Spanish songs translated to English with side-by-side lyrics and notes for Spanish learners
“Golden Times”
Album: Tiempos Dorados (Golden Times), 2025
Style: Nostalgic pop, reflective and sensual song.
Country: Mexico
Que vuelvan los tiempos dorados,
Los dulces futuros que tanto soñamos,
Que vuelva el misterio y el aburrimiento,
El no saber nada, el no saber nada.
Let them return, the golden times,
The sweet futures that we so dreamed of,
Let them return, the mystery and the boredom,
The not knowing anything, the not knowing anything.
“Morphine”
Album: Morfina (Morphine), 2025
Style: Alternative, indie. Introspective song about love and life. Per the artist, this song explores “el amor como una fuerza sanadora, casi medicinal” (love as a healing force, almost medicinal). The song is about how genuine connection can help overcome pain and insecurity. The music video shows a couple’s life from the start of their romance to their lives’ natural ends.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
No es real, yo pensar,
Que amar limitaba hasta ahí.
No volaba sin ti.
It isn’t real, I thought,
That loving stopped just before that.
I couldn’t fly without you.
“Pretty Woman”
Album: Más Futuro Que Pasado (More Future Than Past), 2019
Style: Pop love song about falling in love by accident after meeting a girl at a party. Lots of references to Colombian culture.
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
No quería enamorarme
Y me fui de fiesta con mis amigos,
No pensé que encontrarte era mi destino.
I didn’t want to fall in love
And I went partying with my friends,
Didn’t think that finding you was my destiny.
“Remember Me” Lyrics Translation
Album: Balas perdidas (Stray bullets), 2018
About: Pop/rock, romantic, love song from a shy guy confessing his love and loyalty. This was a wedding request. Congrats to the happy couple!
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
Quiero confesarte que ya tengo la certeza
De que tu recuerdo vive adentro de mi piel.
Tengo un corazón que está perdiendo la cabeza
Porque se dio cuenta que ha caído ante tus pies.
I want to confess to you that I am certain now
That memories of you live beneath my skin.
I have a heart that is losing its mind
Because it realized that it has fallen at your feet.
“She”
Album: Joel Nava (Joel Nava), 1995
About: Soft, slow melancholy song about accepting the end of a relationship. Acoustics and vocals only, very raw. It would be a good song for students to sing. It’s slow enough and will let you practice pronunciation.
Country: USA (Texas)
Listen: YouTube
Me cansé de rogarle,
Me cansé de decirle que yo sin ella
De pena muero.
I got tired of begging her,
I got tired of telling her that I, without her,
Of grief would die.
“Ghosts”
Album: fantasmas (ghosts), 2023
About: Soft melancholy pop with mariachi and folk elements. A song of nostalgia, grief, and pain that pulls into the abyss. A serenade to saudade. Trigger warning for dark thoughts of wanting to join the ghosts.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Del gran sueño
No me quiero despertar,
Y me falla
Un poco más mi realidad.
From this great dream,
I don’t want to wake,
And it fails me
A bit more, my reality.
“That Man” Lyrics
Album: Dicen Que Soy (They Say I Am), 1994
About: Salsa song about a bad man who hides behind fake kindness. An excellent song for adjectives to describe someone you don’t like.
Country: Puerto Rico
Listen: YouTube
Ese hombre que tú ves ahí
Que parece tan galante,
Tan atento y arrogante,
Lo conozco como a mí.
That man that you see there
Who seems so gallant,
So attentive and arrogant,
I know him as I know myself.
“Watching You In Silence”
Album: Latin Crooners, 2008
About: Soft jazzy vocals. Dreamy song about unrequited love from afar, romantic but not intense, peaceful.
Country: France
Listen: YouTube
Solamente al mirarte en silencio,
Solamente al tocarte en mis sueños,
Nunca llegue hasta ver
Este amor tan puro
Y profundo que siento.
Only watching you silently,
Only touching you in my dreams,
I was never able to see
This love so pure
And deep that I feel.
“Beloved Earth”
Album: Tierra Querida (Beloved Earth), 2022
Style: Soft acoustic pop. Natalia Lafourcade sings about love for her homeland’s natural beauty, and gratitude for everything she has received from the land.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Tierra querida que tanto me has regalado,
De la mañana tus besos, mi dulce aliento,
He respirado tus aires y tu nostalgia,
He saboreado las aguas de tu rocío.
Beloved earth that has gifted me so much,
From morning, your kisses, (and) my sweet breath,
I have inhaled your airs and your nostalgia,
I have savored the waters of your dew.
“What Will Become of Me” Lyrics
Album: Epicentro (Epicenter), 2021
Style: Soft pop song about a being in a turbulent and hot/cold relationship with a bad boy. She loves him but he ignores her and that makes her mad.
Country: Spain
Listen: YouTube
Jugamos a dejar las cosas claras,
No fue suficiente.
Ven y mírame de frente.
No despiertes a la fiera.
We played at making things clear,
It wasn’t enough.
Come and see me face to face.
Don’t wake up in a foul mood.
Dejémonos de hablar de forma rara,
No sé lo que sientes.
Yo sé que siempre fuiste un delincuente
Y aunque me digas que no soy cualquiera,
Me quema.
“Everything Happens” Lyrics Translation
Album: Amor Supremo (Supreme Love), 2015
Style: Pop/rock/emo with soft vocals. Melancholy love song to oneself about the struggle with depression, and about feeling awful when you think you should feel fine. It is a very personal song from Carla Morrison, and ultimately a hopeful song about wanting to fight through the darkness instead of giving up.
Country: USA (Arizona); Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Mi vista es distinta,
Es muy triste y contamina.
Quiero dejar de creer,
Estarme sola y no ver.
My sight is different,
It is so sad and contaminated.
I want to stop believing,
To be alone and not see.
“Stop Your Suffering” or “Stop Making Yourself Suffer” Lyrics Translation
Album: La Movida, 2006 (likely recorded in the 1980s)
Style: Romantica. Slow, melancholy, longing, romantic. It is a “come back” song to an ex-lover, declaring that they still love each other and breaking up was a mistake. Thanks to The Strachwitz Frontera Collection for preserving these historical recordings.
Country: USA (Texas)
Listen: La Movida; Lisa Lopez
Mi amor sufre por ti
Porque te quiere.
Y tú, sin comprender,
Te alejaste.
My love suffers for you
Because it loves you.
And you, without understanding,
Distanced yourself.
Songlations 
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