¡Arriba los Latinos! - Argentina y Ecuador

We continue our series on the FIFA World Cup. Two Latin American countries fought themselves into the next round with heroic victories, Argentina and Ecuador.

I have a bit of trouble finding songs that are hot in Ecuador now, so here's a nice song from a couple of years ago. "Sueña" by Gerardo is a hiphop track, but even if you don't like rap you should listen to this. It's a very pure and melodic song. No beats, no samples: just an acoustic guitar, Gerardo, and appartenly a young priest doing the backing vocals. And it's got an encouraging message:

Cuando digan que no vales, no sigue no mas
no cambies tu rumbo y dale
no mires atras
que cuidandote yo estare ... sueña

Freely translated: never give up, keep on going and don't look back. The video is a nice portrait of the people of Ecuador. Wikipedia reports that Gerardo is a record executive now, well I hope he still keeps on writing songs like this!

Gustavo Cerati and Babasonicos are dominating the charts in Argentina (and my iPod as well, actually). But the young pop trio Airbag (yes, it's a stupid name) are getting some radio attention too, with their feelgood summer song "Amor de Verano". I have to admit I didn't like the song at first, it sounds a bit too produced (especially the tone change at the end). But the chorus is so contagious you will be singing "Siiiiiiii, solo eso fueee" all day long for the next three months. Be warned! :)

(Again thanks to Lien for the info on Ecuador!)

Gerardo - Sueña mp3 video lyrics buy@iTunes
Airbag - Amor de Verano mp3 lyrics