Nada by Cali y El Dandee and Danna Paola

Published by Lyrical Language on April 16, 2021April 16, 2021

This song came as a request. “Nada” is a non-album single by Colombian duo Cali y Dandee and Mexican singer Danna Paola. It was released in August of 2020.

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Activities

About the Artists

Cali y El Dandee

Cali & El Dandee are a duo from Colombia, made up of brothers Alejandro Rengifo (Cali) and Mauricio Rengifo (Dandee). They started their musical career together in 2008. They released their debut album 3 A.M. in July of 2012. Their most successful singles were “Por Fin Te Encontré” and “Yo Te Esperaré”, which have received more than 800 million and 370 million views respectively on YouTube. In 2012they collaborated with Spanish singer David Bisbal on the single “No hay 2 sin 3, which was the Spanish official anthem for Euro 2012. Aside from singing, Dandee is also a producer, who co-produced Louis Fonsi’s hit “Despacito”.

Biographical information from Wikipedia.

Danna Paola

Danna Paola Rivera Munguía is an actress, singer and model from Mexico City, Mexico. Her career began in acting in 1999 at age 4 when she appeared in several episodes of Plaza Sésamo, the Mexican version of Sesame Street. Her first lead role came in 2001 in the children’s telenovela, María Belén. That year she also released her debut album Mi Globo Azul. She continued acting in telenovelas and released two additional albums throughout her childhood and adolescence. In 2012 she released her first “grown-up” album, entitled Danna Paola. The album’s lead single “Ruleta”, written by Mexican pop singer Paty Cantú, reached number 32 on the Top Mexican Airplay chart. From October 2013 until January 2015 she played the role of Elphaba in the first Spanish-language production of the Broadway musical Wicked, in Mexico City. The production was one of the most successful productions in Mexico’s history, breaking a box office record by selling more the 100,000 tickets in its first 10 weeks.

Biographical information from Wikipedia.

Cultural References, Idioms and Explanations

‘de la nada’ – Literally translating as ‘out of nothing’, this phrase means ‘out of nowhere’ or ‘out of the blue’.

‘volver a hacer’ – Translating literally as ‘to return to do’, this phrase means ‘to do again’.

‘hacer como’ – As one would expect from the literal translation of ‘to do like’ or ‘to make like’, this phrase means ‘be like’, ‘make like’ or ‘imitate’.

‘enamorarse’ – The verb ‘enamorar’ is one of a number of verbs that change meaning when made pronominal/reflexive. ‘Enamorar’ means ‘to win s.o.’s heart’ or ‘to win s.o.’s love’. ‘Enamorarse’ means ‘to fall in love’.

‘soñarse’ – While the verb ‘soñar’ is not a pronominal verb, you will notice that in this song it nonetheless appears as ‘me soñaba’. While this is incorrect usage according to the RAE (Real Academia Española), it is common colloquial usage in some areas.

‘ir a’ – The verb ‘ir’ means ‘to go’. As in English, when this verb is used with a place, it implies movement towards that place. But when it is used with another verb it implies that that action will be performed in the future. For example ‘voy a la tienda’ (I am going to the store) vs ‘voy a comer’ (I am going to eat).

‘enterarse de’ – The verb ‘enterar’ is another of the verbs that change meaning when made pronominal/reflexive. ‘Enterar’ means ‘to inform’, ‘to tell’, ‘to notify’ or ‘to advise’. ‘Enterarse’ means ‘to notice’, ‘to realize, ‘to see’, ‘to find out’ or ‘to discover’.

‘dormirse’ – The verb ‘dormir’ is another of the verbs that change meaning when made pronominal/reflexive. ‘Dormir’ means ‘to sleep’, ‘to spend the night’ or ‘to put to sleep’. ‘Dormirse’ means ‘to fall asleep’, ‘to drift off’, ‘to nod off’, ‘to get lazy’ or ‘to get careless’.

‘te duele la cabeza’ – This is an example of how one speaks of pain in a body part in Spanish. The literal translation would be ‘the [body part] is hurting to me’, where the body part is the subject of the sentence and the recipient of the pain is an indirect object.

