Mas Que Nada
Jorge Ben
- Language
- Portuguese
- Released
- 1963
- Genre
- samba
- Level
- A2-
- Difficulty score
- 527
- Special
- Legend
- Duration
- 3:16
Five nouns and five verb forms, so the value is obviously not in volume. It is in two words. legal in Brazilian Portuguese has nothing to do with the law — it means good, or nice, or cool, and it is among the most common words in the spoken language. Meeting it early, as a false friend, saves a lot of confusion later. The other is the construction quero é sambar, which slips an é between the verb and the infinitive purely for emphasis. English has no equivalent and neither does European Portuguese; it is unmistakably Brazilian. maracatu is a northeastern drumming tradition and deserves a search of its own. A2- reflects the speed rather than the difficulty.
How to study this song
“Mas Que Nada” carries 7 Portuguese words, 4 adjectives and 9 verb forms — 20 study entries in all, graded A2-. Begin with samba, frente and final: get those and most of the lines stop being guesswork. The list is short, 20 entries, so it works well as a first card in Portuguese. 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
| PT | EN | ES | IT | FR | NL | DE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| samba | samba | samba | samba | samba | samba | Samba |
| frente | front | frente | fronte | devant | voorkant | Vorderseite |
| final | end | final | fine | fin | einde | Ende |
| maracatu | maracatu | maracatú | maracatu | maracatu |
What this song teaches you
Level · A2-
- Vocabulary words
- 7
- Adjectives
- 4
- Word combos
- 8
- Expressions
- 5
- Verb forms
- 9
- Quiz questions
- 34
More Portuguese songs at this level
Background
About the song
“Mas Que Nada” is a joyful samba written and first recorded by the Brazilian singer-songwriter Jorge Ben in 1963. Riding a bouncing, percussive groove and an instantly memorable vocal hook, it blends samba with the emerging bossa nova sound and an infectious sense of movement.
Its opening chant is one of the most recognisable in all of Brazilian music, even to listeners who speak no Portuguese. Jorge Ben recorded it on 10 January 1963 for his debut album “Samba Esquema Novo”, released by Philips.
Did you know?
The song became a worldwide standard above all through the 1966 version by Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, which introduced it to American and European audiences and made it a lounge and jazz favourite.
Decades later it returned to the charts when Mendes re-recorded it with the Black Eyed Peas, proving the enduring pull of Jorge Ben’s melody across generations.
Charts & streaming
One of the most covered Brazilian songs of all time, “Mas Que Nada” has appeared on countless albums, film soundtracks and adverts around the world. It remains a cornerstone of the Brazilian songbook and a reliable draw on streaming and radio, synonymous internationally with the sound of Brazil.
Sergio Mendes’s 1966 version topped the American easy-listening chart and reached 47 on the Hot 100, and the 2006 remake with the Black Eyed Peas, produced by will.i.am, was number one in the Netherlands and Hungary and sixth in Britain. The song entered the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013.