Canalla is a fantastic, dramatic word that translates to "scoundrel" or "cad". It's a powerful, somewhat old-fashioned insult used for a dishonorable or despicable person.
In the song, Selena spits this word out right after describing how she caught her partner kissing another woman: "...eran tus labios los que la besaban, canalla" (...it was your lips that were kissing her, you scoundrel). It perfectly captures the anger and betrayal in this iconic breakup anthem, making it a truly memorable word to learn.
This song is pure drama, and it all happens over one very short phone call! It kicks off with Selena's partner calling her, trying to explain himself, but she cuts him off immediately. She has no time for his excuses because she saw him with another woman. She's incredibly direct about it, telling him, "Te vi con ella y no puedes negar / Que eran tus labios los que la besaban, canalla" (I saw you with her and you can't deny / that it was your lips kissing her, you scoundrel).
He apparently tried to pretend they were just friends, but she's not buying his claim that they were "sólo charlaban" (just talking). She is completely fed up with his "Escusas y más mentiras" (Excuses and more lies). Her message is simple and gets repeated throughout the song: "Si me vuelves a llamar / Yo te vuelvo a colgar" (If you call me again / I'll hang up on you again). This isn't a song about being sad over a breakup; it's about telling someone they messed up and aren't getting a second chance. She ends it by telling him he's not getting another opportunity because, frankly, "No vales la pena" (You're not worth it).
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez grew up in Lake Jackson, Texas, fronting her family's band, Selena y Los Dinos, with her brother A.B. writing the songs and playing bass and her sister Suzette on drums. She was raised speaking English, and her father drilled the Spanish lyrics into her phonetically, line by line, years before she was fluent in the language she sold millions of records in.
Tejano was a men's business when she took it over: she won the Tejano Music Award for Female Vocalist of the Year nine years running from 1987, and Selena Live! took the 1994 Grammy for Best Mexican-American Album. "Como la Flor", from 1992's Entre a Mi Mundo, is the song attached to her name more than any other, and Amor Prohibido (1994) put four singles at number one on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart, among them "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" and "No Me Queda Más". She was shot and killed in Corpus Christi on March 31, 1995, aged 23, by the former president of her fan club. Dreaming of You, the English-language crossover album she had been recording, was released that August and entered the Billboard 200 at number one.