美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Soy Yo' Video, Bomba Estéreo Pays Tribute To 'What's Inside Of You'

In 'Soy Yo' Video, Bomba Estéreo Pays Tribute To 'What's Inside Of You' 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0004:37repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser 1 to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. (SOUNDBITE OF BOMBA ESTEREO SONG, "YO SOY")

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

It's being called an ode to little brown girls everywhere, a swaggier "Little Miss Sunshine," empowering.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YO SOY")

BOMBA ESTEREO: (Singing) Y también me perdí. Fracase, me encontré lo viví y aprendí. Cuando te pegas fuerte más profundo es el beat...

MARTIN: The music video for Bomba Estereo's 2015 hit song "Soy Yo" was released last week. Simon Mejia is one half of the Colombian electro-cumbia group. He joins us now to tell us why he thinks this video has been resonating so much with audiences.

Hey, Simon. Welcome to the program.

SIMON MEJIA: Hi, hi. Thank you.

MARTIN: So before we talk about why this thing is connecting with people so much, why don't you tell us a little bit about the video itself? Can you describe it for us?

MEJIA: Yeah, the video is a beautiful piece. And with this Danish director, he came with these very, very special idea about this girl that goes to the parlor 2 thing and does her hair and everything and then goes out to the street and is, like, being free and being free about what she feels she is - no? - about her individuality.

MARTIN: Soy yo means I am me, so the whole thing is this empowering message. And this little girl is the perfect messenger. As you say, she's gone into the beauty parlor, and she has her hair done in this super funky 3 way. And she walks out onto the street, and you feel some judgment 4 coming from a couple of little white girls on the corner. And then she sees these guys playing basketball, and she goes and she shows them up. And she's just got this awesome 5 presence. Where did you find this actress?

MEJIA: It was a whole process that the film crew did. They, like, did a very precise casting - no? - like, looking for this very particular and special girl. And they came out with this girl, and they showed us. And we thought it was perfect because she represents, like, a whole community - no? - a whole community. And she can be from everywhere in Latin America, like, from Mexico to - even to Argentina, she could be, like, anyone. No? So it's, like, perfect.

MARTIN: She is 11-year-old Sarai Gonzalez, who is of both Peruvian and Costa Rican descent and lives in New Jersey 6.

What do you think it is about her performance that brings new audiences to this particular song and gives it this new kind of life?

MEJIA: I think it's all due to what she represents. No? Like, she represents her whole community probably - people that are immigrants living in a foreign country. No? So she's kind of representing what's happening to - in the world that we have lots of immigration issues in the States. That is people coming for poorest countries - no? - to developed countries.

And this is, like - reflects a whole social and cultural situation that - for example, now in Colombia when we were making this whole campaign around the song, we were having big issues in the schools around, like, bullying 7. And recently, a small kid - he was gay, and he was having so much bullying in the school that he committed suicide. And so we're trying to, like, empower people to feel that doesn't matter if you're different or if you're from one country or the other or you're black or you're white or you're gay. No?

What's important is what's inside of you, and you have to fight for that. And I think that the video, like, brings this message along.

MARTIN: May I ask about some of these dance moves? Because she totally rocks this.

MEJIA: (Laughter) I don't know. But she - surely she has a rhythm inside of her.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOY YO")

BOMBA ESTEREO: (Singing) Soy yo - soy, soy, soy, soy, soy, soy. Soy yo - yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo. Sigo caminando y sigo riendo. Hago lo que quiero y muero en el intento.

MARTIN: Simon Mejia of Bomba Estereo. The band's album "Amanecer" came out last year.

Thanks so much for talking with us, Simon.

MEJIA: Oh, thank you very much for inviting 8. It's a pleasure, always a pleasure.