"The Ketchup Song" is the
English title of the song
"Aserejé" which was an international hit in
2002. The song exists in two versions, Spanish and English, with the latter performed in a mixture of
English and
Spanish, described as "
Spanglish".
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. Its first verse: "I say the hip hop, the hippie...", prononuced phonetically in Spanish, the way it would sound to someone who does not understand English, becomes the song's chorus. 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 to the hip hip hop, a you don't stop
tu de jebere sebiunouva the rock it 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 was performed by a 3-girl Spanish group called
Las Ketchup, and had a distinctive accompanying
dance known as "The Ketchup Dance". This dance is still performed by some
international folk dance groups, despite it not being a true
folk dance.
The song was also remade in La Vida Mickey 2 by
Walt Disney Records. In 2004, this song was including 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
(they changed the smilies, I see. #13 is now dancing bananaman)
(Where's Lisa's snarfly dog when you need him??)
