I Want to Be a TikTok Star, from Spain with love

Desde España, con amor, y bye bye dolor (from Spain, with love, and bye bye pain). That little trio of lines in Spanish, slipped into the middle of a song in English, sums up the whole track: the urge to shine, the urge to leave the bad stuff behind and the urge to send a greeting to the whole world.

The lyrics start mid-thought, with a «but» that drops you right into a conversation that's already under way. There's a midnight room, soft rhythms, a little beat trying to blossom. It's the image of someone creating alone in their bedroom, phone propped on the shelf and ring light switched on, dreaming that what they make will go far.

And then the wish, said without shame, four times in a row: I want to be a TikTok star. I find its cheekiness funny. Lots of people think it and hardly anyone says it out loud. Here it's repeated until it becomes a mantra, like someone rehearsing in front of the mirror.

But there's a beautiful nuance in the last line of that verse: «but I keep shining from afar». Fame hasn't arrived yet and, even so, there's shine. That, for me, is the key. It's not about getting millions of followers, it's about not fading out in the meantime.

The Spanish part is a pure welcome party: up with muchachas and muchachos, garotas and garotos, todas and todes, internationals and Spaniards. An inclusive, multilingual greeting that feels very much like a town square, putting Brazil, Latin America, Europe and the neighbour downstairs into the same dance. I really like that gesture of opening the door to everyone.

The ending is a tick-tock. Tik tok star, tik tok star, tik tok... star. Like a clock, like the time that passes while you wait for your moment.

It's a song for recording something, even if it's just a silly dance in the kitchen. For those who upload videos that forty people watch and upload them anyway. For him, for her and for them, shining even if it's from afar.

The full lyrics are below. Listen on Spotify