46 Las mujeres reggaetoneras
Bomba Stereo
El grupo colombiano Bomba Stereo with the leading voice of Liliana Saumet did fusion since 2005. They don’t identify themselves with reggaetón as an industry and genre. They call themselves electro tropical or psychedelic cumbia. One of the most known songs is called “Soy yo” (Am I, 2016). Idiomatically significa “It’s me”.
Bomba Estéreo – Soy Yo (Official Video).
Slow down starting 0:15-0:45 to hear the past tense in:
Me caí, me paré, caminé, me subí (all MEs are reflexives)
(I) fell (on myself), I put myself on foot (=I stood), (I) walked, (I) climbed on my own
Me fui contra la corriente y también me perdí
(I) went against the current and too myself lost
Fracasé, me encontré, lo viví y aprendí
(I) failed, (I) found myself, (I) lived it and learned
Cuando te pegas fuerte más profundo es el beat
When yourself hit hard deeper is the beat
Sigo bailando y escribiendo mis letras
I continue dancing and writing my lyrics
Sigo cantando con las puertas abiertas
I continue singing with the open doors
Atravesando todas estas tierras
Going through all these lands
Y no hay que viajar tanto pa’ (=para, in order to) encontrar la respuesta
And there’s no (need) to travel so much to find the answer.
Y no te preocupes, si no te aprueban
And don’t worry if they don’t approve you
Cuando te critiquen (=subjunctive), tú solo di:
When they criticize you, you only say:
Soy yo!!!! (Girl with recorder playing with an in your face attitude)
Songwriters: Eric Frederic, Federico Simon Mejia Ochoa, Liliana Margarita Saumet Avila, Joseph M. Spargur. For non-commercial use only. Adapted from Musixmatch, powered by Microsoft Bing.
La cantante expresa las dificultades que pasó antes de llegar a ser famosa. Cometió errores, pero se recuperó por la música. Escribir canciones fue una estrategia de resilencia. Mucha gente la criticó, but she remained loyal to herself.
- Verbs in the past tense: me caí (=I fell on myself), me paré (=I stood OR I put myself on foot), me perdí (=I got lost), fracasé (=I failed), me encontré (=I found myself), viví (=I lived), aprendí (=I learned). The verbs with ME are made in reflexive.
- Verbs in present progressive: sigo bailando (=I continue dancing) y escribiendo (=writing), sigo cantando (=I continue singing), atravesando (=going through) todas estas tierras (=all these lands).
- Pre-coro: y no te preocupes si no te aprueban (=and don’t worry if they don’t approve you), cuando te critiquen tú solo di (=when they criticize you, you only say), where “critiquen” is from “criticar” and uses subjunctive mood.
- Coro: soy yo is an assertion literally meaning Am I, but idiomatically in English may mean “It’s me”. The subject and verb order is reversed to make an emphasis.
Karol G
One of the first female reggaetón artists to hit the industry was la cantante colombiana Karol G. Ella es de Medellín (Colombia), city featured in her video Mi cama (2017).
KAROL G – Mi Cama (Official Video)
En la canción ella le habla a un exnovio. Ella le dice that after he broke up to her, her life become much more interesting and she has multiple sexual partners: Mi cama suena y suena=My bed sounds and sounds se refiere al éxito que ella tiene en su vida sexual y romántica. Notice la diferencia entre “suena”=sounds and “sueña”=dreams. Both are stem changing verbs sonar O to UE in “suena”, and soñar O to UE in sueña.
Listen to 0:55-1:15:
En mi cerradura ya no entra tu llave
In my lock (refers to the vagina) your key doesn’t enter
Esa calentura que otra te la baje
That (sexual) heat, may other (woman) to turn off (subjunctive)
Tú en este vuelo no tienes pasaje
You in this flight don’t have ticket
Esta noche hay fiesta, pero tú no tienes traje (no)
This night there’s party, but you don’t have suit
No te preocupes, tu tren ya pasó
Don’t worry, your train already passed
Eso te pasa por andar con dos
That happesn to you for walking around with two (women)
La matemática a ti te falló y te lo dije yo
Math to you failed and I told you so
Songwriters: Antonio Rayo Gibo, Andy Clay, Carolina Giraldo, Rene Cano, Omar Luis Sabino. For non-commercial use only. Adapted from Musixmatch, powered by Microsoft Bing
Hay una metáfora sobre la sexualidad así como en “El pony” de Daddy Yankee donde el pony es el pene. La cerradura is the lock, but refers to the vagina, and la llave=the key is her exboyfriend’s penis. So what do you think this means?: En mi cerradura ya no entra tu llave.
