Flamenco-pop: group choreographies and female power.
The story behind several massive hits served by the country responsible for sangría, flamenco-pop...and a dash of female power.
This week in music history.
Did you know I am half-Spanish? If you didn’t, you do know: I’m coming out as 100% Spanglish woman. This (shocking, I know) reveal comes with a free-lesson in music history… en español.
It’s been a while since my last deep-dive and, this January gloom is making me want to hop on a flight back to my hometown to stuff my face with salmorejo and tortilla… but since I am writing this from my home in Brighton, join me by closing your eyes, picture a sunny spot, surrounded by palmeras… and palmeros… And now open your eyes and keep reading: this is a story of accidental massive hits, and female power.
Sí señor… does the accent give it away?
On this very week back in 1961, The Shirelles became the first all-girl black group to have a No.1 song on the US chart with Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
However in the UK, the first female band to hit the top of the charts was Baccara, a Spanish duo made up of Mayte Mateos and María Mendiola. By 1977, these chicas (expect an excessive amount of Spanglish throughout this post) were the highest-selling female musical duo to date. They were also the first Spanish Spanish artist to reign at the top of the British charts until… Julio Iglesias came along four years later.
Mateos and Mendiola had relocated from Madrid to the Canary Islands looking for work as dancers. Whilst performing flamenco shows for tourists they were spotted by Leon Deane, manager of the German subsidiary of record company RCA. He invited them to Hamburg and introduced them to Dutch producer Rolf Soja. Soja helped developed their stage performances, recruited musicians, and with fellow writer Frank Dostal, wrote and produced Yes Sir, I Can Boogie… and most of their other hits.
Yes Sir, I Can Boogie reached number one across Europe, becoming the best-selling single of all time by a female duo, selling more than 16 million copies worldwide.
But that was not the only hit by Baccara: their follow-up single Sorry, I'm a Lady was a number one hit in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and West Germany. Because they produced several successful singles, they toured Europe extensively, released several albums, did numerous television appearances and, most random of all feats, they were selected to represent Luxembourg at Eurovision in 1978. They did so with what would become another international hit, Parlez-Vous Francais?
The surprise feminist anthem
Yet, there is one Spanish duo who made an even louder global splash, reigning charts worldwide and spending a total of 14 weeks at the top of the US charts with just one song.
Los del Río, a duo who had formed in Sevilla in 1962, and who had issued their first album in 1967 had had some success in Spanish charts. For their 19th album, released in 1993, they included a song called Macarena. However, it was not until 1996 when a remix of the song became a worldwide hit.
Producers Mike Triay and Carlos de Yarza recorded their remix version in 1995, with additional English lyrics, and vocals by Patty Alfaro. Initially, this actually upset the record label, and the producers came close to being sued. However, as the single gained traction, and was repeatedly played on US radio stations, the label came round… the unprecedented success and incessant media coverage probably helped too.
In the UK, Macarena did not make it to the number one spot because of a juggernaut pop phenomenon: Wannabe by the Spice Girls.
The funny thing about Macarena is that it is a female-power anthem… hear me out. The song tells the story of a girl, called Macarena, who had been recently abandoned by her boyfriend Vitorino, to pursue a career in the army. In fact, on the day he was pledging alliagance to the Spanish flag, Macarena was spotted with two new lovers. The lyrics “dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena” encourages Macarena to pursue whatever makes her feel good, and celebrate her body through the good things in life.
The real-life Macarena actually exists. The duo had been invited to a party in Caracas, Venezuela, full of A-listers. At that same party was a local flamenco dancer called Diana Patricia Cubillán Herrera. As she danced, one half of Los del Río encouraged her to carry on by ad-libbing the chorus to the song, calling her “Magdalena” instead of Macarena. The name of the song is inspired by one of their daughters.
Possessed by the ritmo ragatanga.
You’d think that after Macarena’s incessant radio and TV play, with wedding guests everywhere performing the dance craze that came with… the world would have said “you know Spain, you had your fun, but we’re done with your cheesy flamenco-pop songs”. And it was that way for a while, but then another girlband came along.