‘dar por’ – This phrase doesn’t really have any direct translation for the usage that we see in this song. The best way I can think to explain it is that it is used when an outside influence is causing the reaction or emotion. The example in this song is ‘Aunque cuando tomo me da por llamarte’ meaning ‘Even though when I drink it makes me want to call you’. Drinking is the outside influence acting on the singer’s emotions, causing them to want to call the other person.

‘lo que’ – Literally translating as ‘it that’, this phrase better translates as ‘what’, ‘whatever’, or ‘which’.

‘la que’ and ‘el que’ – Literally translating as ‘the that’, these phrases mean ‘the one who/that’ or ‘the person who/that’. ‘La’ is used for females and ‘el’ is used for males.

Activities

We’ve created flashcards, games, and exercises to practice vocabulary and grammatical concepts found in this song. Check out our Activities Page to take your learning further!

Song Lyrics with Grammatical Breakdown

Mouse over a term for grammatical information. A chart of the terms and grammatical information can be found here.

Nada

[Intro]

[Chorus]

[Post-Chorus]

[Verse 1]

[Verse 2]

[Chorus]

[Post-Chorus]

Lyrics with Translation

Songs in any language often leave room for multiple interpretations. Following is my interpretation of the song lyrics.

Nada
Nothing

[Intro]
Si yo te di todo y me diste nada
If I gave you everything and you gave me nothing
¿Por qué de la nada vuelves a aparecer?
Why do you show up again out of nowhere?
Haciendo como si nada ha pasado
Acting as if nothing has happened
Devuelves el pasado y me vuelve a doler
You bring back the past and it hurts me again
Lloré en silencio, nunca dije nada
I cried silently, I never said anything
Pero nadando en lágrimas, casi me ahogué
But swimming in tears, I almost drowned
Me enamoré de lo que me soñaba y desperté
I fell in love with what I was dreaming of and woke up

[Chorus]
Pero yo aprendí a olvidarte
But I learned to forget you
Porque aprendí que el amor nunca se comparte
Because I learned that love is never shared
Y fuiste tú el que lo buscaste en otra parte
And it was you who looked for it elsewhere
Tú vas a extrañarme, tú vas a extrañarme
You’re going to miss me, you’re going to miss me
Ahora lloras
Now you’re crying
Y fue tu culpa, tú me dejaste sola
And it was your fault, you left me alone

[Post-Chorus]
Sola, sola
Alone, alone
Sola, sola
Alone, alone
Y fue tu culpa, tú me dejaste sola
And it was your fault, you left me alone
Sola, sola
Alone, alone
Sola, sola
Alone, alone
Y fue tu culpa, tú me dejaste sola
And it was your fault, you left me alone

[Verse 1]
No te dejé sola, nos dejaste tú
I didn’t leave you alone, you left us
Y hoy con tu mentira vivo un déjà vu
And now with your lie I’m living a déjà vu
Que no me hayas visto no es que no lloré
Because you haven’t seen me isn’t that I haven’t cried
No quería que vieras y apagué la luz
I didn’t want you to see and I turned off the light
Te diré
I’ll tell you
Que hoy me huele a engaño hasta tu perfume
That now even your perfume smells like a trick
Y hace más de un año que yo me enteré
And it was more than a year ago that I realized
Cuánto me ha dolido, no te mentiré
How much it hurt me, I won’t lie to you

[Verse 2]
Antes tú eras la que me besa
Before you were the one who kissed me
Ahora te duele la cabeza
Now your head hurts
Si antes teníamos mil sueño’
If before we had a thousand dreams
Ahora por sueño te dormiste, qué sorpresa
Now you fall asleep from sleepiness, what a surprise
Y da tristeza
And it makes you sad
Que si este amor murió, lo mataste tú
That if this love died, you killed it
Pero mientra’ lo ves morir solo bostezas
But while you see it dying, you just yawn
Y ahora es demasiado tarde
And now it’s too late
No digas que fui yo, no seas cobarde
Don’t say it was me, don’t be a coward
El alcohol en mis heridas ya no arde
The alcohol in my wounds doesn’t burn anymore
Aunque cuando tomo me da por llamarte
Even though when I drink it makes me want to call you