Karol G es muy importante porque ella entró en un medio dominado por hombres a imponer una voz y una figura femenina en el reggaetón. Ella es mejor conocida como “La bichota”, which is a Puerto Rican derogatory name for a bossy woman. According to Urban Dictionary, the word bichota comes from the English BIG SHOT which is a leading drug dealer, and in masculine is “bichote”. Spanish doesn’t have SH sound, so they pronounce SH as an CH. En español also sounds like “bichote”=big bug, feminine “bichota”. Karol G resignificó el nombre bichota como algo bueno.
KAROL G – BICHOTA (Official Video).
El coro se refiere a los hombres que tienen sexo con ella: roncan=they snore, from the infinitive roncar=to snore, pero no pueden con mi pum pum pum=but they can’t with my poom poom poom. Significa que el hombre en la cama es muy malo but noisy and boastful, while they can’t keep up to her sexual skill. Listen to 1:48-2:00:
Perreando duro te gusta mi culo
Doggying hard, you like my booty
hace tiempo te estoy esperando
long time ago I’m waiting for you
no sé tú pero yo aquí pensando
I don’t know you, but I’m here waiting
no hace na’ pa’ lo que está roncando
doesn’t do nothin fo what he’s snoring
Songwriters: Carolina Giraldo Navarro, Daniel Echavarría Oviedo, Cristian Andrés Salazar, Julio Manuel González, Justin R. Quiles. Letra de Musixmatch, my translation.
Some of my blog entries fully in Spanish about Karol G’s usage of the Spanish language:
Becky G
Otra mujer en el reggaetón es la cantante estadounidense de origen dominicano Becky G. Ella tiene una canción que es fusión entre reggaetón y merengue dominicano: “Fulanito” (JohnDoey, 2021). En la canción, Becky G expresa su deseo sexual por un hombre que la apasiona y la domina. A veces ella siente que él la domina too much, pero no le importa porque la retribución sexual es muy buena.
Becky G, El Alfa – FULANITO (Official Video)
“Fulanito” is a diminutive for a proper name of a man. It’s like saying “He’s just any JohnDoey”. Ella reconoce que él es un hombre como otros, doesn’t seem to have anything special, but ella está loca por él: pero me tiene loca a mí=has me crazy to me. She enjoys dancing with him: bailando apretaíto=dancing tight. After that, there’s a line which I don’t know how to interpret due to the common S deletion in Caribbean Spanish:
- y nos vamos a dormir=we’re going to put ourselves to sleep, idiom. have sex (?)
- y no vamos a domir=and we’re not going to sleep (?)
Expressions:
- Él consigue=from conseguir=to obtain, E to I stem changing verbs. Él consigue de mí=he obtains from me
- Quedé partida=I fell chopped, idiom. I fell in love
- No sale bien=doesn’t come out well
- Me tiene loca=has me crazy (in a good sexual way)
- Bailando apretadito=dancing tight, in close physical contact
- Solo para ti=only for you, word TI after preposition is a prepositional pronoun
- Muerdes de esta fruta=you bite from this fruit, reference to the forbidden fruit from Eden. Probably also reference to oral sex. Muerdes=you bite, from infinitive moder, O to UE stem changing verb.
Reflexives:
- Nos gastamos los chavos=We spend ourselves (idiom. together) the pennies, chavos=centavos=pennies
- Me muevo=I move myself. From infinitive moverse O to UE stem changing verb=to move onself.
- From infinitive poner=to put, to get, and ponerse=to turn, to change into:
- Me pongo bonita=I put/get myself beautiful.
- Me pongo coqueta=I put/get myself flirtatious.
- Te pones happy=You put/get yourself happy.
Subjunctives
- Quiera=from infinitive querer=to want. Qué manera (What a way), cómo él consigue de mí lo que quiera (=how he gets from me whatever he want)
- Boten=from infinitive botar=to trash. Hasta que nos boten de ahí=until they throw us from there
- Vean=from infinitive ver=to see. Quiero comerte y que todos nos vean=I want to eat you and that everybody see us.
