Sometimes you want to find a song to go along with the dance form you're studying in class.
Other times you want to know the words to that particular flamenco song you like so much.
And sometimes you long to know what those words mean.
I'd like to help you with that
Below you'll find a collection of letras, flamenco verses, organized by palo, flamenco form.
(Scroll down to immediately access this list of letras.)
Each week I post a flamenco letra in Spanish along with a translation into English, The Weekly Letra.
Today though, instead of a new letra, I give you many.
A Collection of Letras
After several years of translating and posting flamenco songs, and not quite as many years of writing them out and turning them into things like this, there are quite a number of flamenco verses (and often accompanying videos) to be found around here.
I've learned a lot about Spanish, a bit about Caló, Romani, and much about flamenco through the process of doing these translations.
Some of the translations are better than others, and the letras rarely convey the same feeling in English as they do in their original form.
My hope is that the translations give a general idea of what the verse is about.
You'll notice there are a lot of bulerías (I have a thing for bulerías) and many fandangos too (there's just something about them).
You'll also notice some palos are not yet represented. If you have a request for a particular form or even the translation of a specific letra, let me know below in the comments, and I'll try to fulfill your request in a future post.
A Map of Letras by Palo
The following list will take you to all of the letras I've posted over the years within a given palo. (As you probably already know, the same letra can be used across palos, so there's that to consider.)
Do you have a favorite letra (or just one you like a lot)? Let me know below.
UPDATE: You'll notice that not every form is represented here, but I edit this post to add additional palos as I post them.
I used to call this series Viernes con una Letra, but along with the new and updated website came a new and updated title for the series.