If Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, meaning that the inflection of one’s voice changes the meaning of the word, then how is it properly understood when being sung?

Question

I’ve been a fan of the Chinese singer Faye Wong for a couple years now and have always wondered this.

In: Other

Answer 1

As a Bilingual Mandarin and English speaker (who also speaks Cantonese), I would say that we use mainly context to understand songs. The context also allows us to understand speakers who have accents and don’t nail the tones 100%.