Grammatical Concepts Used in this Song

Demonstrative Adjectives:
- Que si este amor murió, lo mataste tú

Possessive Adjectives:
- Y fue tu culpa, tú me dejaste sola
- Y hoy con tu mentira vivo un déjà vu
- Que hoy me huele a engaño hasta tu perfume
- El alcohol en mis heridas ya no arde

Object Pronouns:
- Si yo te di todo y me diste nada
- No te dejé sola, nos dejaste tú
- Te diré
- Cuánto me ha dolido, no te mentiré
- Ahora te duele la cabeza
- Devuelves el pasado y me vuelve a doler
- Y fue tu culpa, tú me dejaste sola
- Que no me hayas visto no es que no lloré
- Que hoy me huele a engaño hasta tu perfume
- Antes tú eras la que me besa
- Aunque cuando tomo me da por llamarte
- Pero yo aprendí a olvidarte
- Tú vas a extrañarme, tú vas a extrañarme
- Me enamoré de lo que me soñaba y desperté
- Y fuiste tú el que lo buscaste en otra parte
- Que si este amor murió, lo mataste tú
- Pero mientra’ lo ves morir solo bostezas

Irregular Verbs:
- Ser:
  - Que no me hayas visto no es que no lloré
  - Y ahora es demasiado tarde
- Dar:
  - Y da tristeza
  - Aunque cuando tomo me da por llamarte
- Ver:
  - Pero mientra’ lo ves morir solo bostezas
Stem-Changing:
- Volver and devolver (o > ue):
  - ¿Por qué de la nada vuelves a aparecer?
  - Devuelves el pasado y me vuelve a doler
- Oler (o > hue):
  - Que hoy me huele a engaño hasta tu perfume
- Doler (o > ue):
  - Ahora te duele la cabeza

Near Future (ir a + infin):
- Tú vas a extrañarme, tú vas a extrañarme

Gerund:
- Haciendo como si nada ha pasado
- Pero nadando en lágrimas, casi me ahogué

Preterite Perfect:
- Haciendo como si nada ha pasado
- Cuánto me ha dolido, no te mentiré
Subjunctive Preterite Perfect:
- Que no me hayas visto no es que no lloré

Reflexive / Pronominal:
- Reflexive:
  - Ahora por sueño te dormiste, qué sorpresa
  - Pero nadando en lágrimas, casi me ahogué
  - Me enamoré de lo que me soñaba y desperté
- Passive ‘se’:
  - Porque aprendí que el amor nunca se comparte

Imperative:
- No digas que fui yo, no seas cobarde

Preterite:
- Si yo te di todo y me diste nada
- Lloré en silencio, nunca dije nada
- Que no me hayas visto no es que no lloré
- Pero nadando en lágrimas, casi me ahogué
- Me enamoré de lo que me soñaba y desperté
- Pero yo aprendí a olvidarte
- Porque aprendí que el amor nunca se comparte
- Y fuiste tú el que lo buscaste en otra parte
- Y fue tu culpa, tú me dejaste sola
- No te dejé sola, nos dejaste tú
- No quería que vieras y apagué la luz
- Y hace más de un año que yo me enteré
- Ahora por sueño te dormiste, qué sorpresa
- Que si este amor murió, lo mataste tú
- No digas que fui yo, no seas cobarde

Imperfect:
- Me enamoré de lo que me soñaba y desperté
- No quería que vieras y apagué la luz
- Antes tú eras la que me besa
- Si antes teníamos mil sueño’

Future:
- Te diré
- Cuánto me ha dolido, no te mentiré

Imperfect Subjunctive:
- No quería que vieras y apagué la luz

Nada by Cali y El Dandee and Danna Paola

About the Artists

Cali y El Dandee

Danna Paola

Cultural References, Idioms and Explanations

Activities

Song Lyrics with Grammatical Breakdown

Lyrics with Translation

Grammatical Concepts Used in this Song

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Nada by Cali y El Dandee and Danna Paola

About the Artists

Cali y El Dandee

Danna Paola

Cultural References, Idioms and Explanations

Activities

Song Lyrics with Grammatical Breakdown

Lyrics with Translation

Grammatical Concepts Used in this Song

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