"Despechá" (short for ) is a song by Spanish singer and songwriter

Rosalía Rosalia Vila Tobella (born 25 September 1992), known mononymously as Rosalía (, ), is a Spanish singer. Born and raised in the outskirts of Barcelona, she has been described as an "atypical pop star" due to her genre-bending musical styles. ...

. It was released on 28 July 2022 by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

as a single from the deluxe version of her third

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Motomami ''Motomami'' (stylized in all caps) is the third studio album by Spanish singer Rosalía, released on 18 March 2022 through Columbia Records. Rosalía enlisted producers Noah Goldstein, Michael Uzowuru, Dylan Wiggins and Pharrell Williams as wel ...

''. The song was written by Rosalía,

reggaeton Reggaeton (, ), also known as reggaetón and reguetón (), is a music style that originated in Panama during the late 1980s. It was later popularized in Puerto Rico. It has evolved from dancehall and has been influenced by American Hip hop m ...

veterans Chris Jedi, Gaby Music, and el Kagueto del Guetto, along with ''Motomami'' producers David Rodríguez, Noah Goldstein and Dylan Patrice. "Despechá" is a

mambo Mambo most often refers to: *Mambo (music), a Cuban musical form *Mambo (dance), a dance corresponding to mambo music Mambo may also refer to: Music *Mambo section, a section in arrangements of some types of Afro-Caribbean music, particular ...

track, with merengue and

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...

elements, about "the joys of leaving work and toxic men behind to hit the club." The song was met with great commercial success upon release, earning the biggest streaming debut for a Spanish-language song by a female artist in

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

history. "Despechá" topped the charts in Spain, Panama and Uruguay, while also hitting the top ten in seventeen other countries. It became Rosalía's first solo entry on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and her highest charting single on the ''Billboard'' Global 200. A remix with American rapper

Cardi B Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar Cephus (, ; born October 11, 1992), known professionally as Cardi B, is an American rapper and songwriter. She first gained popularity as an influencer on Vine and Instagram. From 2015 to early 2017, she appeared as ...

was released on 16 December 2022.

Background

In March 2022, Rosalía released her third studio album ''

,'' which saw a departure from the

new flamenco New flamenco (or ''nuevo flamenco'') or flamenco fusion is a musical genre that was born in Spain, starting in the 1980s. It combines flamenco guitar virtuosity and traditional flamenco music with musical fusion (with genres like jazz, blues, roc ...

sound of its predecessor and an embracement of

Latin music Latin music (Portuguese language, Portuguese and es, música latina) is a term used by the music industry as a catch-all category for various styles of music from Ibero-America (including Music of Spain, Spain and Portuguese music, Portugal) ...

in an

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and

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when ...

key. The album spawned the singles "

La Fama ''La Fama'' was a Mexican reality series set to find a new child star in 1999. It was mainly a singing competition, but it also provided dancing and acting lessons to the contestants. Participants Fourteen children (seven boys and seven girls) a ...

", "

Saoko "Saoko" (Puerto Rican slang for "outstanding rhythm" stylized in all caps) is a song by Spanish singer-songwriter Rosalía. It was released on 4 February 2022 through Columbia Records, as the second single from her third studio album ''Motomami ...

", and "

Chicken Teriyaki The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

" and was met with great commercial and critical success, later becoming the best reviewed and most discussed album of the year on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. To further promote the record, the singer embarked on the

Motomami World Tour The Motomami World Tour was the third concert tour by Spanish singer Rosalía in support of her third studio album, ''Motomami'' (2022). Led by Live Nation Entertainment, the tour was officially announced on 18 April 2022. It began on 6 July 202 ...

, scheduled to visit seventeen countries from July to December 2022. The opening night of the tour at the Recinto Ferial in

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unveiled three unreleased tracks, a number that was expanded to four after the stop in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

. Two of them have been confirmed to be discarded songs from ''Motomami'' while and one was specifically been written for tour season. "Despechá" (at the time known as "Lao a Lao" by fans), is performed between a 4-minute classic reggaeton medley that blends

Lorna Lorna is a feminine given name. The name is said to have been first coined by R. D. Blackmore for the heroine of his novel ''Lorna Doone'', which appeared in 1869. Blackmore appears to have derived this name from the Scottish placename ''Lorn''/' ...

's "

Papi Chulo Papi chulo ("cute daddy" in Caribbean Spanish) is a Spanish term of endearment for males. Papi chulo may also refer to: *"Papi Chulo", 1997 song by Funkdoobiest Funkdoobiest was an American hip hop group from Los Angeles, California, United Stat ...

