Antonio Romero, member of the musical duo Los del Río and author of the famous Macarena, This Friday he regretted that the White House uses a remix of his song in a video that shows images of the United States bombings of Iran in recent days, which have already killed more than 1,300 people. “My hair stands on end,” Romero said in an intervention on Canal Sur Television, “I composed it to brighten the world’s life, not to kill the world’s life.”
The White House video, published three days ago and which already has almost 400,000 views I like on Instagram, it shows fighter jets, missiles flying through the skies and buildings being destroyed. The remix does not include the lyrics of the song, but it does include the catchy and very recognizable rhythm. “People can make it their own as they wish,” Romero said about his anthem, which 33 years later is still “the most popular song in the world,” but he asked himself, “Why do they have to use such a nice thing for that?” He has also joked, imagining the possibility that, after the use made of it by the US Administration, “they will make it fashionable in funeral homes.”
Donald Trump seems to be an expert at accompanying his controversial videos with famous songs, without giving notice to their creators. Because of this, their campaigns have faced widespread and unprecedented objections from many of them. The first victim was Neil Young. When he knew that his subject Rockin’ in the free world was used at Republican rallies, he sent a statement demanding that this not happen again. In the last electoral campaign, the Rolling Stones and their You can’t always get what you wantdespite the fact that its authors have been openly against its use by the president. Céline Dion, ABBA, Ozzy Osbourne and Kesha have also passed through there.
The appearance of the Spanish song also coincides with the statements of the American president accusing Pedro Sánchez of being a “terrible” partner and of threatening him with a commercial “embargo” for not allowing the use of the shared use bases of Morón and Rota for his war in Iran. The Macarena It is probably the most international Spanish song of all time. Everyone surrendered to it in 1996, three years after its enormous success in Spain. A Bayside Boys remix which turned it into a danceable pop and with the added voice of a woman who sang parts in English, it remained that summer for 14 weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, the most important and influential singles chart in the world. A feat that was only surpassed in 2017 by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee after enlisting Justin Bieber in a version spanglish of Slowly.
It also had a huge run in the United States, of course. a quarter of a century ago It was played at the Democratic National Convention and was worn by the United States women’s gymnastics team at the Atlanta Olympic Games. Furthermore, among other achievements, the duo completed by Rafael Ruiz performed it on January 26, 1997 at the beginning of the Super Bowl before an audience of more than 70,000 spectators.
Romero has ended his intervention on the television program claiming that this song “is from the land of the Most Holy Mary”, and that he has placed “a lot of the blame for its success” on “La Esperanza Macarena”, the Virgin whose carving “is in San Gil”, the parish of Seville where this image was located before its transfer to the basilica where it is currently venerated. And it has been asked “what is the fault” of Los del Río if the song Macarena “It is the most popular in the world and people take it to use it however they want.”