"Somos Anormales"
Single by Residente
from the album Residente
ReleasedJanuary 13, 2017
Genre
Length3:38
Label
Songwriter(s)René Pérez
Producer(s)René Pérez
Residente singles chronology
"Somos Anormales"
(2017)		 "Desencuentro"
(2017)
Music video
"Somos Anormales" on YouTube

"Somos Anormales" ("We Are Abnormal"[1][2]) is the debut single by Puerto Rican rapper Residente, released on January 13, 2017, as the first single from his 2017 debut solo album Residente. It won the 2017 Latin Grammy Award for Best Urban Song.[3]

Composition and lyrics

The song was written and recorded in Kyzyl, Tuva, Siberia, where Residente spent one week.[4][5][6] It features throat singing band Chirgilchin.[7][5][2][6][8][9] According to him, they are singing in Tuvan a concept he originally wrote in Spanish, then translated to English so they could finally translate it to their native language.[10]

According to Residente, "the usage of the term 'abnormal' allowed me to break free from the depreciative connotation of the word to convert it in a inclusive concept. If there is something that we all have in common, is that we are different".[11] In a press release of 2016, Residente told people to "have their eyes, ears and minds open for what is coming".[5]

Music video

The video for the song marks Residente's directional debut and was shot in Madrid, Spain, over the course of four days. It features John Leguizamo, Leonor Watling, Óscar Jaenada and Juan Diego Botto,[11][7][4][12][2][1][5] among 70 others,[13] and was created by Zapatero Film (Puerto Rico) and Deseif Producciones (Spain).[5]

It shows a woman hatching from an egg and giving birth to multiple naked adults with conditions such as dwarfism and albinism. They quickly craft clothes out of wool and divide into two groups, one clean (representing the rich and powerful) and another dirty (representing those who have no money nor power). Both quickly engage in a fight, but they end up turning violence into love. Throughout the video, Residente sings with his head popping out of the woman's vagina.[1][14][8][9]

The scene with the giant vagina expelling people has been compared to a scene in Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her, in which Watling was cast.[6] About the video concept, Residente says:[1]

I wanted to talk about the beginning of humanity and how we got here. So it started with an egg because I don't know what happened first – the chicken or the egg? We came from Africa, we came out in all these weird, different shapes and forms – then for some reason we started fighting because we wanted to be the same. Then, while we were fighting, we forgot about what we were fighting about. Then comes that reproductive mud fest that's represented in the video at the end. [...] Also, during this process of humanity they split into the clean ones and the dirty ones; that always happens. The rich ones and the poor ones. Like it is in real life, you have people pushing each other into the mud to stay clean. But then, they all reproduce – clean or dirty, it doesn't matter – they reproduce and now we are here.

Residente also said that the battle scene can be applied to many different contexts of conflicts.[10]

Charts

Chart (2017) Peak
position
US Latin Pop Airplay (Billboard)[15] 26
US Latin Rhythm Airplay (Billboard)[16] 16

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Exposito, Suzy (4 April 2017). "Calle 13's Residente Talks Exploring Global Roots on Star-Studded Solo Debut". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media LLC. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 Pareles, Jon (20 January 2017). "Residente Chases His Muse, at the Genetic Level". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  3. ↑ Ceccarini, Viola Manuela (20 November 2017). "The 18th Latin GRAMMY Awards in Las Vegas". Livein Style. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  4. 1 2 "'Somos anormales': el provocador nuevo videoclip de Residente". Eldiario.es (in Spanish). Diario de Prensa Digital S.L. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "El rapero puertorriqueño Residente dirige el video de un sencillo de su primer disco en solitario". EFE (in Spanish). San Juan. 4 October 2016. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 Morales, Vanessa (13 January 2017). "'Somos anormales': obra maestra de Residente que presenta "como algo sencillo" lo que no lo es". Univision.com (in Spanish). Univision Communications. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  7. 1 2 "Residente estrena 'Somos anormales', su nuevo video". El País (in Spanish). Mexico: PRISA. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  8. 1 2 "'Residente' estrena videoclip sin censura". El Informador (in Spanish). San Juan. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  9. 1 2 Flores, Griselda (13 January 2017). "Residente cuestiona la humanidad en el clip de "Somos Anormales" (Contenido Gráfico)". Telemundo.com (in Spanish). NBCUniversal/Telemundo Enterprises. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  10. 1 2 "Hablamos con Residente sobre su súper explícito nuevo video y su ADN". Sopitas.com (in Spanish). 14 January 2017. Archived from the original on 14 April 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  11. 1 2 Capetillo, Belem (31 March 2017). "Residente estrena su primer álbum como solista y, no te preocupes, ¡no deja Calle 13!". starMedia (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  12. ↑ "'Somos anormales', el impúdico y provocador videoclip de Residente". Público (in Spanish). Madrid: Mediapro. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  13. ↑ Morales, Vanessa (9 January 2017). ""Somos anormales": Residente estrena mucho más que una canción este viernes 13". Univision.com (in Spanish). New York City: Univision Communications. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  14. ↑ Cobo, Leila (31 March 2017). "Residente Gets Romantic With Stunningly Beautiful 'Desencuentro' Video: Watch". Billboard. Eldridge Industries. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  15. ↑ "Residente Chart History (Latin Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  16. ↑ "Residente Chart History (Latin Rhythm Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
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