Las Ketchup are a wonderful example of the term ‘nepo-babies’ since the trio are sisters Lucía, Lola, and Pilar Muñoz, daughters of flamenco guitarist Juan Manuel Muñoz Expósito, aka, El Tomate - the tomato. His daughters named themselves, and their first album, Hijas del Tomate (the daughters of the tomato) (2002) very much on brand.
Fun fact: Las Ketchup are from Córdoba, the Andalusian town I spent most of my childhood, and one of the sisters served me and my best friend many, many dark rum and cokes when we were teenagers.
While known internationally as “The Ketchup Song” the original title is Aserejé (2002), and the chorus “aserejé, ja, de je, de jebe tu de jebere ..." means nothing in Spanish. In fact the song is about a guy (Diego), who is having a lot of fun at a nightclub, and who may or may not be high. Diego goes up to the DJ to ask for his favourite song, and in order to convey the message, he “sings” the lyrics… but because this boy is slightly baked, he performs a, sort of, phonetic interpretation of what he believes is the most recognisable part of the song, which is Rapper's Delight's refrain "I said a hip-hop, the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop ...’ "I said a hip” becomes “aserejé”, and that is how we make an international smash in Córdoba.
Just like Macarena, Aserejé was released internationally with additional English lyrics, and it also came with its own dance routine. It reached number one in over 20 European countries and also topped the music charts of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. For some unknown reason, the band’s label in the UK, Sony Music, discreetly cancelled the release of their second single, Kusha La Payas, a very catchy tune and quite a respectable follow-up to Aserejé. So it barely got any radioplay outside of Spanish shores. Las Ketchup continue to perform to this day.
It's a femininomenon
If there is one Spanish pop star that has managed to rid herself from the one-hit wonder-quality that her predecessors were labelled with, that’s Rosalia Vila Tobella known worldwide as Rosalía. In her short career she has won two Grammy Awards, eleven Latin Grammy Awards, four MTV Video Music Awards and an MTV Europe Music Award.
Her second album El Mal Querer (2018) is, in my humble opinion, a flamenco-pop masterpiece. The record was produced as part of her baccalaureate project, helping her graduate with honors. It slowly, but surely, became a international hit. Since June 2021, El Mal Querer holds the record for the longest-charting album in Spanish history.
Rosalía still enjoys international acclaim, and while her sound now includes nods to Latin American genres, hip-hop, electropop, and more, her musical experiments with flamenco as a base are still making headlines.
Rosalía has enjoyed worldwide success without translating her songs for an international audience. She went with what had shaped her musical upbringing, - flamenco icons like Camarón, and her first album Los Ángeles, a 100% flamenco production. When she got international attention, she did so by singing in Spanish, with nods to that original first album, turning Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me A River into a bulería and (she was born in Sant Cugat del Vallès, Catalonia) she even had a hit in Catalan - with over 43 million YouTube views, it is heavily influenced by the rumba catalana genre.
I make no secret that I champion music by women. Because of that I enjoy noticing how the huge international hits featured above share a strong female energy. They had their origin stories in small country in the south of Europe, one that was under a strict dictatorship until the mid to late 70s. It is a country I love, but one in which women’s rights are still, often, under threat. These songs were either performed by women or had a positive female-centric message. In the case of Rosalía, her body of work is now a prolific musical portfolio written and produced by a young woman who served up a wonderful remix of the culture and music influencing her life. She is currently one of the world’s most influencial pop stars. May she continue to reign.
“Tra-TRÁ.” - Rosalía
Yeah but the original is better.
Back to Baccara for a brief, yet sweet moment: Sophie Ellis-Bextor recorded a near-perfect cover of Yes Sir, I Can Boogie as a bonus track for her second album, Shoot from the Hip (2003).
Gimme, gimme more.
I could talk for England, and Spain, when it comes to music… but for now, I will quietly retreat, like a second Las Ketchup single in UK markets, via some shy flamenco steps and a very strong statement, spotted last Saturday between Brighton and Shoreham.
Stay cozy, stay healthy, keep applying that SPF. Drink more water, listen to some good music… and while you’re at it, make a fellow music nerd happy by introducing them to Music Nerdery.
Until the next newsletter… aserejé, ja, de je, de jebe tu de jebere seibiu nouva
majavi an de bugui an de buididipi…!
This one is PERFECTA X