Tengo argumento: it tastes of María, but not the one you're thinking of

I like it, it's tasty, it tastes of María. Three short sentences, almost like an advert, and the guessing game that is Tengo argumento (I've Got Substance) begins.

The fun lies in everything María is not. She's not María Fontaneda, of the classic biscuits. She's María de la O, but not the copla star. She's not María the religious one. She's María the powerful, the exuberant, the important. María, my lover. The lyrics rule out Marías like someone flipping through index cards, and each rejection is a little cultural joke: the afternoon snack, the copla, the holy card. What remains in the end is a resounding presence about which nobody ever says exactly what it is.

And I'm not going to be the one to clear it up here. Let everyone interpret their own María. What the lyrics do tell is the consequence: the protagonist was going to marry his boyfriend of twenty years, but the boyfriend didn't want a threesome with María. So he told him to get lost, and that way they spared themselves disappointments. It strikes me as one of the most absurd and at the same time most logical break-ups in my whole repertoire: twenty years of relationship, lost for not wanting to share.

The title has its own wink. Rica, rica y con fundamento (tasty, tasty and with substance) is one of those TV-chef catchphrases all of Spain carries in its head, and the song turns it around with a play on words: tengo argumento, I've got an argument. The argument is María, of course. And it's irrefutable.

Deep down, it defends the freedom to choose what makes you happy even if it doesn't fit the plan. Some choose the wedding and some choose María. There's no need to give explanations; it's enough to have an argument.

The structure is circular, almost hypnotic: the María chorus comes back again and again, like someone who can't stop thinking about something they really like. It's catchy on purpose.

Dedicate it to someone who has their own María, whatever it may be. And listen to it unhurriedly, with something tasty nearby.

The full lyrics are below. Listen on Spotify