Learn Spanish With Pasabordo with these 10 Song Recommendations (Full Translations Included!)

Have you ever felt like someone was only with you for your money? In "La Interesada," the singer confronts this exact situation. He's realized his beautiful girlfriend doesn't truly love him. Instead, he feels she's only interested in his possessions, like his Mercedes. He calls her out for being "interesada," a Spanish word that describes someone who is materialistic and motivated by financial gain.

The singer feels used and warns any future partner that she will be very expensive to please. He sarcastically wishes her well in finding someone who can buy her everything she wants, but he makes a powerful point: real love can't be bought and sold like stocks on the "bolsa de valores" (stock market). It's a classic tale of realizing that love should be about genuine feelings, not fancy things.

Have you ever been left wondering what went wrong after a breakup? That's exactly where Pasabordo and Pipe Bueno take us in "Devuélveme La Vida." The singer is completely bewildered, asking, "Qué le pasó a tu corazón / Que no piensa más en mí?" [What happened to your heart / That it doesn't think of me anymore?]. He's trying to figure out if it was his fault or if there's someone else involved, even though he insists, "Si yo nunca te fui infiel / Y en la cama te entregué / Tantas noches de placer" [If I was never unfaithful to you / And in bed I gave you / So many nights of pleasure].

This song is a desperate plea for a love that's gone. The singer is truly suffering, begging, "Devuélveme la vida por favor / Que yo me estoy muriendo por tu amor" [Give me back my life please / Because I am dying for your love]. He's lost all his happiness since she left, and he's even drinking to cope, saying, "Ya me he bebido dos botellas / Pero tu amor está en mis venas" [I've already drunk two bottles / But your love is in my veins]. It's a really emotional look at the pain of a sudden breakup and the longing for things to go back to how they were.

This is a vallenato breakup song that opens with a question every couple dreads: "Dime, ¿qué nos pasó?" (Tell me, what happened to us?). The singer can't find the moment it went wrong. His best guess is boredom: "Tal vez la monotonía nos visitó en la habitación" (Maybe monotony paid us a visit in the bedroom).

What makes it fun is how practical the despair gets. They tried the psychologist, therapy got forgotten, and now the lawyer says "esto es un caso perdido" (this is a lost cause). That is a divorce told in three lines. The chorus asks "¿Dónde quedaron las caricias y los besos?" (Where did the caresses and kisses go?) and, since he can't find them, he promises to throw himself into excess, get lost in the streets and become "un adicto a tu recuerdo" (an addict to your memory). A bit dramatic? Sure. That is the point.

Watch for "quedaron" here: ¿dónde quedaron? is the everyday way to ask where something ended up. And "me perderé" (I will lose myself) is a nice reflexive future to learn, repeated so often you'll have it by the last chorus.

"Celosa" (Jealous) is Pasabordo pleading with a girlfriend who will not stop checking up on him. He has told her "mil veces" (a thousand times) that he has no "enredo" with anyone else. Enredo literally means a tangle, and here it is slang for a fling or an affair. "Contigo es suficiente" (you are enough for me), he insists, but she does not believe him.

The chorus has a fun bit of wordplay: "tú me llamas y me llamas y te prendes en llamas" (you call me and call me and you go up in flames). Llamas is both "you call" and "flames", so her phone calls and her temper are the same word. He also calls himself her Romeo, "esa es la neta" (that's the honest truth), using a Mexican slang word for truth. His advice is simple: people out there tell her a lot of things about him, "pero a la gente no le creas" (but don't believe people). It is a light, danceable song about an argument most couples have had, and the last line, "No me celes más, corazón" (stop being jealous of me, sweetheart), sums it up.

"Para Ti" (For You) is Pasabordo at their most romantic and a little bit lovesick. The song opens with a question: "¿Qué puedo hacer para tener tu amor?" (what can I do to have your love?). He asks for "un espacio en tu corazón" (a space in your heart), admits she has become an addiction, and says he has gone several days without sleeping.

The chorus is a list of gifts: "Un millón de besos tengo para ti" (I have a million kisses for you), a serenade on an April night, and a couple of poems he wrote last night thinking about her. Then comes the drama: "si tú te alejas me voy a morir" (if you walk away I'm going to die). Listen for juntico, a Colombian diminutive of junto (together, close), in "duerme esta noche, juntico a mí" (sleep tonight right next to me). He also slips in "pienso en vos" (I think about you), using vos, the form of "you" that many Colombians use. It is sweet, a bit over the top, and perfect for practising para ti and pensando en ti.

Get ready for some serious Latin pop vibes with Pasabordo and Noriel's "Dile A Tu Marido"! This song is all about a guy who's completely smitten with a woman who's already married, and he's not shy about trying to win her over. He's basically telling her to break up with her husband because he thinks he's the man she truly needs.

