It’s funny. It’s a song most of us have heard in our childhood, know the hook step to, yet don’t recognise completely.

I came across this song a few months ago again when I heard it randomly at a mall store, but it registered in my brain much later. My knees instinctively went shaking laterally, my hands doing the strange wash-each-other-without-contact step, and I couldn’t quite figure out what the heck had just happened. A strange part of me wondered what the lyrics were, and later found out that most of them were in, you guessed it, Spanish!

Since then, I’ve been addicted to this song and have been listening to it at least a few times every week. So the story behind the song is interesting. The group, Las Ketchup, released this with their debut studio album, in both Spanish and Spanglish, but here’s the kicker – the famous chorus of Asereje makes absolutely no sense. That’s right, while the songs starts off in either language, the hook step isn’t really a language as such, it’s just a bunch of mumbo jumbo [very catchy mumbo jumbo, nevertheless].

Asereje means nothing at all, and I absolutely love the song for this actually major detail. Read more on this here.

Appendix:
1. Normal: Original Spanish lyric
2. Italics: Translated English lyric
3. –Italics nestled within hyphens–: Random comments that you can safely ignore

Asereje – The Ketchup Song by Las Ketchup – line-by-line translation of lyrics [Spanish to English] [Español a Inglés]

La letra
Lyrics

Mira lo que se avecina a la vuelta de la esquina
See what looms around the corner
Viene Diego rumbeando
Diego comes rumbling
Con la luna en las pupilas y su traje agua marina
With the moon in the pupils and his seawater suit
Van restos de contrabando
They keep smuggling
–I am actually unsure of this, what does it even mean?

Y donde más no cabe un alma allí mete a darse caña
And where there is no more room for a soul, there he tries to have fun
Poseído por el ritmo ragatanga
Possessed by the ‘ragatanta’ rhythm
Y el DJ que lo conoce toca el himno de las 12
And the DJ knows to play the anthem at midnight
Para Diego la canción más deseada
For Diego this song is the most desired
Y la baila y la goza y la canta
And he dances it, and he enjoys it, and he sings it
–Can you feel yourself going cantaaaaaaaaa?

Y aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi
Aserejé-ja-de jé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi
Aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi
–I mean, I’m not even going to try.

No es cosa de brujería que lo encuentre to’ los días
It is not a thing of witchcraft that I find every day
Por donde voy caminando
Wherever I go walking
Diego tiene chulería y ese punto de alegría
Diego is cocky, and is at that point of happiness
Rastafari-afrogitano
African Rastafari
–Excuse me, what?

Y donde más no cabe un alma allí mete a darse caña
And where there is no more room for a soul, there he tries to have fun
Poseído por el ritmo ragatanga
Possessed by the ‘ragatanta’ rhythm
Y el DJ que lo conoce toca el himno de las 12
And the DJ knows to play the anthem at midnight
Para Diego la canción más deseada
For Diego this song is the most desired
Y la baila y la goza y la canta
And he dances it, and he enjoys it, and he sings it

Y aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi
Aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi
Aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi

Y aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi
Aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi
Aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi

Y aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi
Aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi
Aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi

Y aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi
Aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi
Aserejé-ja-dejé
De jebe tu de jebere seibiunouva majavi an de bugui an de güididípi

I mean, take a bow, dear Spanish girl group.

Trying to make sense of such songs that you think are Spanish but you can’t be 100% sure? Let me help you!

Drop me an email at effietrumpet19@gmail.com and I can get you going with spoken and written Spanish in no time!

See ya next week. 🙂