Ricardo Arjona

One of my favorite singers is Ricardo Arjona. I think he is one of the greatest modern wordsmiths and has a nice way to make a phrase and the messages of many of his songs are so very powerful. His songs talk about such topics as Church hegemony, love, imperialism, and dreams. Many of his songs are the simple telling of a story in poetry set to a great musical beat.

I was first introduced to the music of Ricardo Arjona when I heard him sing “Ella y El” and a friend of mine told me what the song was about. One night driving,it came on the radio and I just understood the words. I thought to myself, how can someone be singing a story like this? I find it impossible to put his lyrics into English at the same power that the Spanish can. That’s why I don’t usually translate them for people.

When I was living in Thailand, I was playing one of his songs and a Thai teacher asked me, what is he singing about? I asked her if she enjoyed the song and she said yes so I sad just enjoy it. She said she had never heard anything as powerful of a song..and she didn’t even understand it. That is the power of the music of Ricardo Arjona.