"His songs fly away in quotations" (Russian expression, looking for an English alternative)
Он является одним из главных исполнителей российской сцены и настоящим народным артистом, песни которого разлетаются на цитаты.
He is one of the most well-known Russian entertainers and a true people's artist, whose songs fly away in quotations.
The meaning is clear: people adopt phrases and excerpts from his songs as "household phrases". It's as if phrases from his songs are turning into birds and flying away on their own, they are so strong.
The only English alternative to Russian "fly away in quotations" that I was able to recall is "his songs give rise to household phrases".
I wonder if there are more English expressions to carry across the same meaning.
Not a native speaker of English, but so far I've got
- ...the verses of his songs often spread their wings as quotations.
- ...the verses of his songs often spread wings of their own as quotations.
which still loosely keeps to the spirit of the original.
LDOCE has the following entry:
spread your wings
to start to have an independent life and experience new things
Or perhaps you might want to use words like soar/rise and sprout/grow wings.
If you're looking for an idiom, there is take on a life of its own:
[Merriam-Webster]
: to become very large, important, or hard to control
// The story took on a life of its own and began to appear on news broadcasts everywhere.
In your example:
His songs took on a life of their own. [They could be heard hummed and sung by people everywhere.]
The "repeat-to-express-agreement" sense of "echo" might capture at least the gist of the notion of repeating words found in the original expression (verb 1.2, from oxforddictionaries.com):
He is one of the most well-known Russian entertainers and a true people's artist, whose powerful lyrics echo/can be heard echoing/are echoed across/throughout the land.