Qué manera, cómo él consigue de mí lo que quiera (subjunctive)
What way, how he obtains from me whatever he wants
Quedé partida desde la primera
(I) turned out broken from the first (time)
Haciendo lo que no va a hacer cualquiera
Doing what anybody is not going to do
y no sale tan bien (yeah)
and doesn’t come out so well
Él es el fulanito (el fulanito), que me tiene loca a mí (woo)
He is the John Doey, that has me crazy to me
bailando apretadito (oh), hoy no vamos a dormir
Dancing tight, today we’re not going to sleep
Él es el fulanito (el fulanito), que me tiene loca a mí (woo)
He is the John Doey,, that has me crazy to me
bailando apretadito (oh) hasta que nos boten (subjunctive) de aquí
dancing tight until they throw us away from here
Muévelo, que te aprieta, neta (woo)
Move it, that it tights you, true!
Nos gastamos los chavos que tengo en la tarjeta (prr)
(We) ourselves spend the cents I have in the card
Muévelo, que aprieta, neta (sheesh)
Move it that it gets tight, true
Me pongo bonita, me pongo coqueta (ah)
(I) myself put pretty, myself put flirtatious
Solo para ti porque quiero comerte y que todos nos vean (subjucntive)
Just for you because I want to eat you and that all all see us
Solo para ti porque contigo tengo lo que otras desean
Just for you because with you (I) have what other (girls) wish
Cuando yo me muevo así se te nota que te gusta
When I move myself so, it’s noticeable that (this) pleases you
Y te pones happy cuando muerdes de esta fruta
And yourself get happy when you bite this fruit
Songwriters: Kyle Shearer, Emanuel Herrera Batista, Rebbeca Marie Gomez, Alexander Castillo Vasquez, Nathaniel Campany, Rafa Rodriguez, Elena Rose. For non-commercial use only. Adapted from Musixmatch, powered by Microsoft Bing.
Farina
Farina is the stage name for a Colombian who sings reggaeton music. Though she was doing reggaeton since much before Karol G, somehow the strong presence of Karol G gave visibility to Farina. Una de sus canciones más famosas es “Como Una Kardashian”=Like a Kardashian (2019). She compares her fancy life style to Kardashians.
En la canción “Comas y ceros” (2021) featuring el artista dominicano Arcángel, she says that she had a dream, and she dreamt with comas y ceros, referencia al dinero que tiene: Soñé con comas y ceros=I dreamt with commas and zeroes. She was born to be a millionaire: Que nací para ser millonaria=I was born to be millionaire, nacimos pa (=para, in order to) multiplicar=We were born to multiply, un dólar, dos dólar, tres dólar, aquí vinimos a facturar=Here we came to bill. She avoids making the word “dólar” plural. It should be “un dólar, dos dólares, tres dólares”, but she doesn’t add the ES as she should.
Farina, Arcangel – Comas y Ceros (Official Video)
She was not born rich, she started from scratch: yo nací desde cero de mi barrio con cero dinero =I was born from zero (from scratch) from my neighborhood with zero money. Despite her humble origins, she now has decks of bills to smell: ahora huelo mis pacas=now I smell my packs, millonarios todos mis parceros=millonaires all my buddies. Check my blog on the Colombian slang word parcero in Spanish.
Verbs in preterit:
- tuve=I had, a strong preterit because stress always goes on the syllable before last, from infinitive tener
- soñé=I dreamt, from infinitive soñar
- logré=I managed, I accomplished, from infinitive lograr
- nací=I was born, from infinitive nacer=to be born, literally “I birthed”
- nacimos=we were born, literally “we birthed”
Here you can observe the metaphor of sex again: Tengo una fila de palos de cuero=I have a line of sticks made of leather, que quieren meter su bola en mi agujero=That they want to introduce their ball in my hole. El agujero es la vagina, las bolas son los testículos y los palos son los penes que quieren meterse en su vagina.
