UPDATE:
Gabe Saporta just sent us an email with a little more background into Cobra Starship’s Spanish version of “Guilty Pleasure.”
Growing up as a Hispanic kid who loved rock music, I was always bummed out that there wasn’t enough good Spanish rock coming from the Latinos in America. And to make matters worse, a lot of the bands in Latin America were trying to sing in English! So I figured since we got two Latinos in the band (myself and Alex Suarez), we should take the chance to make something special for all our Hispanic brothers and sisters.
Translating the song turned out to be much harder than I thought though.
First off, the expression “Guilty Pleasure” is an idiom that doesn’t have an equivalent in Spanish (although later a reporter from Chile told me that over in Santiago, they say “Placer Cupable,” which is why I named the song that). I asked a bunch of my Latino friends from different countries how to translate the song title and some of the suggestions I got were “Pecado Mortal” or “Vicio Venenoso.” So I decided to just go with “vicio” because it flowed well. And that was my other obstacle: most of the literal translations, just didn’t fit rhythmically with the phrasing of the melodies. So I had to change a bunch of ideas around, and slur some words, and say things that were grammatically incorrect to make them sound good.
My cousin from Uruguay yelled at me, saying “Dude, why aren’t you pronouncing your S’s? In one part you sound Puerto Rican, another part you sound Spanish, and in another part you sound Uruguayan! WTF?” But I was like, whatever dude, I’m not in Spanish class, this is rock ‘n roll.
How do you say “Guilty Pleasure” in Spanish? “Placer Culpable.” Como se dice “DeLorean”? We’re pretty sure it’s still DeLorean. How do you say “fangs up”? No idea.
Check out the Spanish version of Cobra Starship’s “Guilty Pleasure” video. Same band, same sunglasses, same dance, same Patrick Stump cameo, mas tildes y subtitulos. (More Latin music and pop culture? Check out MTV Tres’ Blogamole.)
No puedes deal? Here’s the English version, fools: