Like its even more egregious older sister Macarena, The Ketchup Song started as a holiday hit. (Europeans travel to Ibiza and return to their soggy homes with a sunny, exotic tune stuck in their heads.) The genius of Ketchup is that its bouncy chorus--"Asereje ja de je de jebe tu de jebere seibunouva/Majavi an de buguni an de buididipi"--means the same thing in Spanish as in English: nothing. The words are a gibberish homage to the opening line of the first rap song, Sugar Hill Gang's 1979 hit Rapper's Delight. America's familiarity with the original incomprehensible lyrics--"I said a hip hop, the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, a you don't stop"--have fueled Ketchup's transatlantic voyage, while a simple six-step dance move has given it club life.
The Ketchup Song isn't available for purchase as a single. Columbia wants listeners to pay $18.98 for the bloated Las Ketchup album. Don't fall for it. It's like asking you to buy a burger and fries when all you really want is ketchup.