Song guide

Bailando

Enrique Iglesias, Descemer Bueno

Bailando by Enrique Iglesias, Descemer Bueno, line by line: what the lyrics mean, 19 expressions explained and 370 words translated with their grammar. Learn Spanish from the song, free.

55 lines translated 370 words explained 19 expressions

Lyrics with English translation, line by line

Each line as sung, what it means, and — where it needs one — why it's said that way.

  1. Enrique Iglesias

    Enrique Iglesias

    Enrique Iglesias is a Spanish pop star, son of legendary singer Julio Iglesias. He is one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all time and co-wrote and performed this song.

  2. ¡Gente De Zona!

    Gente De Zona!

    Gente de Zona is a Cuban reggaeton duo from Santiago de Cuba, consisting of Alexander Delgado and Randy Malcom. Their name means 'People from the Zone/Area', referencing their neighbourhood roots.

  3. Descemer

    Descemer

    Descemer Bueno is a Cuban singer-songwriter and musician who co-wrote 'Bailando'. He is highly influential in Latin pop and reggaeton production.

  4. Yo te miro y se me corta la respiración

    I look at you and it takes my breath away

  5. Cuando tú me miras, se me sube el corazón (Me palpita lento el corazón)

    When you look at me, my heart soars (My heart beats slowly)

  6. Y en un silencio tu mirada dice mil palabras (Uh)

    And in the silence, your gaze speaks a thousand words (Uh)

  7. La noche en la que te suplico que no salga el sol

    The night when I beg you not to let the sun rise

  8. Bailando (Bailando)

    Dancing (Dancing)

    'Bailando' (2014) became one of the most-streamed Spanish-language songs in history and spent a record 41 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart.

  9. Bailando (Bailando)

    Dancing (Dancing)

  10. Tu cuerpo y el mío llenando el vacío

    Your body and mine filling the void

  11. Subiendo y bajando (Subiendo y bajando)

    Rising and falling (Rising and falling)

  12. Bailando (Bailando)

    Dancing (Dancing)

  13. Bailando (Bailando)

    Dancing (Dancing)

  14. Ese fuego por dentro me 'tá enloqueciendo

    That fire inside is driving me crazy

    The contraction ''tá' for 'está' is characteristic of Caribbean Spanish, particularly Cuban and Puerto Rican speech patterns, and is very common in reggaeton and salsa lyrics.

  15. Me va saturando

    It's starting to overwhelm me

  16. Con tu física y tu química, también tu anatomía

    With your physics and chemistry, and also your anatomy

    The use of academic words like física (physics), química (chemistry), and anatomía (anatomy) to describe physical attraction is a playful lyrical device — the singer is describing the person's body and the chemistry between them using scientific vocabulary.

  17. La cerveza y el tequila y tu boca con la mía

    Beer and tequila and your mouth against mine

  18. Ya no puedo más (Ya no puedo má')

    I can't take it anymore (I can't take it anymore)

    The clipped form 'má'' for 'más' (dropping the final -s) is a feature of Caribbean Spanish pronunciation and is frequently used in song lyrics to fit the rhythm or reflect authentic speech.

  19. Ya no puedo más (Ya no puedo má')

    I can't take it anymore (I can't take it anymore)

  20. Con esta melodía, tu color, tu fantasía

    With this melody, your color, your fantasy

  21. Con tu filosofía, mi cabeza está vacía

    With your philosophy, my mind is blank

  22. Y ya no puedo má' (Ya no puedo más)

    And I can't take it anymore (I can't take it anymore)

  23. Ya no puedo má' (Ya no puedo más)

    I can't take it anymore (I can't take it anymore)

  24. Yo quiero estar contigo, vivir contigo

    I want to be with you, to live with you

  25. Bailar contigo, tener contigo una noche loca (Una noche loca)

    To dance with you, to have a wild night with you (A wild night)

  26. Ay, besar tu boca (Y besar tu boca)

    Oh, to kiss your lips (And to kiss your lips)

  27. Yo quiero estar contigo, vivir contigo

    I want to be with you, to live with you

  28. Bailar contigo, tener contigo una noche loca

    To dance with you, to have a wild night with you

  29. Con tremenda nota

    What a tremendous feeling

    'Con tremenda nota' uses 'nota' as Cuban/Caribbean slang for an intense feeling, high, or vibe. This slang usage is specific to Cuban Spanish and may not be understood the same way in all Spanish-speaking countries.

