Macarena

Untitled

"Macarena" is a song by Los del Río about a woman of the same name.

It was originally released in 1993, as a new flamenco rumba pop fusion theme with fully Spanish lyrics, with a significant success in Spain and Mexico. After being remixed by the Bayside Boys and having English lyrics added, it became a worldwide hit in summer 1996. The single spent 14 weeks at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, one of the longest runs atop the Hot 100 chart in history. During its heyday, the song was played frequently at professional athletic games, rallies, conventions, and other places. The Macarena remained popular through 1996, but by the end of 1997, its popularity had diminished greatly. The song also broke records at the time by remaining in the Hot 100 chart for 60 weeks.

The song was also covered by Los del Mar, which was first released in 1995 and then again at the same time as the original in the United Kingdom in the hope of fooling people into buying their version by mistake. It missed the top 40 but the Los del Rio version peaked at number two.

In VH1's documentary 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders, Macarena was ranked as number one. On a different VH1 documentary, 40 Awesomely Bad No. 1 Songs, Macarena was also ranked first.

Dance

The song was associated with a distinctive fast dance. The song originally had no dance, until a Venezuelan Flamenco instructor created it for her class to dance to, and it eventually caught on with the rest of the world. The Macarena dance is performed in time with the refrain of the song. To perform the dance,

• One places his/her arms out, palm down, right arm, then left arm.
• Then the dancer turns his arms over so that his palms are up, right, then left.
• The dancer puts his hands on his shoulders, first right hand on left shoulder, then left on right.
• Then the dancer puts his hands on his head, again right, then left.
• The dancer then places his arms on his hips, right hand on left hip, then left on right
• Then the dancer's hands go on their respective hips (or pelvis), right then left
• The routine finishes with a pelvic rotation in time with the line "Hey Macarena!"
• Then the dancer turns 90 degrees clockwise and repeats the same motions throughout the whole song.

An alternative version of the dance replaces the pelvic rotation with a series of pelvic thrusts, as shown in the video for Los del Rio's recording of the song.

Remixes and Parodies

• A screen saver that circulated around that time, called "Hey Macaroni", with pieces of elbow macaroni doing the dance accompanied by the song, with new lyrics describing the preparation of the pasta for dinner. The screen saver, created by Eric Robichaud of Rhode Island Soft Systems, registered one million downloads within a month of its debut.
• The Chipmunks made a parody on the video and did their version of the song. The Animaniacs also made their own video of the song, altering the lyrics to suit the description of Dot.
• During the season in which the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl, Da Yoopers released a parody called the "Packerena," in which the chorus was replaced with names of players on the team.
• A Christmas version of the song was created for the 1996 Holiday Season. It involved the original song with short lines from classic Christmas carols in between the popular verses.
• A remix of the song is sung in Dance Dance Revolution: Disney's Rave by 2 Locos in a Room.
• Filk performer and comedian The great Luke Ski recorded a parody of the song "Macarena" (the Bayside Boys remix version) as performed by Los del Río entitled "The Great Cornholio", a reference to the caffeine/sugar-fueled psychotic alter ego of Beavis, from Beavis and Butt-head. In the parody, Butt-Head sings the first verse, introducing Beavis and describing his transformation after consuming "six root beers and twenty-seven 3 Musketeers". Beavis then sings the remainder of the verses with occasional back-up from Butt-Head, establishing himself as the Great Cornholio and spouting virtually all of the often-used phrases and threats associated with Cornholio (such as "The streets will flow with the blood of the non-believers!" and "Do not underestimate the power of the Almighty Bunghole!"). Beavis and Butt-head supporting characters Mr. Van Driessen, Mr. Anderson, Coach Buzzcut, and Principal McVicker provide generally disapproving commentary. The great Luke Ski also established parody dance moves to parallel the dance associated with the song "Macarena". The parody dance involves imitation of the Cornholio character's excited arm movements along with, of course, pulling one's shirt up over one's head as Beavis does when becoming Cornholio.
• In the final season of the animated series Animaniacs, a parody entitled "Macadamia (Nuts)" appeared, featuring the show's lead characters, Yakko, Wakko and Dot, singing the lyrics, while various supporting and incindental characters performed the Macarena with varying degrees of success. The cartoon's style directly parodied the "Macarena" music video, with Yakko and Wakko in suits singing into a microphone while Dot sang the female lead accompanied by Hello Nurse and Minerva Mink. The lyrics focused on Dot, the chorus' first line being "Dot is a nut, so they call her Macadamia".
• One Heineken commercial featured a man hosting a party in his home when he goes to the kitchen to get a beer. At one point, he cannot remember where he left the bottle opener and proceeds to (in the exact order of the Macarena dance steps) hold his hands out, check his shirt pockets, check his back pockets, put his hands up to his head in frustration, and turn to his left to leave the room. Some of his guests see his actions, noting that he was in step with the background music and interpret it as a new dance. The commercial ends with the words "July 9, 1993 - The Macarena dance is born."
• The 2006 class of the Missouri Scholars Academy performed a dance of taiso moves to "Macarena", which they called SoTai Macaroni, at their closing ceremony on June 30, 2006.

Trivia

• In 1996, Charo produced an instructional video for the Macarena, called Blame it On the Macarena (a twist on Eydie Gormé's 1963 hit song "Blame it on the Bossa Nova").
• Al Gore danced the "Al Gore version" of Macarena during his speech to the 1996 Democratic National Convention. This included standing in one place for a moment, then uttering "Want to see it again?"
• Religious conservatives like Mother Angelica and Pat Robertson publicly denounced the words to the song, saying they were sordid and scandalous.
• In the MMORPG World of Warcraft the human females perform the macarena when they dance.
• In the computer game System Shock 2, a protocol droid can be seen dancing the Macarena before the player chooses their third tour of duty.

External links

• http://www.pbs.org/newshour/convention96/floor_speeches/gore_8-28.html