Sofia
Álvaro Soler
How to study this song
The card for “Sofia” is built from 33 study entries at A1+: 8 Spanish words, 2 adjectives and 23 verb forms. Start with the glossary: preocupación and corazón come up again and again, so they are the ones to know first. This one leans on its verbs: 23 distinct forms against 2 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level the goal is recognition: hear a word, place it, keep going.
The words of this song, in several languages
Every word below is taken from this song and translated by us. Nothing here is the lyric itself — these are the individual words you need in order to follow it.
Vocabulary
| ES | EN | IT | FR | PT | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| preocupación | worry | preoccupazione | souci | preocupação | zorg | Sorge |
| corazón | heart | cuore | cœur | coração | hart | Herz |
This card holds 6 more words. You meet them when you play the song.
Adjectives
| ES | EN | IT | FR |
|---|
What this song teaches you
Level · A1+
- Vocabulary words
- 8
- Adjectives
- 2
- Word combos
- 10
- Expressions
- 12
- Verb forms
- 23
- Quiz questions
- 35
More Spanish songs at this level
Background
About the song
«Sofia» is the song that turned Álvaro Soler from a promising new name into one of the voices of the European summer of 2016. Released as a single in April 2016, it was added to the international edition of his debut album «Eterno agosto», first published in June 2015, and to the Italian reissue of that record in 2016. It came after «El mismo sol» and «Agosto», the two singles that had introduced him in 2015, and it was followed later the same year by «Libre».
Álvaro Tauchert Soler was born on 9 January 1991 in Sant Cugat del Vallès, near Barcelona, to a German father and a Spanish-Belgian mother. When he was ten the family moved to Japan, where he lived until he was seventeen and where he started taking piano lessons. Growing up between several cultures made him multilingual, something that later helped him to speak to audiences in Italy, Germany and Switzerland in their own languages. Back in Barcelona he studied industrial design at the Elisava school and, in 2010, founded the band Urban Lights with his brother and some friends. In 2013 the group reached the final eight of the Spanish talent show «¡Tú sí que vales!». In 2014 he left the band to start a solo career and moved to Berlin.
In Berlin he began working with the songwriters and producers Simon Triebel and Ali Zuckowski. His first solo single, «El mismo sol», released in April 2015, reached number one in Italy and in Switzerland, and the album «Eterno agosto» followed that June. For «Sofia» the team grew: the song is credited to Soler, Triebel, Zuckowski, Jakke Erixson and Nadir Khayat, the producer better known as RedOne. RedOne and T.I. Jakke produced the track, which was recorded in 2016 at RedOne's studio in Los Angeles and at the Panic Room studio in Berlin. Soler sings and also plays accordion, omnichord and percussion on the recording, which gives the song its blend of Latin pop and light folk.
The lyric tells a small story of jealousy and regret. A man speaks to a woman called Sofía after their relationship has ended. He begins by remembering a carefree childhood, a time that has since faded away. Then he turns to her: he says that he no longer trusts her, and he admits that he held her back, while another man gave her the freedom to fly and to dream. She insists that the two of them used to be happy, but he keeps asking her how the other man looks at her and why she will not be honest with him. The music points the other way: the melody is bright and easy to dance to, with handclaps, accordion and a chorus built around her name, so a song about loss became one of the most cheerful hits of that summer.