The real meaning behind The Ketchup’s song: nostalgic Aussies shocked by the truth behind the 2002 pop hit

Nostalgic fans of 1990s music are shocked at the true meaning of a beloved 20-year-old pop song.

The band Las Ketchup’s Ketchup song reached number one on the ARIA charts when it was released in 2002 and while many Aussies thought the lyrics were sung in Spanish, they actually have clever meaning.

The Las Ketchup song is about a man named Diego who tries to request his favorite song, Rapper’s Delight from the Sugarhill Gang, but doesn’t know the name of the song, so he gives out an incorrect imitation of the chorus of the classic 1980 to the DJ.

The chorus, “Aserejé ja de jé de jebe tu de jebere sebiunouva majabi an de bugui an de buididipí,” is just a gibberish rendition of Diego trying to sing the Sugarhill Gang’s, “I said a hip hop the hippie, the hippie to the hip hip hop, a you don’t stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie to the beat of the boogie, the beat’.

Swedish singer Zara Larsson learned of the little-known fact when she was billed to perform at the same show at Las Ketchup and shared the information with her 1.7 million TikTok followers.

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“Do you want to know a funny story that I didn’t know that is so amazing to me?” she said in a TikTok clamp as you can hear the Spanish sister trio playing live in the background.

Back in her hotel room, she explained that the song has so many more “levels” than she originally thought.

“I didn’t grow up speaking Spanish… I thought the whole song was in Spanish, including the chorus, but it’s not, it’s just the verses,” said Zara.

The original Ketchup song was in Spanish, but Australians would be more familiar with the English version released later, which alternated lines of the verses between the two languages.

Singer Zara Larsson (pictured) heard the song is about a man, Diego, trying to record Rapper’s Delight by the Sugarhill Gang, and the gibberish chorus is his incorrect rendition

“In the verses they say there’s a man, his name is Diego, he wants to go out and dance… he’s going to the DJ at midnight, ‘I want my favorite song, I want my tune played and it’s going like that,'” Zara explained before reciting the nonsensical chorus of the Ketchup song.

“It’s not even a language, it’s not Spanish, it’s not nothing, it’s nothing but it’s a song and do you know what song Diego wants to play at midnight?”

The Lush Life singer then dances around her room to Rapper’s Delight to show the similarities between The Ketchup Song’s chorus and the opening lines of the 1980s.

“Diego’s favorite song is Rapper’s Delight, he wants to hear Rapper’s Delight at 12 sharp, I just think it’s so smart,” she said.

Zara’s video has been viewed a whopping 4.3 million times as fans shared their shock in the comments.

“I was years old today?” exclaimed one viewer, while another said, “I’m stunned. I didn’t know this.’

“Wait, this is actually good, I had no idea it wasn’t Spanish either,” a third wrote.

“I hope Diego gets to hear Rapper’s Delight,” a fourth added.

Some were familiar with the meaning of the song and shared even more fun facts about the new bop.

“Also the chorus is from his point of view and it sounds like gibberish because he’s so drunk/high that he can’t pronounce the words of the song correctly,” one person commented.

“And their band name is Las Ketchup because their father was a very famous guitarist named El tomate (the tomato),” a second explained.