Resistiré — Dúo Dinámico (1988)

Why it's in this book

"Resistiré" is May's second song, next to "Someone You Loved". Both are big anthems with a chorus everybody sings, and your parents know this one as well as you do. It's here for its chorus: you can trim it so it stays in the comfortable zone of breaking voices, and it calls for thirds right on the title word. An honest warning: it doesn't share a loop with "Someone You Loved". The record is in minor, and its chorus moves along a chain of fifths, like the intro of "A quién le importa". In class we play it in A minor, with A minor, D minor, G7 and E7 in the verse; A major and C turn up in the chorus. In the room with no instruments, voice and claps. In the ukulele room, the chords. In the music room, the whole band comes in.

Why this song

Ask at home where they were in March 2020. They will very probably tell you: on the balcony, at eight, clapping for health workers and singing this. A song from 1988 became the anthem of a country in lockdown.

The question on this page is: what does a song about holding on sound like? Here the answer is in the chords: a dark verse, and a chorus that suddenly lights up and then drives forward without a break.

Historical context

The Dúo Dinámico are Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa, two friends who met in Barcelona and started singing together in the late fifties. They were one of Spain's first pop acts, and they also wrote for others: "La, la, la", the song Massiel won Eurovision with in 1968, is theirs.

Foto: Iberia Airlines, CC BY 2.0, vía Wikimedia Commons

The Dúo Dinámico arrive in Madrid in 1968, after receiving an award from the Spanish songwriters' society for "La, la, la". They were famous twenty years before "Resistiré".

After some years away, they came back in the late eighties. "Resistiré" is on their 1988 album En forma. The music is by Manuel de la Calva, who started from a line by the writer Camilo José Cela: "he who resists, wins". The lyrics are by Carlos Toro, a sports journalist who wrote more than eighteen hundred songs. Two years later, Pedro Almodóvar used it in his film ¡Átame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!).

And in 2020 it came back hard. During lockdown it was sung every evening from balconies, a new version with many Spanish singers was recorded, "Resistiré 2020", and its authors gave the rights to the Madrid regional government for as long as the state of emergency lasted.

Musical characteristics

A minor-key verse. The song is in F minor. The verse moves between a few chords, almost all of them minor: it sounds serious, a little dark, like someone telling you how hard things are.

The chord that pulls. At the end of each verse line there is a major chord that sounds tense: on the record, C7. That chord pushes towards F minor, home. It's the dominant. The whole verse goes back and forth between home and that push.

A chorus that lights up. Right on the title word, something happens: the home chord, which was minor, sounds major. Same root note, different colour, as if someone switched on a light. That change is what makes the chorus sound like a decision.

A chain that pushes. From that chord, the chorus moves along a chain: each chord is five notes below the one before, until it gets back to the dominant and home. It's a circle of fifths, the same device as in the intro of "A quién le importa". Your ear feels the song never stops: there's always one more step.

A chorus you can trim. The chorus melody goes very high on the record. In class it is sung trimmed to the fifth: the highest part is brought down so it stays in the comfortable zone of changing voices. And on the title word, the second voice sings a third.

In class. The record is in F minor. In class we take it to A minor: the verse with A minor, D minor, G7 and E7; the chorus starting on A major and stepping down through D minor, G and C to E7.

Hard facts: F minor, 4/4, 96 beats per minute, 4:02. The form: minor-key verses and choruses that start in major and step down by fifths.

Guided listening

Play the Dúo Dinámico lyric video, which is the 1988 recording.

In the first verse, listen to the colour. Does it sound happy or sad? Notice the chord at the end of each line, the one that seems unfinished: that's the dominant.

When the chorus comes, wait for the title word. Right there, the chord changes from minor to major. Try to catch the exact moment it "lights up".

During the chorus, follow the chords with your hand, going down one step at each change. Check that it never stops until it is back in the verse.

In the last chorus, listen for whether the song grows in intensity and which instruments join in.

Afterwards, play "Resistiré 2020". Compare: what has changed, and what has stayed the same in thirty-two years?

Trivia and curiosities

• A line from Cela. The idea came from a line by the writer Camilo José Cela, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature: "he who resists, wins".

• In an Almodóvar film. It plays in ¡Átame! (1990), with Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril. Thirty years before the balconies, it was already a film song.

• A 435 % jump. According to the EFE news agency, its Spotify plays went up more than 435 % from 15 March 2020, the first weekend of lockdown.

• From Barcelona to the Caribbean. In 2003 it was used in an Argentine TV series with the same name, Resistiré, and in 2004 Toño Rosario turned it into a merengue.

Classroom activities

• Minor and major. Ukulele: play A minor, then A major, four beats each. Sing the same note on top. What changes?

• The verse. Ukulele: A minor, D minor, G7, A minor, E7. Stop dead on E7 and listen to how it asks to go back.

• The chain. Play A major, D minor, G, C, and finish on E7 and A minor. That is the class chorus. Compare it with the staircase in "A quién le importa".

• Thirds. The trimmed chorus in two voices: half sings the melody and the other half three notes above on the title word.

• Band. In the music room the whole band comes in: drums, bass on the note that names each chord, keyboard on long chords, electric guitar, and everyone else on ukulele.

Key vocabulary

• Minor key — tonalidad menor
• Dominant — dominante: the chord that pulls towards home
• Circle of fifths — círculo de quintas
• Third — tercera: a second voice three notes higher

Resources

Official recording, with lyrics — The 1988 version, uploaded by the Dúo Dinámico.

TVE performance — The Dúo Dinámico singing it on Spanish television.

"Resistiré 2020", to compare — The lockdown version, with many Spanish singers.

Ukulele tutorial — La de Música, in Spanish.

Guitar tutorial — Fran Brea, Más que Guitarra school, in Spanish.

Piano — Jesús Acebedo. A piano arrangement with the lyrics on screen.