51 Bachata

The island that is located in between Puerto Rico and Cuba is called “La Española”. The island is divided in two countries: Haiti and Dominican Republic or in Spanish “República Dominicana”. In Haití, the language spoken is called Haitian Creole, which is a mixture of French and African languages. In República Dominicana, Spanish is spoken. República Dominicana is home to two important music genre: bachata and merengue.

Bachata was documented in the early 1970’s as the music of marginalized people of African and Spanish descent. It has a connection with Cuban bolero, and originally it’s played with only the acoustic guitar. Later on was introduced electric guitar, but with that some Dominicans call it techno-bachata.

As in Cuban bolero, bachata follows the classic 4/4 compass: four beats every change of cords. The melody is quite minimalistic. It usually follows the same melody sung in two lines again and again with little variation in tunes, but with a great creativity from the part of the guitar solos.

The dancing is just a series of four steps where the last one is done with a harsh shaking of the side hip, especially on the part of the woman.

Bachata Dance 2020 🇩🇴 10 MOST VIEWED Dances On Channel This Year!

Bad Bunny has a fusion of bachata and reggaetón at the beginning of “La Romana” (2019):

BAD BUNNY FT. EL ALFA – LA ROMANA | X100PRE (Official Video)

Joan Soriano

El cantante dominicano Joan Soriano tiene una canción donde deletra la palabra AMOR como una plegaria para el regreso de la mujer que lo dejó. The song is called “Vocales de amor” (Vowels of love, 2010).

Vocales de amor – Joan Soriano – Live in Belgium by iASO records.

The singer starts by saying that he doesn’t know what to do: Yo ya no sé lo que hago=I already don’t know what I do, ya yo no sé lo que hacer=already I don’t know what to do. He feels his life is coming to an end because his woman has departed. He views the life different after she left: Todo lo veo distinto desde que ella se me fue=All I see it different since she departed from me. Yo ya no vivo sin ella=I already don’t live without her, and expresses a desire in subjunctive: quiero que vuelva=I want that she return.

En el coro, el cantante deletrea la palabra “amor”=love, a, eme, o, ere, amor amor amor es lo que siento por ti=Love love love is the thing that (I) feel for you. He repeats later quiero que vuelva, quiero que vuelva otra vez, spelling out again the word AMOR: A EME O ERE.

Verbs in the yo-form:

• Hago (=I do), infinitive: hacer
• Veo (=I see), infinitive: ver
• Vivo (=I live), infinitive: vivir
• Quiero=I want
• Paso=I pass, I spend (time)
• Siento=I feel, infinitive: sentir E to IE

Expressions:

• Yo no sé: I don’t know
• Ya: means “now” or “already”, but in the song it means “anymore”: ya yo no sé lo que hago=I don’t know the thing that I do anymore.
• Paso la noche pensando=I spend the night thinking.

Subjunctive:

The singer expresses his desire that his woman returns: Quiero que vuelva otra vez=I want that she return again. The verb return is VOLVER, which takes an A in the subjunctive ending. Being an O to UE verb makes it VUELVA.

Ya yo no sé lo-que hago,
Now I don’t know what (I) do
ya yo no sé lo-que hacer,
Now I don’t know what to-do
Mi vida se está acabando,
My life is finishing,
porque se fue mi mujer.
because my woman herself left.
Todo lo veo distinto,
All (I) see it different,
desde-que ella se me fue (X2).
since she herself (from) me left.
Paso las noches pensando,
(I) spend/pass the nights thinking,
ay se me fue mi mujer
Ay my woman herself (from) me left.
Ya yo no vivo (=vivir) sin ella,
Now I don’t live without her,
quiero que vuelva otra vez.
(I) want her to return again.
Ay, día y noche sufriendo,
Ay, day and night suffering,
ay, yo quiero a mi mujer. (back to Todo lo veo…)
ay, I want to my woman.
A M (eme) O R (ere) Amor amor amor es lo-que siento por ti.
Love … is what (I) feel for you.
Dios mío, quiero que vuelva,
God mine, (I) want that (she) return (I want her to return)
quiero que vuelva otra vez (X2).
(I) want that (she) return again.
Ay, día y noche sufriendo,
Ay, day and night suffering,
quiero ver a mi mujer (X2)
(I) want to see to my woman.

Songwriters: Joan Soriano. For non-commercial use only. Musixmatch, powered by Microsoft Bing.

Juan Luis Guerra

Bachata was considered an underground genre until the artist Juan Luis Guerra, also a singer of important merengues, started making bachatas and took them to the international level in the 1990’s. Listen to one of the greatest bachata hits called “Burbujas de amor” (Bubbles of love, 1990).

Juan Luis Guerra Y 440 – Burbujas De Amor (Clip) by Videos Música VEVO. Check 0:55-1:13

En la canción, el autor expresses the desire to become a fish to spy on her beloved woman, day and night, looking from inside her aquarium. The CORAZON=heart (masculine word) está mutilado because he’s left without a big part of him. Ese corazón madruga=wakes-early and se desnuda=gets naked. He can’t recover his sanity. That is why el corazón starts fantasizing crazy ideas.

Tengo un corazón
I have a heart
Mutilado de esperanza y de razón
Mutilated from hope and of reason
Tengo un corazón
I have a heart
Que madruga adonde quiera
That gets up early wherever it wants
Ay ay ay ay
Y ese corazón
And that heart
Se desnuda de impaciencia ante tu voz
Gets naked of impatience before your voice
Pobre corazón
Poor heart
Que no atrapa su cordura
That it doesn’t catch is healthy mind

El cantante dice “quisiera” which translates idiomatically “would like”, but it’s a form of querer=to want in the imperfect subjunctive. It refers to a want that seems impossible to achieve like becoming a pez (=fish). So now you should know several forms of “querer”: quiero (=I want), donde quiera (=wherever I want) and quisiera (=I would want). A common idiomatic expression is also “como tú quieras” (=whatever you want). He uses the present subjunctive “quiera” in the idiomatic expression “donde quiera”=wherever it want, no matter where.

Quisiera (imperfect subjunctive) ser un pez
I would like to be a fish
Para tocar mi nariz en tu pecera
To touch my nose in your aquarium
Y hacer burbujas de amor por donde quiera (present subjunctive)
To make bubles of love wherever I want
Oh-oh-oh pasar la noche en vela
to spend the night in candle, idiom. To spent the night up
Mojado en ti
Wet in you

Songwriters: Juan Luis Guerra. For non-commercial use only. Adapted from musixmatch, powered by Microsoft Bing.