Jarabe de Palo

Jarabe de Palo found their voice at the crossroads of rock, rumba, and a humor that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Their sound doesn’t feel formulaic; instead, it comes from someone who blends genres fearlessly, with lyrics that dance between the everyday and the poetic. The guitar of Pau Donés —leader, songwriter, and voice— carried that balance: catchy riffs that never fell into repetition, melodies that seemed simple until you realized they weren’t. La Flaca, their first hit, was born from a trip to Cuba where Pau heard something that inspired him to write a song that, years later, would sell millions of copies without anyone quite knowing why. The mystery of that early success lies in how the song sounds like a party and nostalgia at the same time, as if it had existed for years before being recorded.

Their debut album, La Flaca (1996), burst onto the market with a stroke of luck: a Spanish TV commercial turned it into a summer anthem in 1997. But Pau Donés wasn’t content to be a one-hit wonder. So in 1998, Depende arrived, produced by Joe Dworniak at London’s Moody Studios over two months. The album featured collaborations like Ketama and lyrics that, while keeping their irony, became more universal. In Italy, for example, the band found an audience that didn’t speak Spanish but hummed along to their songs. It wasn’t a coincidence: the mix of rhythms and the natural flow of the melodies made language cease to be a barrier.