Mequetrefe

## Music Video

“**Mequetrefe**” is the third single off of Venezuelean producer Arca’s album, “KiCk i”.

## Background

“**Mequetrefe**” is the third track from Arca’s fourth studio album "***KiCk i***". The song is an uplifting experimental reggaeton piece about self-confidence and feeling fierce. Instead of taking any kind of public transport, she goes to a club on foot so that everyone is able to see and witness her.

Right in the middle, the song turns dark, noisy and distorted, disrupting this feeling of confidence. Now, there’s space for self-doubt, represented by the multiple layers of unfinished sentences. Finally, she rids of these insecurities, and the song returns to its lighter tone where Arca begins to sing in the fiercer style as before.

## Lyrics

**[Intro]**

Ah

**[Verso]**

Mami, quiere mequetrefe

Ella se lo merece

Mira cómo se crece

Ella vino caminando desde su casa

Ella no toma taxi

Que la vean, que la vean en las calles

Ella no toma taxi, ni Uber ni Lyft

Que la vean, ah

**[Pre-Coro]**

Mami quiere mequetrefe

Mira cómo ella se crece

¿Y sabes qué, qué?

**[Coro]**

Tiene la personalidad

Le da, le da, le da, le da

Le da, le da, le da

Igualito, mira su pasito

Le da, le da, le da igual

Que le da igualito, mira su pasito

Que le da igualito, mira su pasito

Que le da igualito, que le da igualito

Que le da igualito, que le da igualito, que le da igua-

**[Refrán]**

Igualito, igualito, igua-, igua-, igualito

Igua-, igualito, igua-, igua-, igualito

Igua-, igualito, igua-, igua-, igualito

Igualito, igua-, igua-, igualito

Igua-, igualito, igua-, igua-, igualito

Iguali-, igua-, igua-, igualito

**[Coro]**

¿Y sabes qué, qué?

Tiene la personalidad

Le da, le da, le da, le da

Le da, le da, le da

Igualito, mira su pasito

Le da igualito, mira su pasito

Que le da igualito, mira su pasito

Que le da igualito, mira su pasito

Que le da igualito, que le da igualito

Que le da igualito, que le da igualito

**[Outro]**

Que le da igua-, igualito

Iguali-, igua-, igua-

Igua-, igualito

## Interview(s)

"I wanted to find an uncanny valley between a joyous celebration and a defiant transgression. It’s the song that I put on when I have to rile myself up to face the world, to just present as I am. There’s a tenderness and a very sweet chord progression in the song that’s a reminder that it’s born from love, that labour of expressing oneself. But at the same time, it’s not lost on me that it’s going to cause some static around me. I moved to Barcelona deliberately. It was a part of me that was reluctant to begin my transition in New York or London—I didn’t want to be in a safe space, because I had a lot of doubt. I felt like I needed to go into a place that was more traditional in order to let that bloom within me. I didn’t want to feel like I was being encouraged into it. I really needed to know on a spiritual level that it was something I wanted to do for myself. So the song is very much directly a response that I didn’t want to have to be impenetrable and immune and to rise above people disagreeing with me visibly or vocally on the street in a city like Barcelona, which is very traditional. But somehow it felt like a return—it’s the first time I’ve lived in a Spanish-speaking country since I left Venezuela at 17. So there’s a poetic symbolism there." –**Arca via Apple Music**

“**Mequetrefe** invokes the tenderness behind expressing who you are without shame and the confidence and bravery it requires, because expression of gender-nonconforming self-states in a public space can often result in static within your environment." –**Arca via Stereogum**

## Trivia

* “Mequetrefe” is Latin American slang used to describe someone, most likely a man, as weak, a loser or annoying. It’s also used to describe a messy and irreverent thing or situation. In the context of the song, Arca is using both definitions: she grew up hearing the word as derogatory and also wants to go to a party, a “mequetrefe” situation, to dance her pain away.