spanish songs that use vos

April 15, 2012 7:18 PM

For a project I'm doing, I'm looking for songs in Spanish that demonstrate voseo (the use of the informal second-person singular pronoun vos). This way of speaking isn't technically "standard" Spanish, so I don't exactly know how to search for songs that show this usage.

In standard Spanish, you've got some ways of talking to one person (the second grammatical person):

tú, informal singular || tú hablas inglés
usted, formal singular || usted habla portugués
vosotros, informal plural (Spain) || vosotros habláis francés
ustedes, formal singular || ustedes hablan chino

However, in many parts of Latin America, there is another form for the informal second-person singular: vos. Following the above example sentences, one might say "vos hablás español." Vos replaces tú, and hablás is its accompanying verb form.

I'm doing a little presentation on this whole construction, and I'd like to have some "multimedia" to illustrate the concept, but I'm having a hard time finding songs in Spanish that do so. Do y'all know of any songs that use vos instead of tú forms? Thanks!!!

posted by huxham to writing & language (15 answers total)

Lots of voseo in tango. I would just search "tango" and "vos" and you will get a bazillion hits. The early Ernesto Famá hit "Por vos yo me rompo todo" is one example from the 1930s.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:22 PM on April 15, 2012

What have you done to find songs. I'm sure you know that voseo is common in Rioplatense Spanish, so that's a good place to start. Have you looked through tango lyrics? Argentinian rock nacional? Andres Calamaro, Soda Stereo…
posted by esprit de l'escalier at 7:24 PM on April 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

Fito Paez, che!

This one was all over the radio when I was in Buenos Aires 20 years ago.

Cada vez que pieso en vos,
Fue amor, fue amor.....
posted by pantarei70 at 7:32 PM on April 15, 2012

pienso....claro
posted by pantarei70 at 7:33 PM on April 15, 2012

Enanitos Verdes Solo alguien como vos

They're from Argentina and use the vos form, this is a slower song. They have more fun rock en espanol style songs too.
posted by wilky at 8:14 PM on April 15, 2012

Vos is used in Costa Rica, and when I was living there this compilation came out called Sí San José. It's a bunch of different rock/indie bands from CR, and I'm almost certain you'll hear vos used in some of those songs, though it's been a while since I've listened to it so I can't point to exactly which ones. It's a free (legal) download though! (and it's pretty decent music regardless)
posted by primalux at 8:22 PM on April 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

For tango, you can get complete lyrics and streaming audio at www.todotango.com.

There's tons of these, as others have mentioned, but off the top of my head try Gardel/Razzano's "Mano a mano":

"Vos tenés el mate lleno de infelices ilusiones..."
(Caetano Veloso also did an interesting cover of this a few years back)

And for imperative forms, there's Piazzolla/Ferrer's "Balada para un loco":
"Bailá! Vení! Volá!"
posted by dr. boludo at 8:30 PM on April 15, 2012

Para vos. also be prepared cause this song is totally bananas.
posted by special agent conrad uno at 8:48 PM on April 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

In general, check into the Zizek/ZZK label. Based out of BA, it has some great artists, most of whom are porteños and will use voseo. I would do some research slash links but i am on an iphone and that is a major pain. Suerte!
posted by special agent conrad uno at 8:53 PM on April 15, 2012

And if it's "multimedia" more generally that you're looking for, think about film/TV clips as well. For example, here's a famous scene from the film Nueve Reinas (the language is crude but it's correctly conjugated) with the dialogue transcribed in the lead comment.

And/or, what about comics? The inimitable Mafalda has lots to choose from. On this page -- a few strips down, I like "Que hacés, Premio Nobel de la maceta?"
posted by dr. boludo at 9:05 PM on April 15, 2012

Some great tango lyrics (helpfully translated) from singer Tita Merello here
posted by jontyjago at 4:56 AM on April 16, 2012

Vos Sabes
posted by Tom-B at 5:09 AM on April 16, 2012

For sure los Enanitos Verdes (from Argentina) and Juanes (from Colombia)

Juanes - A Dios Le Pido
"Que si me muero sea de amor
Y si me enamoro sea de vos
Y quede tu voz sea este corazón"

Enanitos Verdes - Mil Horas
"Vos estas tan fria
Como la nieve a mi alrededor
Vos estas tan blanca"
posted by xicana63 at 8:37 AM on April 16, 2012

Jorge Drexler - Guitarra y Vos
posted by verdeluz at 1:36 PM on April 16, 2012

"Cae el sol" by Soda Stereo (probably on YouTube)
posted by 4midori at 9:29 PM on April 16, 2012