Every once in a while, a pop song comes up that plays around with religious imagery and metaphors. Think Like a Prayer or There Must Be an Angel (Playing with my Heart). In this episode we will learn about one such song: Experiencia religiosa from Enrique Iglesias' eponymous debut album from 1997.

The lyric of Enrique's ballad is really a collection of romantic cliches, sprinkled with some vocabulary connected to the Christian religion (éxtasis, ceremonia, resucitar, infinito or aleluya); but sometimes, big fat cliches are exactly what makes a song work.

In Experiencia religiosa, the often twin languages of romance and religion combine together to create a classic romantic power ballad, one that has animated many a karaoke night in Spain since it came out back in the late 90's.

The song is best enjoyed whilst also watching the official video. It shows us Enrique standing alone in a empty church, with candles all around, a gospel choir there just for him, and those bluish beams of light that seemed to be everywhere in the 90’s. Experiencia religiosa is the 1990’s on steroids!

Episode art: San Francisco de Asís (detail) by Francisco de Zurbarán

*****

Sign up here for the show's free Newsletter.

You can give us some love with a one-off donation at Buy Me a Coffee. Your support is much appreciated and will help me keep creating new episodes. ⁠ 

Check out also my Instagram for comments, news and to see some of my artwork. (Yes, I do that too).

Finally, follow and rate us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.