Llorarás
Oscar D'León & Dimensión Latina · 1974 · written by Oscar D'León, from the album Dimensión Latina '75
She wouldn't let him love her, and now he's the one laughing: a breakup warning sung with a grin, and Oscar D'León's most famous song.
The story
1.She didn't want him
The singer knows it: she never wanted him to love her, and she kept him at a distance.
2.The prediction
So he tells her what's coming. She'll cry and cry, with no one to comfort her, and she'll learn how much it hurts to be deceived.
3.Too late
Afterwards she'll come back asking him to forgive her. By then his heart won't even remember her.
4.The tables turn
Now he's the one laughing, living his life the way he wants.
Key phrases
- “Llorarás y llorarás sin alguien que te consuele”You'll cry and cry, with no one to comfort youThe future tense, llorarás, “you will cry”, makes it a prediction, almost a curse. It's the title and the hook everyone sings.
- “si te engañan duele”It hurts when you're deceivedEngañar is to deceive, and in love songs, to cheat on someone. She'll find out how it feels.
- “Ahora el que ríe soy yo”Now I'm the one laughingThe tables have turned. It echoes the proverb el que ríe último ríe mejor, “he who laughs last laughs best”.
- “Mi vida como yo quiera”My life the way I want itHe's free now, and he's making sure she knows.
Context
Oscar D'León, born in Caracas in 1943, played bass and sang in Dimensión Latina, a band formed in Caracas in 1972 with trombones instead of trumpets in its horn section.
He wrote Llorarás quickly, in the Antímano neighborhood of Caracas, to fill out the band's album Dimensión Latina '75, which came out in 1974. The song meant as filler became their best-selling single and the most famous song of his career.
On the dance floor
Short, bright and bouncy, under four minutes, with the trombones out front. It's one of the easiest classics to dance to.
The coro keeps coming back with “llorarás”, and D'León answers it. Let the energy build with each round.
This is our own retelling of the song, not its lyrics or a translation of them: the few short phrases quoted are there to explain what they mean. The song belongs to its writer, Oscar D'León.