Hijo de la Luna
Mecano
A story card, and it behaves like one: beginning, middle, and a genuinely dark end. That gives you the tense contrast Spanish narrative runs on, with the preterite carrying every event that moves the plot — conjuró, habló, nació, se fue, la hirió, le abandonó. Read the descriptive words, though, for the thing no textbook will give you. Spanish names a substance where English would name a colour: canela, aceituna, armiño — cinnamon, olive, ermine — used for skin and for eyes. English does this occasionally; Spanish does it as a habit, and picking it up changes how you describe anything. C2- is fair, and it is the vocabulary rather than the grammar that earns it.
How to study this song
“Hijo de la Luna” carries 37 Spanish words, 11 adjectives and 30 verb forms — 78 study entries in all, graded C2-. Begin with leyenda, Luna and piel: get those and most of the lines stop being guesswork. This one leans on its verbs: 30 distinct forms against 11 adjectives, so conjugation is where the effort goes. At this level the words on their own are not the problem — it is the way they are put together that takes the work.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| leyenda | legend | leggenda | légende | lenda | legende | Legende |
| Luna | moon | luna | lune | lua | maan | Mond |
| piel | skin | pelle | peau | pele | huid | Haut |
| hijo | son | figlio | fils | filho |
What this song teaches you
Level · C2-
- Vocabulary words
- 37
- Adjectives
- 11
- Word combos
- 11
- Expressions
- 10
- Verb forms
- 30
- Quiz questions
- 35
More Spanish songs at this level
Background
About the song
“Hijo de la Luna” (“Son of the Moon”) is a dramatic, quasi-operatic ballad by the Spanish trio Mecano, released on their 1986 album “Entre el cielo y el suelo”.
Written by José María Cano and sung by Ana Torroja, it tells a dark fairy-tale: a gypsy woman begs the moon for a husband, and the moon grants her wish in exchange for her firstborn child — a bargain that ends in jealousy and tragedy.
Its sweeping orchestration and haunting melody set it far apart from ordinary pop and made it one of Mecano’s most ambitious songs. José María Cano wrote it for the 1986 album “Entre el cielo y el suelo”, with Ana Torroja singing the lead.
Did you know?
The song became a huge success across the Spanish-speaking world and, unusually for a Spanish-language track, a favourite far beyond it, covered by artists in many countries and languages, from opera singers to dance acts.
Its storybook lyric and grand arrangement have made it a staple of talent shows and a set-piece for powerful vocalists, keeping it alive for new generations.
Charts & streaming
“Hijo de la Luna” anchored one of Mecano’s best-selling albums and remains among the most celebrated Spanish pop songs of the 1980s. Endlessly covered and still heavily streamed, it is widely regarded as one of the defining works of Spanish-language pop and a signature of the group.
The original reached three in the Netherlands and six in France, and a Eurodance cover by Loona went to number one in Germany over the turn of 1998–99, earning a triple gold award there. Montserrat Caballé and Sarah Brightman are among the many who have recorded it since.