  30. Tú me miras y me llevas a otra dimensión (Estoy en otra dimensión)

    You look at me and take me to another dimension (I'm in another dimension)

  31. Tus latidos aceleran a mi corazón (Tus latidos aceleran a mi corazón)

    Your heartbeat makes my heart race (Your heartbeat makes my heart race)

  32. Qué ironía del destino no poder tocarte (¡Wuh!)

    What an irony of fate — not being able to touch you (Wuh!)

    The parenthetical '¡Wuh!' is a vocal exclamation typical of reggaeton and urban Latin music, used for energy and emphasis rather than carrying literal meaning.

  33. Abrazarte y sentir la magia de tu olor

    To hold you and feel the magic of your scent

  34. Bailando (Bailando)

    Dancing (Dancing)

  35. Bailando (Bailando)

    Dancing (Dancing)

  36. Tu cuerpo y el mío llenando el vacío

    Your body and mine filling the void

  37. Subiendo y bajando (Subiendo y bajando)

    Rising and falling (Rising and falling)

  38. Bailando (Bailando)

    Dancing (Dancing)

  39. Bailando (Bailando)

    Dancing (Dancing)

  40. Ese fuego por dentro me 'tá enloqueciendo

    That fire inside is driving me crazy

  41. Me va saturando

    It's starting to overwhelm me

  42. Con tu física y tu química, también tu anatomía

    With your physics and chemistry, and also your anatomy

  43. La cerveza y el tequila y tu boca con la mía

    Beer and tequila and your mouth against mine

  44. Ya no puedo más (Ya no puedo má')

    I can't take it anymore (I can't take it anymore)

  45. Ya no puedo más (Ya no puedo má')

    I can't take it anymore (I can't take it anymore)

  46. Con esta melodía, tu color, tu fantasía

    With this melody, your color, your fantasy

  47. Con tu filosofía, mi cabeza está vacía

    With your philosophy, my mind is blank

  48. Y ya no puedo má' (Ya no puedo más)

    And I can't take it anymore (I can't take it anymore)

  49. Ya no puedo má' (Ya no puedo más)

    I can't take it anymore (I can't take it anymore)

  50. Yo quiero estar contigo, vivir contigo

    I want to be with you, to live with you

  51. Bailar contigo, tener contigo una noche loca (Una noche loca)

    To dance with you, to have a wild night with you (A wild night)

  52. Ay, besar tu boca (Y besar tu boca)

    Oh, to kiss your lips (And to kiss your lips)

  53. Yo quiero estar contigo, vivir contigo

    I want to be with you, to live with you

  54. Bailar contigo, tener contigo una noche loca

    To dance with you, to have a wild night with you

  55. Con tremenda nota

    What a tremendous feeling

Expressions and idioms in “Bailando”

The lines that don't mean what the dictionary says.

