary as well.

But first I have a question for you, Neil. Your mention of Shakespeare reminds me of Romeo and Juliet, his famous lovers who fall in love despite their fighting families, only to die tragically young. But in which Italian city was Romeo and Juliet set? Was it:

a) Florence?b) Venice? or,c) Verona?

I think it must be one of the world s most romantic cities - Florence.

OK, Neil, I ll reveal the answer later in the programme. Julia Jacklin is an Australian singer-songwriter whose song, Don t Know How To Keep Loving You , reached number eight in the Australian pop charts. Her song lyrics explore feelings of falling in love as well as the pain of breaking up.

Julia s songs are written from experience. Several years ago she quit her band in Australia and bought a one-way ticket to London to be with her boyfriend and soulmate the person who she felt a special romantic connection with. But things didn t work out as she d hoped, and she found herself alone and working in a depressing job.