The Ketchup Song

"The Ketchup Song" is the English title of the song "Aserejé", performed by the Andalusian-Spanish pop group Las Ketchup, which was an international hit in 2002. The song exists in three versions, Spanish, a version in a mixture of English and Spanish, described as "Spanglish", and a version in Portuguese. The chorus is identical in the three versions. This song reached #1 in the UK charts, as well as 26 other charts worldwide. It was also the Dutch best-selling single of the 2000-2010 decade.

Background

Las Ketchup was first introduced to Columbia through Shaketown Music, a small record label in Córdoba, Andalusia who sent out the group's demo to a number of different record companies.^[1] The demo featured the songs “Asereje” and “Kusha Las Payas”. When A&R Javier Portugués and Columbia director Raúl López listened the demo they, Portugués later told HitQuarters, stared at each other in delight exclaiming, "Wow, this is fantastic!".^[1] At first the intention was to arrange a distribution deal with ShakeTown Music but on hearing the song they realised its international potential and so negotiated for Las Ketchup to sign with Sony.^[1]

Lyrics and music

The song tells the story of a pimp-like "afro-gipsy, rastafari" character named Diego who walks into a crowded nightclub at midnight, and the DJ, as he sees Diego walk in, plays the "twelve-o'clock anthem", "the song he desires most", which happens to be the 1979 rap hit "Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang. The first verse of Rapper's Delight: "I say the hip hop, the hippie...", pronounced phonetically in Spanish the way it would sound to someone who does not understand English, becomes the chorus of The Ketchup Song. Although technically meaningless and sometimes referred to as gibberish, the chorus is a more-or-less phonetic pronunciation of the first verse almost in its entirety.

I said a hip hop, the hippie, the hippie

Aserejé ja de jé de jebe

do the hip hip hop, a you don't stop

tu de jebere sebiunouva

the rockin' to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie

majabi an de bugui

to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat

an de buididipí

The song had a distinctive accompanying dance known as "The Ketchup Dance".

Reception and adaptations

For the release in Brazil, a version of song was sung in Portuñol and featured a Brazilian "girl band", named Rouge, alongside Las Ketchup. This pushed the album's sales up and eventually led to over 2 million copies sold in Brazil alone.

In France, the song reached #1 and eventually sold an estimated 1,750,000 copies, making it the highest-selling single of 2002 and the sixth best-selling song of all time in that country.^[2]

The song was used in the Christian De Sica's 2002 film Natale sul Nilo, as Soundtrack.

The song was sung by Corry Konings and Johan Heuser with the song is "De Hup Hop Song" in 2002.

The song was remade in La Vida Mickey 2 by Walt Disney Records. In 2004, this song was included on the popular children's album series, Kidz Bop 4.

The popular German political comedy program Die Gerd-Show took the music and made a parody to the lyrics, called "Der Steuersong" (The Tax Song) for the taxation policies of the former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder.

Charo performed the song in a promotion for the American morning show Today Show and later released it to YouTube.

The song was the 50th best-selling single of the 2000 decade in UK.^[3]

Most recently, Matthew Wilkening of AOL Radio ranked the song at #52 on the list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever, asking, "How could such an inoffensive condiment inspire a song that unfolds in so many different, annoying ways?"^[4]

Track listings

The single was re-released again for Christmas with a new remix and video.

Charts and sales

Chart successions

References