New wave from ‘Los del Rio’
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The duo remembers ‘Macarena’ craze, 25 years later: ‘It’s something we can’t explain’
Twenty-five summers ago, the Billboard charts were dominated by alternative rockers like ‘No Doubt’, ‘Alanis Morissette’, ‘Oasis’, and the ‘Smashing Pumpkins’. But none of those artistes had the Number One song for all of 1996. That honour instead went to a pop outlier: a Spanish lounge act that had actually been in show business since the ‘60s, Los del Rio.
The flamenco-crossover duo’s undeniably ear wormy yet unlikely smash, ‘Macarena’, was originally released in 1993. But three years later, when the Bayside Boys — the production trio of Mike Triay, Carlos de Yarza, and Jammin Johnny Caride, the latter a DJ at Miami radio station Power 96 — created an English-language remix with that famous Yazoo/Alison Moyet laughter sample, the song became a phenomenon. The ‘Macarena’ remix spent a staggering 46 weeks on the Hot 100 (14 of those weeks in the top spot), which was one of the longest runs in US chart history; it also went to Number One in 11 other countries including UK.
‘By the time we reached Germany, it sold 10 million copies, in the US 20 million copies, and it was tremendous’ Los de Rio’s Antonio Romero Monge, speaking via Zoom and through a translator from the duo’s hometown of Andalusia, Spain, announced Yahoo Entertainment.
‘It started in ‘93 when it reached Mexico, and from there it reached the US in ’96, and then everywhere else. ‘Macarena’
never stopped’ Los del Rio’s Rafael Ruiz Perdigones added.
‘We thought that this success was a gift from Virgin Macarena’. (Perdigones and Monge are deeply religious; they note that the greatest highlight of their peak ‘Macarena’ era was when they were invited to perform at the Vatican, where they met with Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa. The two even played an original Sevillana, or traditional flamenco couplet, that they’d written especially for the Pope.)
Monge and Perdigones admit that they weren’t that shocked by ‘Macarena’s’ popularity — despite it being so out of step with musical trends of the mid-’90s — because they were always ‘men of great faith’ and ‘always supported the song’. But they had never expected it to spark a worldwide dance craze. In 1996, it seemed like everyone was doing the Macarena — from Olympic athletes, to baseball fans and all sporting stars, to even politicians. Hillary Clinton’s enthusiastic Macarena moves at the Democratic National Convention created a sensation in ‘96 and went viral last year, as did Al Gore’s self-deprecating dad joke from his DNC speech (when he demonstrated “the Al Gore version of the Macarena” by standing completely still).
Monge and Perdigones, who are both now 73 years old, hint that they have some big plans, including a “special album” and a US tour, for the 25th anniversary of “Macarena” (and 60th anniversary of Los del Rio), but they “won’t say just yet, because we don’t want to rush things, because things don’t work out when you rush them.” However, one confirmed way that they’ll be celebrating, in their native country, is with their new Airbnb partnership, through which flamenco fans can party like it’s 1996 in a karaoke room-appointed Andalusian villa with Los del Rio themselves, starting Aug. 3.
Los del Rio has released 50 albums and roughly 500 songs, and charted other regional hits. But, as Monge notes, ‘The one that jumped the Atlantic was ‘Macarena.’” However, unlike some so-called ‘one-hit wonders’ who resent being associated with one signature song, they are grateful for everything that ‘Macarena’ has done for them.
‘We work for the music, and we hold onto the simple things in life that keep us humble, because life has many important roles’ states Monge, who’s still amazed by all the ways that he and Perdigones infiltrated ‘90s pop culture.