Ayer tuve un sueño (=Yesterday I had a dream)
Que no he podido superar (=That I haven’t been able to overcome)
Soñé con comas y ceros (ceros) (=I dreamt with commas and zeroes)
Creo que logré descifrar (=I believe I managed to decipher)
Que nací pa (=para, in order to) ser millonaria (=That I was born to be millonaire)
Nacimos pa (=para, in order to) multiplicar (Money) (=I was born to multiply)
Un dólar, dos dólar(es), tres dólar(es) (Doesn’t pronounce the final ES in “dólares”
Aquí vinimos a facturar (=Here we came to bill)
Yo nací desde cero (cero) (=I was bron from zero, idiom. scratch)
De mi barrio con cero dinero (dinero) (=From my neighborhood with zero money)
Ahora huelo mis pacas (=Now I smell my packs)
Millonarios todos mis parceros (¿Qué?) (=Millionaires all my buddies)
El que tira por redes (=The one who throws on social networks)
Es obvio que tiene sus cuentas en cero (=It’s obvious that has his OR her accounts in zero)
Tengo una fila de palos de cuero (=I have a line of sticks made of leather)
Que quieren meter su bola en mi agujero (=That they want to introduce their ball in my hole)
Songwriters: Hector David Lamboy, Farina Pao Paucar Franco, Evaristo Pabon, Pedro Juan De La Ossa, Austin Agustin Santos, Kaseem Moultrie. For non-commercial use only.
Nathy Pelusso
Una mujer y artista muy versátil es la argentina Nathy Peluso. Ella usa su slang argentino en sus letras. Trabaja también el tema de ser una mujer con poder en el negocio de la música.
NATHY PELUSO – BUSINESS WOMAN
En la canción “Business woman” (2020), ella dice “me llaman porque soy una business woman”. Introduce la palabra en inglés para poder decir woman porque negociante=businesser doesn’t have gender in Spanish. Para recalcar el género femenino, usa el término en inglés.
El coro dice: tengo negocios que dirigir yo sola=I have business to direct me alone, and hago guita desde que nací bien piola=I make money since I was born very cool. La palabra guita es una palabra de slang argentino que significa money, como en inglés decimos bucks. La palabra piola refers to a type of rope or cord, but in Argentine slang piola is something very cool. In Caribbean Spanish, the word for something very cool is chévere.
Me llaman porque soy una business woman
They call me because I’m a business woman
Tengo negocios que dirigir yo sola
I have businesses to direct me alone
Hago guita (slang) desde que nací bien piola (slang)
I-make money since I was born, very rope (=cool)
Me llaman porque soy una business woman
They call me because I’m a business woman
She also jokes about men being weaker than her in sexual affairs. Se lo tira (=lays him) with TIRAR=to throw, metaphorically to fuck, says that another woman is laying his man because he was unable to keep up to her sexual skill. She says: borrate esa cara de caballito=erase that face of little horse, pero ella pronuncia /kabashíto/. Pronouncing LL and Y as SH only happens in Argentine Spanish.
Pura amenaza mira, cómo se lo tira la nenaza
Pure threat, look, how she lays him, the baby girl
Todos los pibes se rajaron de la plaza
All the guys got failed from the plaza
Flaco borrate esa cara de caballito
skinny guy, erase that face of horsey
Después de probarme te quedaste derechito
After trying me you stayed straight
In minutes 0:55-1:10 ella se jacta (=boasts) de ser una nena mala (=bad girl), una droga asesina, de sus tetas que brillan (=tits that bright) and she uses the Argentine way of conjugating you: querés instead of quieres. Se jacta de tener sexo sucio y caro:
Soy una nena mala, una droga asesina
I’m a bad girl, an assassin drug
Me brillan las tetas, me querés de vecina
My tits shine on me, you want me as a neighbor
Me gusta el boxeo, la baba, la rabia
I like boxing, the spit, the anger
Vamos a pegarnos sin los guantes
Let’s hit each other without the gloves
Sexo sucio, caro carísimo
Dirty sex, expensive, very expensive
Songwriters: Natalia Peluso, Pedro Campos Nieto. For non-commercial use only. Musixmatch, powered by Microsoft Bing.
Expresiones:
- Argentine slang: guita (=money), piola (=cool), cabashito=caballito (=little horse), querés (you want), pibe (=guy), cojones (=balls) ¿quién cojones eres tú?=who the balls are you?
- General Spanish slang: tetas (=tits), baba (=the spit)
- Vocab: pura amenaza (=pure trheat), nena mala (=evil girl), droga asesina (=killer drug), vecina (=neighbor), boxeo (=boxing), guantes (=gloves) nadie (=no one), veo (=I see), rabia (=anger)
Colombianas, colombianas y colombianas, then isn’t reggaetón just Puerto Rican? Colombians have done lots of reggaetón, and sometimes the language mixes up such tendencies. If you read Spanish, take a look at
