"Hijo de la Luna" (English: "Son of the Moon") is a song written by José María Cano performed originally by the Spanish band Mecano with lead singer Ana Torroja. It appeared on their 1986 album, Entre el cielo y el suelo, and had great success all over the Spanish-speaking world, as did the album. From 28 December 1998 to 16 January 1999, a cover version by Loona topped the German charts,[1] and reached number two on the Swiss singles' chart.[2]
Original version
Lyrics
The lyrics depict a tragicRomani legend of a Roma woman who awakes at sunrise, begging to the moon to marry a Roma man (calé) the same day. In exchange the moon asks for the woman's first-born as payment.
After the child is born, the woman and man are dismayed to see that his skin is the whitest white and his eyes are grey, even though they both have dark skin and dark eyes. The lyrics explain that the child is an albino, due to being a son of the moon. But the man presumes that the father is a payo (a non-Roma person) and furiously stabs his wife to death. He takes the child and abandons him on a mountain, leaving the child to die of exposure.
Later the baby is said to live happily ever after with the Moon as his mother. When the child cries, the Moon wanes to cradle and comfort him.
The chorus says that the moon wants to be a mother, yet cannot find a lover who will make her his wife, and questions her as to what she would do with a human child. The French translation of the song asks a more precise question (Tell me, silvery moon, You who has no arms, How will you rock the child?), which is answered in the last stanza (And whenever the child cries, She [The Moon] crescents, Turning herself into a light-cradle).
In turn, the Moon doubts the mother's commitment to the little boy, wondering how much she can love her child if she is eager to trade him for a partner.
Inspirations
The video clip for the Italian version Figlio della luna has a esthetic related to the 1981 film Blood Wedding by Carlos Saura.[3]
Dutch recording artist Loona covered the song and released it as the second single from her debut studio album, Lunita (1999).[16] Issued through Urban Records on 23 November 1998, the song topped the German Singles Chart in 1998 and 1999. Loona's version is certified triple gold in Germany and gold in Switzerland.
^Peral Vega, Emilio (2024). "De mil y una historias". Mecano: Inspiración poética y genio musical (in European Spanish) (1ª ed.). Madrid: Guillermo Escolar Editor. p. 14. ISBN978-84-19782-51-9. [...] acompañada también de un vídeo, excelente de factura y medios, dirigido por el propio José María Cano, en el que las reminiscencias lorquianas de la canción quedaban aun más en evidencia a partir de una estética claramente emparentada con las Bodas de Sangre adaptadas en 1981 por Carlos Saura
^Hijo de la luna (Maxi-CD single liner notes). Loona. Urban Records. 1998. 563 176-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
