Pateando literally means "kicking". It's the most energetic and fun word in this song!
Shakira sings the colloquial phrase, "Voy pa'l cielo y voy pateando" (I'm going to heaven and I'm kicking), to express an overwhelming sense of joy and excitement. It’s a vivid way of saying you're so happy you're bursting with energy, a phrase you'd learn from music, not a textbook.
In "Me Enamoré", Colombian pop star Shakira tells the playful story of the night she fell head over heels. She is wonderfully candid right from the start, describing how she showed up with messy hair and a striped bra ("Yo con mis sostén a rayas y mi pelo a medio hacer" [Me with my striped bra and my hair half-done]) and immediately spotted someone special. Even though she initially jokes that he looks like a boy ("Pensé éste todavía es un niño" [I thought this one is still a boy]), she spots him standing alone and makes her move ("Lo vi solito y me lancé" [I saw him all alone and I jumped in]).
What makes this track so much fun is its sheer, giddy honesty. Between sipping drinks ("Un mojito, dos mojitos" [One mojito, two mojitos]) and dancing until exhaustion, she falls hard for his neat little beard ("esa barbita") and round mouth ("boca más redondita"). She even gets wildly ahead of herself, cheekily singing that she would have ten kids with him, but suggests starting with a couple just to practice ("Contigo yo tendría diez hijos / Empecemos por un par / Solamente te lo digo / Por si quieres practicar"). It is a joyful, fast-paced celebration of that dizzying moment when a spontaneous night turns into total infatuation.
Shakira signed to Sony Music Colombia at thirteen, and her debut album Magia sold about 1,200 copies in Colombia. Born in Barranquilla in 1977 to a family of Lebanese, Catalan and Colombian descent, she was belly dancing by four, after hearing Arabic drumming at a Middle Eastern restaurant near home, and she has written or co-written most of what she records.
The breakthrough came with Pies Descalzos (1995) and its single "Estoy Aquí", and ¿Dónde Están los Ladrones? (1998) followed with "Ciega, Sordomuda" and "Ojos Así". She moved into English on Laundry Service (2001), whose "Whenever, Wherever" was released in Spanish as "Suerte", then topped the US Hot 100 in 2006 with "Hips Don’t Lie", featuring Wyclef Jean. "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)", recorded with the South African band Freshlyground, was the official song of the 2010 World Cup. Her 2023 session with Argentine producer Bizarrap won Latin Grammy Song of the Year, and Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran took Best Latin Pop Album at the 2025 Grammys, her fourth Grammy next to fifteen Latin Grammys.