The lyrics are pretty direct, with lines like "Dile a tu marido que ya no lo quieres" [Tell your husband you don't love him anymore] and "Que aquí esta el hombre que tú necesitas" [That here is the man you need]. He's convinced she's unhappy and bored in her current relationship, even saying, "Como una chica tan linda anda escondida en los brazos de un cobarde" [How can such a beautiful girl be hidden in the arms of a coward?]. He's totally confident that he can make her happier, telling her, "Yo sé que me tienes ganas, yo también te llevo ganas" [I know you want me, I also want you]. It's a bold and catchy tune about taking a chance on a new love, even if it's a bit scandalous!

"Lentamente" (Slowly) is a slow-burn flirtation song, and it does not pretend to be anything else. The narrator walks up to a woman "como si nada" (as if it were nothing), and she stays cool, but they are both curious. She wonders whether they have "compatibilidad en la cama" (compatibility in bed). He offers her a drink first, "pero sin hielo" (but without ice), and soon "la niña ya coge vuelo" (the girl is taking off). Coger vuelo literally means to take flight, here it means she is getting carried away.

The chorus is where the title comes from: "Lentamente, se pone caliente" (slowly, she heats up). She bites her lips, clenches her teeth, and "su cara no miente" (her face doesn't lie). The hook "Se va, se va, se va, con un besito nada más" (she's going, going, gone, with just one little kiss) is the most catchy part. In the second verse the Spanish gets mixed with English the way reggaeton loves to do: "me gusta tu body", "tus stories", "nos vamos a la glory". It is fun to spot how much Spanglish is in there.

It's two in the morning and this guy is still awake, thinking about "la mujer que me ha robado el corazón" (the woman who stole my heart). The song follows him through the night, clock by clock: two a.m., then "tres de la mañana, sigo desvelado" (three in the morning, I'm still sleepless), and finally six a.m., still stuck on the same thought. Her perfume is still in his room, and she left "sin adiós" (without a goodbye).

He is bitter about why she left, too. He says she let herself be carried away "por una billetera" (by a wallet), which is a blunt way of saying she went off with someone for his money, and he warns her "vas a pagar por tu error" (you're going to pay for your mistake). His answer to all this? Drinking. The chorus is "brindo por ella con una botella" (I toast to her with a bottle), because she is still "la dueña de todo lo que yo siento" (the owner of everything I feel).

A few things worth learning here: brindar por means to raise a glass to someone, desvelado is the word for being kept awake at night, and the shout "¡ay, ombe!" is a very Colombian exclamation, a relaxed form of hombre (man), common in vallenato and popular music from the Caribbean coast. The "le le lere" bits are just sung sounds, made for singing along with a drink in hand.

"Amor Secreto" (Secret Love) is Pasabordo at their most smitten. The narrator opens by saying he is dying for this woman, "Si me muero por ti" (I'm dying for you), and then lists what has him hooked, from her eyes and lips to her neck, her belly button and her hips. He even says he feels "muy adicto" (very addicted).

The chorus flips the title on its head: "Lo nuestro no es secreto, es una historia de amor" (what we have isn't a secret, it's a love story). My favourite line is the over-the-top promise that he would sign a contract just to dance a vallenato with her forever. Vallenato is the accordion-driven folk music of Colombia's Caribbean coast, so it is a very Colombian way to say "forever". The lyrics spell it "ballenato", which in standard Spanish would be a baby whale, so don't learn that one from the page!

The verses get steamier as the song goes on. "Vamos a hacerlo lento toda la madrugada" (let's do it slow all night until dawn) leaves little to the imagination. At the end the band name-checks themselves, "Jhonatan y Gabo, desde Medallo". Medallo is the street nickname for Medellín.

It opens like a scene at a bar: two friends, "Compadre" (buddy), wondering what to say to a woman crying over a man. The answer comes fast: "Que pase la página y brindemos por ella. ¡Salud!" (Let her turn the page and let's toast to her. Cheers!). From there the singer makes his pitch, and he is not subtle about it.

He tells her she looks so pretty sitting there alone, "si aquí estoy yo" (when I'm right here), while she keeps crying over "ese cabrón" (that bastard) who broke her heart. The chorus is pure vallenato flirting: "Ay, no llores por él, él no merece tus lágrimas" (Oh, don't cry for him, he doesn't deserve your tears), followed by "Soy tu pañuelo de lágrimas" (I'm your handkerchief for tears). It's cheesy and it knows it. Elder Dayán shows up mid-song with a shout of "a bordo" (on board), a play on the band's name, Pasabordo.

A useful idiom to steal: "pasar la página" (to turn the page) means to move on from something, exactly like in English. And "Ay, 'ombe" is a classic Caribbean Colombian exclamation, short for hombre (man).