November 3, 2024

Pedro Pedro Pedro: Why I am Obsessed with the Argentine Version

By In Random Thoughts

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I AM OBSESSED WITH PEDRO PEDRO PEDRO BY RAFFAELLA CARRÀ. But not the 2024 remix of the Italian version famous for having a raccoon dancing to it. I mean the original Spanish version that Raffaella Carrà produced in the 1980s. I listen to it every day, usually multiple times per day. And I love the music video so much.

Yet the song went viral due to a raccoon and a 2024 remix from a couple of Europeans based on the Italian-version of the song. And most of the Internet talks about this version. Instead, I want to talk about the Spanish-language version by Carrà from the 1980s. That is what I love, and it is rarely spoken about.

What is Pedro Pedro Pedro?

The world-famous Italian Raffaella Carrà originally performed the song in 1980. Simply titled “Pedro,” Carrà originally sang the song in Italian and Spanish. However, its success in 1980 was limited. It only reached a high level of success in Carrà’s native Italy, and that is about it. Carrà herself was quite popular in Europe and Latin America at this time, akin to Madonna in the United States. But the song was just one of her many hits, and there was nothing particularly special about it.

That changed in 2024 when Germans Jaxomy and Agatino Romero released a remixed version of the Italian-version of the song. The remixed version—designed for dance parties with a faster beat—exploded in popularity when it was paired with a dancing raccoon and uploaded to YouTube. The dancing raccoon version had nothing to do with Jaxomy, Romero, or Carrà. It was just a random YouTuber who made the raccoon video.

The raccoon version of the song is the 2024 remix by Jaxomy and Romero.

The 2024 version had far greater success in a much shorter time than Carrà’s original version. It went viral worldwide and reached the top 100 charts in many countries. For example, it reached 8th position on the US Billboard Dance/Electronica chart. The song sold over 300,000 copies in Germany and over 150,000 copies in Poland. More importantly, it brought fame to Carrà for a generation of youngsters – Millenials and Gen Zers – that would have never known Carrà.

How did I discover this song?

Unlike everyone else, I did not discover this song because of the cute raccoon video. Instead, I found it through soccer – fútbol – YouTube shorts. As I mentioned in my Asunción blog post, Kevin and I stayed in Asunción in the summer of 2024. While there, we watched a lot of fútbol on TV and YouTube as several international tournaments simultaneously occurred. This included one channel whose YouTube shorts showed soccer clips while the 2024 remix version played.

Argentina loves fútbol, as shown in this mural from Córdoba, Argentina. I watched many games in the summer of 2024 with Julián Álvarez, the guy on the left.

At first, I thought it was funny, but I didn’t think anything more. But then we arrived in Buenos Aires, and Kevin stumbled upon the song’s original version on YouTube. It blew my mind. Not did it open the world of Raffaella Carrà to me, but the Carrà’s Spanish-version music video was filmed in Buenos Aires – where we just arrived! And as I listened to the song more, not only did I become more enamored with it, but I thought it was superior to both Carrà’s Italian version and the 2024 remix.

The original music video by Carrà in 1980 was filmed in Buenos Aires.

The Meaning and Lyrics of Pedro Pedro Pedro

One of the reasons I love this song is because it tells a story about traveling to Latin America, specifically Argentina. Furthermore, the story is easily relatable and is upbeat, not sad. Also, for a gringo, I feel the lyrics are easily understood, unlike many Spanish songs.

Below, I write the Spanish lyrics, along with my English translation and interpretation. Note that my English translation is not word-for-word but slightly tweaked as to how I feel the song in English would sound. Thus, the English transaction is probably slightly different from what you see on other sites. Furthermore, the Italian version has somewhat different lyrics; my translation and interpretation are only for the Spanish version (for best viewing, turn your phone horizontal).