se me corta la respiración it takes my breath away
This is a reflexive construction using the 'se me' structure, where the subject (la respiración) acts upon the speaker involuntarily. Literally 'the breathing cuts itself to me' — Spanish uses this pattern to express things that happen to you without your control, equivalent to English 'it takes my breath away'.
me palpita el corazón my heart beats / throbs
In Spanish, body-part sensations are often expressed with an indirect object pronoun (me) + verb + the body part as subject, rather than 'my heart beats' as in English. The heart is the grammatical subject doing the beating.
se me sube el corazón my heart soars / leaps
Another involuntary 'se me' construction: literally 'the heart rises itself to me.' The verb subir (to go up) combined with 'se me' expresses an uncontrolled physical sensation happening to the speaker.
tu mirada dice mil palabras your gaze speaks a thousand words
mirada (gaze/look) is a nominalised form derived from the verb mirar (to look). Spanish frequently turns verbs into nouns this way. mil palabras (a thousand words) is also a fixed hyperbolic expression for 'a great deal of meaning'.
te suplico que no salga el sol I beg you not to let the sun rise
suplicar que triggers the subjunctive in the following clause. After verbs of wishing, begging, or requesting, Spanish requires the subjunctive mood — here 'salga' (subjunctive of salir) rather than the indicative 'sale'.
la noche en la que the night in which / the night when
en la que is a relative clause construction: en + la (agreeing with la noche, feminine) + que. This is how Spanish forms relative clauses with prepositions — the preposition comes before the relative pronoun, unlike English where it can be dropped or placed at the end.
por dentro inside / on the inside
The fixed adverbial phrase por dentro means 'on the inside' or 'within'. Por here indicates location or perspective, not cause. Its opposite is por fuera (on the outside).
me 'tá enloqueciendo is driving me crazy
This is the periphrastic progressive construction estar + gerund (estar + -ando/-iendo), equivalent to English 'is -ing'. Here 'tá is a colloquial contraction of está, common in Caribbean Spanish and reggaeton lyrics.
me va saturando it's gradually overwhelming me
ir + gerund is a periphrastic construction expressing a gradual, progressive action — stronger than estar + gerund in implying a slow build-up. It translates as 'it's increasingly/gradually doing something'.
ya no puedo más I can't take it anymore
ya no + verb means 'no longer' or 'not anymore'. The phrase ya no puedo más is a fixed colloquial expression meaning 'I've reached my limit / I can't take any more'. ya alone can mean 'already', but ya no reverses it to 'no longer'.
mi cabeza está vacía my mind is blank / my head is empty
estar + adjective describes a temporary state in Spanish. Using estar (not ser) with vacía signals that the emptiness is a current condition, not a permanent characteristic. This ser vs. estar distinction is fundamental in Spanish.
vivir contigo to live with you
contigo is a special prepositional pronoun meaning 'with you (singular)'. Spanish has unique forms for 'with me' (conmigo) and 'with you' (contigo) that fuse the preposition con with the pronoun — they cannot be separated.
quiero estar contigo I want to be with you
querer + infinitive is a standard construction for expressing desire: 'to want to do something'. Note that querer can also mean 'to love' when used with a person as direct object (te quiero = I love you), but here it means 'to want'.
una noche loca a wild night
In Spanish, adjectives typically follow the noun they modify (noche loca, not loca noche). This post-noun placement is the default for descriptive adjectives, the opposite of English word order.
con tremenda nota with a tremendous vibe / feeling
nota literally means 'note' or 'grade/score', but in Latin American colloquial Spanish, especially in reggaeton, it is slang for 'vibe', 'feeling', or 'high'. con tremenda nota means something like 'with an incredible feeling/buzz'.
me llevas a otra dimensión you take me to another dimension
llevar a means 'to take (someone) to (a place)'. llevar is used for taking or carrying someone somewhere, while traer means to bring. The preposition a is required after llevar when indicating destination.
qué ironía del destino what an irony of fate
qué + noun (without an article) is the standard Spanish exclamatory structure equivalent to English 'what a...!' The article is dropped in exclamations: qué ironía = 'what an irony', not 'qué una ironía'.
no poder tocarte not being able to touch you
The infinitive poder (to be able to) is used here as a noun-like element after the implied ironía de. Attaching the clitic -te directly to the infinitive (tocarte) is standard Spanish — clitics attach to infinitives, gerunds, and affirmative imperatives.
sentir la magia de tu olor to feel the magic of your scent
sentir (to feel/sense) governs a direct object here. Note the construction noun + de + possessive (la magia de tu olor), which is how Spanish expresses 'the X of your Y' — the preposition de links the two nouns.

Vocabulary to learn from “Bailando”

The words the song uses most.

Verbs in the song, and the form being sung

Present tense for each; the highlighted row is the one you'll hear.

bailar dancing

bailar — present tense
yo bailo
tú bailas
él / ella / usted baila
nosotros bailamos
vosotros bailáis
ellos / ustedes bailan

poder I can / I am able

sung: puedo irregular
poder — present tense
yo puedo
tú puedes
él / ella / usted puede
nosotros podemos
vosotros podéis
ellos / ustedes pueden

estar is

sung: 'tá irregular
estar — present tense
yo estoy
tú estás
él / ella / usted está
nosotros estamos
vosotros estáis
ellos / ustedes están

subir rises / goes up

sung: sube
subir — present tense
yo subo
tú subes
él / ella / usted sube
nosotros subimos
vosotros subís
ellos / ustedes suben

bajar falling / going down

bajar — present tense
yo bajo
tú bajas
él / ella / usted baja
nosotros bajamos
vosotros bajáis
ellos / ustedes bajan

Grammar you'll meet in this song

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