Sajit posted earlier about a remarkable Spanish-Hindi fusion track called ‘MÃrame’ (Look at Me). It’s by Daddy Yankee, who sings reggaeton, a popular genre of Latino hip-hop:
Daddy Yankee is reggaeton’s biggest crossover contender: He has already rhymed alongside Nas, Lil Jon and Terror Squad, and his brassy, slogan-strewn flow suggests both a quick-tongued thug and a Latin crunkster.
This pounding reggaeton song leads off with ‘Eli Re Eli’ from Yaadein, covered by Hindi singer Deevani. But not only is this a rare Hindi-Spanish mix, Deevani also sings in Spanish. Well.
The song innovates on several levels by merging similar sounds rather than contrasting ones. A lot of desi fusion has a low hip-hop beat, bass-heavy and distinct from a high-pitched tumbi or bhangra track which soars above. But in this song, the male reggaetonero is almost higher-pitched than the female Hindi singer. Which, to state the obvious, is insane. It’s playing chicken by shriekiness.
Desi remixes often use a smooth-voiced rapper or reggae artist; the rough edges are provided by the Hindi/Punjabi singer. In this song, the roles are flipped. Daddy Yankee’s style is aggressive and cants forward against the honey-voiced Hindi singer.
Remixes usually highlight the differences in pronunciation between the German-influenced English, with its hard, aspirated consonants, and the much softer Hindi/Punjabi. But in this track, Spanish and Hindi flow seamlessly into one another. It’s the same reason why Spanish teachers would always go nuts over desi kids’ Spanish accents. Years of trying to teach a soft language to American kids left them putty in my Hindi-speaking hands.
Remixes often mock the foreignness of the tweeter track. ‘Indian Flute’ by Timbaland & Magoo with Raje Shwari says, ‘Sing it to me, but I can’t understand a word you’re sayin’.’ ‘Rock The Party’ by Bombay Rockers says, ‘I don’t know what you’re sayin’, all I know’s that I came to party.’ But this song doesn’t take the easy out. Deevani sings in Spanish and pulls it off respectably.
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Hindi: Eli re eli Mere angraiyon Spanish: MÃrame, mÃrame Me siento tan sola |
Friend, oh friend My stretching arms Look at me, look at me I feel so alone |
Lest we die from the preciousness of all this cross-cultural harmony, the lyrics also include a tasteless tsunami reference:
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Spanish: Tu acento es de la India? |
Your accent is from India? |
But this is still a singular single. It’s far more interesting than many of the rap songs lifting Bollywood melodies. I’ve heard some great Arabic-Hindi mixes (‘Kaho Na Kaho’ from Murder, and of course all the ‘Habibi’ mixes). I’ve also heard some excellent Arabic-Spanish mixes, such as ‘Salsa and Arabic Rai’ by Cheb Faudel and Yur, because of proximity, Moorish history, Shakira’s ancestry and spillover from the French Algerian scene. But I haven’t heard many Spanish-Hindi mashups. And I’m infamous for mixing those styles on the salsa floor 🙂
By the way, the melody from ‘Eli Re Eli’ sounds Tamil in origin. If I’m correct, it’s the usual Bollywood elision — Tamil songs redone in Hindi, and largely Hindi dialogue with bastardized idioms sprinkled in from a regional language.
Check out the Daddy Yankee album, Más Flow 2, here.
Stating the obvious – don’t forget the Arabic/Portuguese mix in Nitin Sawhney’s “Moonrise” for contrast…. the harshness of the Arabic – especially with Cheb Mami as vocalist! – and the mellifluous Portuguese come together nicely, like jalapeno and chocolate.
And don’t discount the mostly cheesy to sometimes horrible Latin tracks in recent Bollywood films… you gotta start somewhere. Let’s start by ignoring the Fiesta Latina track from Dhoom. 😉 “Tumhe jo maine dekha” from Main Hoon Na has a distinctly Latin flavor to it … although I’m pretty sure the background vocals are sung in italian, not spanish.
I want to hear more Spanish/Hindi fusion as well. If anyone’s interested in producing, I’ll help create a track or two 😉
Nice post. Thanks for the information about how a remix is usually done and how this track is different. I found that the explanation really helped in my appreciation of the track.
I’d love to see more musically related posts to the site.
Ouch to the tsunami reference. But this post still made me want to return immediately to a Spanish-speaking country. Sigh. 🙂
That was fun! Thanks for the tip. Now, if I were smart, I’d write down all those recommendations, and take a listen. Does this guy do any other songs with a desi twist?
There is a CD called Bollywood High Volume 3: Reggaeton Edition, which exploits the current Reggaeton fad. You can get it at the Indian music stores in New York and New Jersey.
