Autumn up north, spring down south. Mandinga calls it summer.
“Rico” is the brand-new single from Mandinga, and yes, it’s a merengue, just not a throwback to the ’90s. This is merengue for right now: urban, with a big pop heart, punchy drums, modern percussion and, of course, horns that sound like a live stage even through your earbuds. Add Barbara Isasi’s voice, the kind that lifts your mood before the first chorus even lands, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for road trips, rooftop bars and parties that refuse to end.
“‘Rico’ is a merengue where nothing bad happens. They… meet dancing, they keep dancing, and that’s where the story stays. No heartbreak, no drama,” says Barbara, summing it up as simply as it gets.
Right now, half the planet is digging out its sweaters and the other half is putting them away. Mandinga has never paid much attention to either, because the band runs on a twelve-month summer. They’ve kept it going in town squares, on festival stages, at private parties, and anywhere someone pressed play and nobody wanted to sit down again. “Rico” is summer, on repeat.
Underneath the party, there’s a second story.
The song opens with a line that says almost everything: “Si fue bailando que nos conocimos”, which means “we met dancing.” What follows is a night of dancing in the street, nonstop. And when it’s over, only one question is left: will we see each other again?
That, really, is the story of Mandinga and their people. They meet at a show, they dance, they go their separate ways when the lights come up, and they all head home with the same question: “¿Otra vez nos volvemos a encontrar?” The answer never changes: yes, at the next show.
“For us it’s a love song, but it’s also for the people we keep running into at every show. Some of them we’ve been seeing for twenty years, and we met every one of them dancing. So this one’s for them. And yes, it really is Rico.”
By Chupi Tool, Mandinga’s founder, drummer and producer.
Quick note for non-Spanish speakers: rico means delicious. It can also mean a few other things. Consider yourself warned.
Before it ever reached streaming platforms, “Rico” had already passed the most honest test there is: the crowd in front of the stage. The band played it live all summer long, and the official video is one of those nights.
“Rico” is out now on all streaming platforms, along with the live perfomance video.
Autumn, spring, whatever the calendar says. At Mandinga, summer lasts as long as the dancing does.
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