Spanish Lyrics (Letras en español)English TranslationEnglish Interpretation
Yo paseaba sola por las calles
Sacando fotos a los monumentos
La típica extranjera con un aire extraño
Que recorre entera toda la ciudad
I was walking alone on the street
Taking photos of the sights
The typical foreigner with a foreign vibe
Touring the entire city
This is easily relatable to any tourist. You are sightseeing around town, clearly a foreigner to the locals.
De pronto y a la vuelta de una esquina
Me llama suavemente un muchachito
Con cara de inocente y aire formalito
Se ofrece como guía para la ciudad
Suddenly, around the corner
a young man calls to me softly
With an innocent (boyish) face but formal disposition
And offers to be my guide for the city
On the one hand, it is a very sweet event. A guy sees a beautiful lady, calls to her, and innocently offers to be her guide. In 2024, this could also be interpreted as the start of a scam – stranger danger!
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, ¡Pe!
El mejor de toda Santa Fe
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, ¡Pe!
Te lo demostraré
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, P.
The best of all of Santa Fe
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, P.
I will show him to you
The chorus is one of my favorite parts of the song. It is very upbeat and just full of fun. Carrà emphasizes that Pedro is the best tour guide in Santa Fe, and she will tell us why (probably a better interpretation of the last sentence – demostraré is literally I will demonstrate).
Menudo formalito el muchachito
Menudas cosas aprendí con él
Me conozco de memoria las estrellas
He visto todo, menos Santa Fe
What a formal young man he is
I learned so many little things from him
I know the top sights by memory
I have seen it all, except Santa Fe
Lyrically, I love this part of the song. Carrà just told us Pedro is the best tour guide in Santa Fe previously. Yet the one thing she hasn’t seen – Santa Fe – is his whole value proposition of being a tour guide!

Also, all websites translate the third sentence to “I know the stars by memory”, since estrella means star in Spanish. But I feel she means stars as in the star attractions while sightseeing, not literal stars – unless Carrà and Pedro are fascinated with constellations?
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, ¡Pe!
El mejor de toda Santa Fe
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, ¡Pe!
¡Menudo Pedro, Pe!
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, P.
The best of all of Santa Fe
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, P.
Oh Pedro, P.!
The chorus again. Note that the lyrics say Pe at the end of lines two and four. While this is probably just for musical reasons to keep the tempo, Pe also is the verbal way to say the letter P in Spanish. In other words, the tour guide’s last name could start with a P. Thus, Carrà calls him Pedro P. to distinguish him from other tour guides named Pedro.
Que dulcemente baila Pedro-Pedro
Sin duda, es el mejor de Santa Fe
Las mujeres se lo comen con los ojos
Pero él siempre conmigo y yo con él
How nicely Pedro dances
Without a doubt, the best in Santa Fe
The women devour him with their eyes
But he’s always with me and me with him
Not only is Pedro is a wonderful tour guide, he can dance as well. Carrà also notes that Pedro gets looks from all the women, but he remains loyal to Carrà. Handsome, knowledgable, loyal, and a dancer – what a hunk!
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, ¡Pe!
El mejor de toda Santa Fe
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, ¡Pe!
¡Qué dulce Pedro, Pe!
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, P.
The best of all of Santa Fe
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, P.
Sweet Pedro P.!
The chorus again.
Estoy enamorada locamente
Estoy tan trastornada que no sé
Me ha embrujado con sus ojos de chiquillo
Me ha dado lo mejor de lo mejor
I am crazy in love
I am so twisted inside that I don’t know
He’s won me over with his boyish eyes
He’s give me the best of the best
Carrà admits that she is smitten with Pedro. She is physically attracted to him and has had the best time with him. But she also knows this won’t last forever, which is why she feels confused.

Also, to show how much she loves Pedro, Carrà uses the verb embrujarse in the third line. Many websites translate this to be enchanted with, while I translate it more to Pedro won her over. But in Spanish, embrujarse literally means to cast a spell, showing the strength of Carrà’s attraction to Pedro.
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, ¡Pe!
El mejor de toda Santa Fe
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, ¡Pe!
¡Bendito Pedro, Pe!
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, P.
The best of all of Santa Fe
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, P.
Bless you Pedro P.!
The chorus. All the websites translate Bendito Pedro to Blessed Pedro, but in English, I feel we would say Bless You Pedro instead (and not because he sneezed).
Se acaban mis pequeñas vacaciones
Me tengo que marchar de Santa Fe
Mi cuerpo nuevamente vuelve a casa
Mi corazón se queda en Pedro, Pe
My short vacation is over
I have to leave Santa Fe
My body will return home
But my heart remains with Pedro P.
Carrà expresses the heartbreak of leaving what has been a magical vacation for her. She notes that while she may have to return physically home, her heart will always be with Pedro.
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, ¡Pe!
El mejor de toda Santa Fe
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, ¡Pe!
Jamás te olvidaré
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, P.
The best of all of Santa Fe
Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, Pedro, P.
I will never forget you!
Note the last line of this chorus: Jamás te olvidaré. In Spanish, both jamás and nunca mean never. But jamás is way stronger than nunca, meaning Pedro’s impact on Carrà is everlasting.