The CD remixes songs from current Hindi films like Kaal, Tango Charlie, Waqt, and Mere Jeevan Saathi, with beats from Daddy Yankee, Tego Calderon, and Nina Sky. It’s pretty entertaining to listen to, though as with Reggaeton generally (this fad is slated for extinction, don’t you think?), it gets repetitive pretty quickly.
reggeton has become way over commercialized and generally sucks nowadays… and this song is no exception. who cares whether it has an asian hook. it’s probably the worst mixed reggeton song i’ve heard.
I want to see a pic of Deewani.
“Eli Re Eli” is from the movie Yaadein. I don’t know if it has been redone from Tamil though.
CAN I FIND A DEEVANE PIC. I LOVE THAT SONG IS SO COOL. WE ARE UP, LATINS ARE GOING WHOLE WORLD.
On this note, check out a hindi-reggaeton mash-up (Punjabi MC / Daddy Yankee).
Linked through: http://www.amitchatwani.com/blog/2005/08/punjabi-canto.html
nice track sanjay. linked directly here.
Reggaeton* is the best thin tha ever happened..=)..especially if hitting and mixing styles all over the world!
i love mirame. im puerto rican i think that that was the best song i heard in a long time. the mix of deevani and daddy yankee is hot.i want to see deevani and here from more of her. gurl u sang that spanish perfect i thought u were half puerto rican!
I would first like to say that dboy the track doesnt suck YOU DO! When you have millions in the bank due to a musical explosion then and ONLY THEN can you say what sucks! Seein as how you have no idea wut you are talkin about I will now ignore you ignorant and useless comments and chalk it up to pure jealousy and HATERISM!! Anyways about the track… I LOVE IT! It took me a while to figure out that it was a Hindi part in the beginning… I knew that it wasnt spanish but I couldnt figure out exactly wut it was but thanks to this little webpage I get it now. Anyways the fusion was so HOT!!!! they def. need to make more tracks like that and even tho I had no idea until recently wut I was singing about I still thought the song was really catchy!! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!!!!
This is a madass track . . . i loved it . . . coz the first track i ever heard of Daddy was “Gasolina” which was the best ive ever heard . . lolz . . . even the vid clip 😉 . . . newaiiz . . i wanna see a pic of deewani too ! . . . lolz . . .:)
…and chalk it up to pure jealousy and HATERISM!!
HATERISM??!!. Whatever happened to plain ol’ hate?
please, I want to know more about deevani,where she was born……
Check out deevani’s myspace http://www.myspace.com/deevani and http://www.myspace.com/deevani1 She has a really cool blog that I enjoy reading very much. She is working with Rishi Rich, Jay Sean, Juggy d and Mentor along with Luny Tunes on an album called Bhangraton. She also has a new song with Beenie Man and Tito, very nice. I guess there is much more but that’s what I remember. Check it out.
bueno deevani es una buena cantante pero me gustaria que haga un duo con el don por favor que lunny junte ese par de bueno cantantes porq deevani canta precioso y el don q tiene un sentimiento harian una buena dupla
what a mix! the two finest languages cumin together for this hip banging piece
big ups to deevani for her tuneful singing, i wanna see more of da hindi/spanish fusions!!!
I know this comes real late, since I just heard about the concept of bhangraton and thought wow that could be fun. Deevani, I hope at this point you have found out, is not going to sing solely in hindi and spanish. Also just for the record, she’s dominican.
Ever hear that chutney song, “wind up on me, she singin wind up on me… wind up on me, she singin wind up on me…She wanna dhal belly Indian to wind up on she, yeah, she wanna dhal belly Indian to wind up on she.”???
Then the girl chimes in later how she can’t wind properly on the man coz he belly be too big. So she sings, “I don’t want no dhal belly Indian to wind up on me…”, etc, etc, etc.
Hey I wanna promote my friend here… his single, “love over war” is really good and playin on the reggae stations up in New York now. Check him out: http://www.cassafaya.com/
Should be able to hear that single there.
Im latino from El Salvador, I honestly think Hindi and Latino music is the best in the world and Mirame proves it ALSo theres one called Natural flow with TITO EL BAMBINO and DEEVANI, and its even better! I watch lots of Bollywood movies and yeah its sad to say the “latin” mixes they do arent good and are very cheesy. They should start mixing more in Bollywood, it would sound soo cool. mix with Cumbia and Salsa, Merengue, Tango, that would be cool
deevani is infact from the dominican republic and is the sister of Luny (from luney tunes).. she just so happens to have an interest in hindi music.. which she samples and uses in her songs.. jus type her name into google/images and u can see a pic of her. or luk up myspace/deevani1 x
deevani sings very nicely when i first found out she was dominican i was shocked.learning different languages is very enriching not to mention fun ,im almost fluent in spanish and now trying to learn malayalam