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The Macarena is an aspect of the Virgin Mary recognized
in Andalusia, Spain. It's the title given to Nuestra
Señora de la Esperanza (Our Lady of Hope),
in Seville.
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It's also the name of a neighbourhood in Seville
and a common first name for Andalusian women.
*
Macarena is also a song by Los del Río,
about a woman so called. It was originally released
in 1993, as a new flamenco rumba pop fusion theme
with fully Spanish lyrics, with a significant
success in Spain. After being remixed by the Bayside
Boys and having English lyrics added, it became
a worldwide summer hit in 1996. It was associated
with a distinctive fast dance. The song originally
had no dance, until a Venezuelan Flamenco instructor
created it for her class to dance to, and it eventually
caught on with the rest of the world. During its
heyday, it was played incessantly at professional
athletic games, rallies, the United States Democratic
Party's National Convention, and other places.
The Macarena remained popular through 1996, but
by the end of 1997, its popularity had diminished
greatly.
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The Macarena dance is performed in time with the
refrain of the song. To perform the dance, one
places one's arms out, palm down, right arm, then
left arm. Then the dancer turns his arms over,
right, then left. The dancer puts his hands on
his shoulders, first right hand on left shoulder,
then left on right. Then the dancer puts his hands
on his head, again right, then left. The dancer
then places his arms on his hips, right hand on
left hip, then left on right, places the hands
on their respective hips, right then left, and
finishes with a pelvic rotation in time with the
line "Hey Macarena!" Then the dancer
turns 90 degrees
clockwise and repeats the same motions throughout the whole
song. An alternative version of the dance replaces
the pelvic rotation with a series of pelvic thrusts,
as shown in the video for Los del Mar's recording
of the song.
In VH1's documentary 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders Macarena
was ranked as number one.
On a different VH1 documentary, titled 40 Awesomely Bad No.
1 Songs, Macarena was ranked as number one
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