My Interpretation of the Lyrics

As you can see, I love the lyrics. It is very easy for me to understand in Spanish, and the story could happen to any tourist. While the ending could be interpreted as sad – Carrà has to leave Pedro – I look at it differently. Pedro has shown and taught her lots of things – except downtown Santa Fe – and they danced and hung out (some websites point out that they may have done more than dancing and hanging out). Carrà has had a fantastic time on her vacation, thanks to Pedro, which is what we all want from our vacations. And while the actual event of leaving Pedro is heartbreaking, as Carrà notes, Pedro’s memories will always be with her.

Thus, overall, I feel the lyrics and song are upbeat and full of life.

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The 1980 Music Video of Pedro, Pedro, Pedro

What makes the song even more fun for me is the music video from 1980. I remember the first time I watched it. It was in Buenos Aires in the summer of 2024. Kevin found the video for me on YouTube. He sent it to me, and I was mesmerized. I can’t stop watching the music video because it is so much fun.

First, Carrà is so high-class in the video, and I adore high-class stuff. She is walking around in a tight red dress, cut on one side so most of her legs are showing. Along with her red heels – highlighted in the first part of the video, no doubt on purpose – Carrà isn’t walking around with a foreign disposition – she is walking around with an exotic, romantic vibe. No wonder why Pedro wants to take her out.

Pedro watching Carrà strut her stuff.

The guys dancing in the outrageously crazy and colorful suits are amazing. If you had me guess what the music video would look like solely based on the lyrics of the song, I would have guessed that the music video would be Carrà and a tall, good-looking guy touring the city throughout the video. Very cliché, very meh. But instead, Carrà is dancing with several guys in the video, all wearing tight orange and red leotards and red suit jackets. Campy, silly, and high-class all at the same time. And the hats send it over the top!

I also love the bystanders throughout the video. There are several old ladies present in the video that look incredibly bored and tired, presenting a serious yet comical relief to the upbeat, campy style of the video. These old ladies probably represent what the actual feeling of Argentines during the 1980s (or even 2024) were like. The young kids towards the end aren’t noteworthy except for the one kid who stares into the camera. I’m sure that wasn’t on purpose by the director, making me think the kid knew what he was doing and wanted the camera time.

Who wouldn’t love to be that old woman sitting in the middle?

Overall, the music video is full of joy and campy dancing; it is just lighthearted to watch, especially when the song is so catchy.

Where is Santa Fe?

Besides loving the song and the music video, I also felt a weirdly personal connection to this song. I discovered the song while in Paraguay but didn’t discover the 1980 original music video until we were in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Santa Fe in the song most likely references Santa Fe, Argentina, a city a few hours north of Buenos Aires.

However, to be clear, the song never specifically states Santa Fe, Argentina. It could be Santa Fe, New Mexico for all we know! But almost certainly it is the Argentine city as it is by far the largest Santa Fe city. Furthermore, Carrà visited Santa Fe, Argentina in 1979, a year before the song was released. I don’t know if this has anything to do specifically with the song, but an interesting note. This article discusses this visit and has several newspaper clippings from Santa Fe in 1979.

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Nonetheless, it is unclear to me why she chose to sing about Santa Fe. Lyrically, it rhymes with Pe, which is repeated in the chorus and is the first syllable of the name Pedro. Santa Fe is also three syllables, which could have made the lyrics easier to stay on beat than the four-syllables in Buenos Aires and Rosario, assuming she wanted to sing about Argentina. Córdoba – Argentina’s second-largest city – has three syllables, but in Spanish, the emphasis is on the first syllable. You need to emphasize the last syllable to make it rhyme correctly.

