That One Time in 2002 When There Was a Glitch in the Music Simulation - “The Ketchup Song” (Asereje) by Las Ketchup
In 2002, the girl group, Las Ketchup released their debut single “The Ketchup Song” aka “Asereje”.
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I know. As memorable and wtf this is, the history of the song is actually simple to follow.
Who Are Las Ketchup?
Las Ketchup are a girl group from Andalusia, Spain. They’re all sisters who started out their music career with an indepdentent label. After recording the demo to “Asereje”, they sent it over to numerous music companies until one day, two execs from Sony heard the demo and were ready to make this song BIG.
What is This Song About?
So there’s a dude named Diego, who has a very magical presence to him. In the song he’s described as having “the moon in his pupils” and an aquamrine suit. He enters a party and spots the DJ who recognizes him. He goes over to the DJ to request a song and that’s when we all hear the chorus.
The chorus is an example of “interpolation” which is basically when artists take a part from a song and modify the lyrics with their own song and melody. This is different from sampling.
The song that Las Ketchup used for their interpolation was non other than Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight”
Picture from Genius
But Wasn’t This a Satanic Song?
Nah. In fact that rumor was spread through an email chain which eventually led to the song being banned on certain TV networks in Latin America.
How Did This Song Cause a Glitch in the Music Simulation?
If you think back to the summer of ‘02, the songs that came out during that era were all 1) Anthems in their own genre 2) Made by well established artists that still have relevance today. This song in particular entered the charts, broke those rules and reached success all over Europe and Latin America. And although “Asereje” did not reach the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, it did not go forgotten in year-end lists. And it was still everywhere!!!
Last Note
The way this song has TikTok viral song potential now….
I’m just sayin.