" and "

Gasolina "Gasolina" ( en, "Gasoline") is a song on Daddy Yankee's 2004 album '' Barrio Fino''. It features uncredited vocals from Glory, who sings the line "dame más gasolina" (meaning "Give me more gasoline"). The song was released as the album's lead ...

" with Rosalía's "

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" and "

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"; and the unreleased track "Aislamiento". During the medley and "Despechá", Rosalía brings up onstage twenty fans previously selected by her logistic team to dance with her and the eight-men 'motopapi' crew, marking the performance a highlight within the show. "Despechá" became a fan favorite, and videos of the performance were shared on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version ...

. On 12 July, Rosalía posted a TikTok video teasing the studio version of the song. During the 19 July show in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, the singer asked the audience whether they preferred the track to be titled "Despechá" or "Lao a Lao" to which the audience responded with the former. After performing it at her show in

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on 27 July, Rosalía revealed that "Despechá" would be released on digital platforms that same night.

Composition

"Despechá" is a

track with merengue and

elements that runs for two minutes and thirty-seven seconds. Described by ''

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'' as "a wonder of efficiency, flitting back and forth between two springy piano

chords Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord (as ...

as it rides an equally fleet percussive rhythm", the song is about leaving work and heartbreak behind to have fun with one's friends in the club and see life in the most

hedonist Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decre ...

way possible. Lyrical references include

Fefita la Grande Manuela Josefa Cabrera Taveras (born September 18, 1943), known as Fefita La Grande, is a Dominican accordionist and the most recognized female performer of typical merengue, a more rural variation of merengue, the main musical genre of the Do ...

and Dominican singer

Omega Omega (; capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and final letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value of 800. The wo ...

, who was originally featured on the track. About the song, Rosalía has stated that "there are many ways to be , in this theme it is from the freeness or the craziness, moving without reservations or regrets. This is the place from where I make music, from where I did it when I first started and where I will continue to until

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says so. I'm grateful for having been able to travel in recent years and have learned from music from other places including the ominican Republic where artists like Fefita la Grande,

Juan Luis Guerra Juan Luis Guerra Seijas (born June 7, 1957) is a Dominican musician, singer, composer, and record producer. He has sold 30 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists. Throughout his career, he has wo ...

, and Omega have inspired me and without them this song would not exist."

Music video

Rosalía shared a preview of the music video on 9 August 2022. The video itself premiered on the singer's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel the day after. It is the third music video in Rosalía's videography to be directed by Mitch Ryan, after "

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" and "Delirio de Grandeza". Inspired in the photographic collections ''Benidorm'' and ''Life's a Beach'', by

Martin Parr Martin Parr (born 23 May 1952) is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in p ...

, as well as in Spanish ''

costumbrismo ''Costumbrismo'' (sometimes anglicized as costumbrism, with the adjectival form costumbrist) is the literary or pictorial interpretation of local everyday life, mannerisms, and customs, primarily in the Hispanic scene, and particularly in the 19t ...

'', it features Rosalía and her Motomami World Tour dance crew during a fun beach day in the Palma neighbourhood of Portixol, in

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

Credits and personnel

Production * Rosalia Vila – production, lyrics, composition; vocals, beat, vocal arrangement * Chris Jedi – production, composition, beat * David Rodríguez – production, composition, additional production * Noah Goldstein – production, composition, drums * Dylan Patrice – production, composition, piano * Gaby Music – production, composition * Dimelo Ninow – composition Technical personnel *

Manny Marroquin Manny Marroquin (born September 21, 1971) is an American mixing engineer.Daley, Dan (May 2005).Manny Marroquin. ''Sound on Sound''. Retrieved February 10, 2007 He has received ten Grammy awards for his professional audio work. Life and career M ...

– mixing engineer * Zach Peraya – assistant mix engineer * Jeremie Inhaber – assistant mix engineer * Anthony Vilchis – assistant mix engineer *

Chris Gehringer Chris Gehringer (born May 27, 1962) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered recordings such as Gwen Stefani's '' Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'' (2004), Rihanna's '' Loud'' (2010), Lady Gaga's '' Born This Way'' (2011) and Drake' ...

– mastering engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Rosalía 2022 singles 2022 songs Columbia Records singles Music videos shot in Spain Rosalía songs Songs about dancing Songs about parties Songs written by Rosalía Songs written by Chris Jedi Spanish-language songs