Karol G published a new single last Friday called ‘If I had known you before’. It will be a new commercial success, because after a somewhat timid entry into Spotify’s Global top 25, it has been gaining positions until climbing to number 17 several days later.
Our editor Gabriel Cárcoba titled that Karol G marked “a merengazo of spite”, since the network was filling up with comparisons between this new song by Karol G and Rosalía’s biggest hit, ‘Desphá’. Their fandom has been heating up as the days have passed on social media, and Rosalía, the truth is, has added some fuel to it, sharing ‘Desphá’ on her networks again, without saying anything. further. Maybe it wasn’t necessary… but how are the two productions really similar?
‘Desphá’ was defined from the beginning by being a song quite different from the disruptive content of ‘Motomami’. But it had two things in common with the album: a mention of its title and a certain fusion of genres, although not so obvious. ‘Desphá’ has a lot of merengue, to the point that Rosalía recognized three Dominican artists who have made merengue as her biggest influences for this song. They were Fefita la Grande, Omega and Juan Luis Guerra, who by the way opened her most successful album with a song called ‘Rosalía’, before Rosalía was born.
If we listen to the music of Fefita la Grande, we will see that her hits are characterized by going full blast. ‘La chiflera’ goes at 174 bpm and ‘Let’s speak English’ at 177 bpm. ‘Despechá’ is a very fast song for what Rosalía is used to. In fact, at one point, the lyrics go so far as to say “I’m going 180 because I’m a racineta” in tune with the beat of the song, which is true that it is not that fast (130bpm), but it is so pounding that it seems like it. . And above all faster than ‘Malamente’ and ‘Con Altura’ (98bpm), and reggaeton in general (90bpm) are used to.
Likewise, if we listen to a merengue playlist, we will see that pompous arrangements predominate, generally winds and brass, or in the case of Fefita, the accordion. Juan Luis Guerra’s productions are so colorful, for this reason, because of their multitude of big band arrangements. The 4.40.
However, ‘Despechá’ is a minimalist song, 100% Rosalía. There are no trumpets, not even remotely an accordion. She actually opts for a piano that sounds more like mambo, even salsa: Celia Cruz can be a reference. A piano that also obsessively plays only two chords that only allow the entry of a third one at strategic moments in the song. Furthermore, the persistence of her beat, so mechanical, or that trotted part in which the piano stops playing, points to reggaeton standards. Not in vain, she premiered it live in a medley with ‘Papi Chulo’ and ‘Gasolina’.
In short, and despite its apparent simplicity, ‘Despechá’ is a merengue with bursts of mambo or the other way around, adapted to today’s urban modernity through its electronic beats… And that is the same as ‘If I had known you before ‘. Karol G’s song can also be classified as a merengue, only devoid of great arrangements. These have also been reduced to a wheel of piano chords, very salsy, which are not just 2 in this case, but just as mechanical. It only needs a kind of more trotton or off-the-hook bridge to definitively sound like ‘Desphá’.
The lyrics are also different. While Rosalía’s song talks about getting over a love from the past, Karol G still wonders from time to time “what would have been if.” That’s why Rosalía’s song is more triumphant and euphoric, and Karol G’s is more beautiful and melancholic.
It would be absurd to propose that Rosalía invented the merengue or the mambo, or that she was the first to alternate elements that Latin artists have been fusing for decades. But also deny that there are similarities: the bpm’s even coincide (130 vs 128), in contrast to other Karol G songs, which are generally slower, so the mash-ups are not going to be long in coming.
At most, one could say that it is strange that a star the size of Karol G (4 Bernabéus, remember) releases a song similar to ‘Despechá’. But Rosalía also released a bachata with The Weeknd, after ‘Ateo’ by C. Tangana and Nathy Peluso and today… who remembers who came first, the chicken or the egg?