Or perhaps she discovered a real-life Pedro in 1979 on her visit to Santa Fe. The meeting profoundly impacted her life – much like her character in the song – and she wanted to express her memories of the trip. Carrà was never married, and her relationship with long-time boyfriend Gianni Boncompagni ended in 1980. Thus, perhaps Pedro led to Carrà’s romantic reawakening?

Or is it Avenida Santa Fe?

There is an alternate theory that Carrà is actually singing about Avenida Santa Fe in Buenos Aires, not the City of Santa Fe in northern Argentina. Why would this alternate theory exist?

First, let’s talk about Avenida Santa Fe. Avenida Santa Fe is a major street in Buenos Aires, akin to Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles. The street is home to an incredible amount of shops, restaurants, businesses, and apartments above. Several Subte stations – Buenos Aires’ subway – adorn Avenida Santa Fe. Furthermore, the street connects downtown Buenos Aires to Recoleta and Palermo, some of Buenos Aires’ ritziest neighborhoods.

Avenida Santa Fe in Recoleta, Buenos Aires, in 2024.

How does this relate to Carrà? It turns out that Avenida Santa Fe was the gay hotspot of Buenos Aires in the 1970s and 1980s. Carrà supported LGBT rights way before it was trendy, which makes me love her even more. I have read an interpretation that Carrà specifically sung about Santa Fe to signal to her LGBT fans she supports them. (You can read more about Avenida Santa Fe Gay in the 1990s at this site, and also, you can read the Spanish-language book Busco Similar about the experiences of living as a gay man in Buenos Aires during this time.)

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Additionally, after watching the music video, I can see why this theory exists. The music video is very campy, which is a symbol of gay culture. The men in the video are not the masculine, amorous lovers that one would expect, but instead, dancers wearing red and pink leotards. The music video was filmed in San Telmo, a neighborhood of Buenos Aires, instead of Santa Fe, Argentina. And finally, perhaps that is why Carrà never saw Avenida Santa Fe – she was too busy seeing the rest of Buenos Aires.

This Google Street View image shot in 2021 shows the building where the end scene was filmed, starting at minute 3:02 of the song (click play below).

As much as I would love for this theory to be true, I highly doubt it. It would be weird for Carrà to travel to Buenos Aires to come visit a specific street, especially one known for gay men. And if it was about Avenida Santa Fe, then probably Pedro was gay himself. Meaning that their relationship was platonic, not romantic. But if true, perhaps that is why Carrà is so “twisted” towards the song’s end. She is in love with Pedro, but alas, Pedro cannot love her back.

Final Thoughts on Pedro, Pedro, Pedro

I love the song’s beat, lyrics, and music video. It is high-class yet campy, romantic yet realistic, clearly from the 1980s yet popular in 2024. But most importantly, I chose to write about it because of the personal connection I felt to the song. At its core, it is about having a fantastic vacation, and our blog is all about traveling. I love traveling because of the amazing experiences it opens me up to. And that this song is about Buenos Aires and is sung in Spanish just further cements the personal connection I felt. After all, we have spent almost two years traveling around Latin America – including Argentina. We may have physically left Argentina, but my memory of discovering this song will remain in Buenos Aires.

The intersection of Avenida Santa Fe and Avenida Callao in Recoleta, Buenos Aires in 2024. Carrà probably would only barely recognize it.

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2 Comments
  1. DA November 3, 2024

    This was a really fun video to watch!!!! And Raffaella Carrá’s birthday is June 18th, the day before my birthday, so she is a magnificent person! 😀 I’m really glad that you did the translation and the meaning of the song, so I understood what she was singing about. The old ladies and background people sitting there, still, just staring, blank looks on their faces, is really funny! I can see your attraction to this song. It’s a fun song!

    Reply
  2. DA November 3, 2024

    I watched both version of the song, and I like her original version a whole lot better than the new remixed version. I like seeing her singing and dancing, and all the dancers in the background and the sights and the people there. That remixed version is borderline-annoying to me, because it’s just that raccoon looking down in the hole (the purpose of it being a raccoon looking down in a hole is bewildering; it has nothing to do with the story in the song). They could’ve put a cabbage in a dish on the counter, for the same effect.

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