Me gustas tú — Manu Chao (2001)

Why it's in this book

"Me gustas tú" comes in May, at the end of the year, next to "Someone You Loved". It is the only song in the book with the i–♭VII–iv loop: three chords, A minor, G and D minor in the class version, repeated from start to finish. Because the harmony never changes, all your attention can go somewhere else: the words. The lyrics are a list, and here you write your own list and speak it over the loop. In the room with no instruments, the skank goes in off-beat claps and the choir answers "¿qué voy a hacer?". In the ukulele room, the three chords with a reggae strum. In the music room, the whole band plays the skank.

Why this song

You have probably heard it without knowing who it was by: in a café, on a beach, on a summer playlist. In 2025 Dua Lipa sang it at a concert in Madrid, and that same year the Italian singer Alfa used its chorus in a new song that went to number 1 in Italy. Twenty-five years on, it is still around.

The question on this page is: can you build a whole song on three chords that never change? Here the answer is yes, and the trick is precisely that they don't change.

Historical context

Manu Chao was born in Paris in 1961 to Spanish parents. In the late eighties he started Mano Negra, a band that mixed punk, rock, rumba and reggae and sang in several languages. When the band split up, he travelled around Latin America with a recorder, collecting sounds and songs.

His solo music came out of that trip. "Me gustas tú" is on his second album, Próxima estación: Esperanza, from 2001. It came out as a single on 14 May 2001 and was number 1 in Spain until 11 June, almost a month.

Foto: Mikel González, CC BY-SA 2.5 es, vía Wikimedia Commons

Manu Chao in Gijón, Spain, in September 2001, the year of "Me gustas tú". Look at the band: drums, percussion, a trombone and a keyboard. On the record everything sounds much smaller.

The album works like a collage. There are radio voices, street noises and backing tracks that come back from one song to another. The backing music of "Me gustas tú" is the same as in two other songs on the album, "La primavera" and "Infinita tristeza". Manu Chao doesn't write a new backing for each song: he reuses the same one and puts new words on top.

Musical characteristics

A radio voice. The song opens with a voice giving the time, like a news bulletin. It comes from Radio Reloj, a Cuban station. It is a found sound, not a sung one: Manu Chao sticks it into the song the way you might stick a photo into a notebook.

Three chords on a loop. Underneath everything there are three chords: B minor, A and E minor. They repeat in that order from start to finish. A set of chords that comes round again and again is a chord loop. The verse and the chorus use exactly the same one. In scale degrees it is i–♭VII–iv: the first degree, the one a tone below it, and the fourth.

The missing beat. Listen to the guitar. It doesn't play when you clap on the beat, but right between two claps. Playing in that gap is called playing on the off-beat, and in reggae it has its own name: the skank. It gives the song its lazy sway.

Fast and slow at once. If you count every little tap of the percussion, you get a fast count of about 176 per minute. But your foot doesn't go that fast: it marks one in two, about 88. That's why the song seems to run and stroll at the same time.

A list instead of a story. The lyrics don't tell a story. They are a list of things he likes, and each round ends on the same idea: but it's you I like. When a phrase repeats the same way while everything else changes, it works like an ostinato made of words.

In class. The record is in B minor. In class we take it down a tone, to A minor: A minor, G and D minor, three easy ukulele chords. The melody also drops a tone and sits more comfortably for voices that are changing.

Hard facts: B minor, 4/4, 176 beats per minute in the fast count (88 at walking pace), 3:58. The form: radio voice at the start, list verses and chorus, all on the same three-chord loop.

Guided listening

Play the album version, the official audio. The music video is cut short.

At the very start, before he sings, listen to the voice giving the time. Does it sound sung, or recorded off the radio?

When the first verse comes in, clap on every beat. Now listen to the guitar: it plays in the gap between your claps. That is the skank.

During the verse, sing "B minor, A, E minor" in your head at each change. Check that the loop never breaks.

When the chorus arrives, notice the language. It switches to another language without the music changing.

At the end, ask yourself what has changed since the beginning. Not the chords. Look for what has: the voices, the effects, the sounds stuck on top.

Trivia and curiosities

• One backing, three songs. "Me gustas tú", "La primavera" and "Infinita tristeza" share the same backing music. On the album, one fades into the next. Proof that one loop can carry many different lyrics.

• Havana time. The voices at the start give the time in Havana and in San Salvador. They come from Radio Reloj, a Cuban station that broadcasts the time and the news non-stop.

• Filmed in Colombia. The music video was shot in Urrao, a town in Antioquia, Colombia. At the end the Spanish actress Paz Gómez dances in it.

• Twenty-five years later. In 2025 the Italian singer Alfa released "A me mi piace", featuring Manu Chao, which picks up the melody of the chorus. It went to number 1 in Italy, just like the original in 2001.

Classroom activities

• The skank in your body. In the room with no instruments: feet mark the slow beat and hands clap in the gap, on the off-beat. When it works, play the song and check that your claps line up with the guitar.

• Three chords, non-stop. Ukulele: A minor, G, D minor, over and over. First, a downstroke on every beat. Then only on the off-beat, muting the strings with your palm between strokes.

• Your list. In groups of four, write a list of eight things you like, one per line, and close every two lines with the same phrase. Speak it, with no melody, over the loop.

• Answering choir. While one group speaks its list, everyone else answers with the "¿qué voy a hacer?" chorus at the end of each round.

• Band. In the music room: drums and bass keep the slow beat, electric guitar and keyboard play the skank, and everyone else stays on ukulele. The spoken list goes on top.

Key vocabulary

• Chord loop — bucle armónico
• Off-beat — contratiempo: in the gap between two beats
• Skank — skank: the off-beat guitar stroke of reggae
• Ostinato — ostinato: something repeated the same way again and again

Resources

Official music video — Filmed in Urrao, Colombia. It is a shortened version of the song.

Official audio — The full album version, with the radio voice at the start. Use this one for the guided listening.

Ukulele tutorial — 100 Lecciones de Ukelele, in Spanish. An easy version.

Guitar tutorial — Karma Guitar, in Spanish. An easy version for beginners.

Piano tutorial — PHianonize. An easy version.

Drums — FaAaBNorriS. A drum version over the recording.