'Mercadona, Mercadona': The story behind Spain's most famous jingle
Once it's in your head, you can't get it out. Any trip to Spain’s most popular supermarket comes accompanied by a jingle that's as catchy as they come. So how did the Mercadona song come to be?
You’ve probably never heard of Lluís Miquel Campos.
He was the creator of that beloved/blasted "Mercadooona, Mercadona" jingle that they play through the speakers at all 1,637 Mercadona supermarkets in Spain.
He didn’t sing the words (it’s a young, female voice) but he did come up with it.
In an interview with Vice in 2018, Campos said it took him five minutes to come up with it while in his office, whereas with other jingles it can take years.
Campos was an actor and singer who played a key role in the Nova Cançó musical protest movement that promoted Catalan (and Valencian) music during the years of linguistic repression of Franco’s dictatorship. His group Els 4 Z achieved plenty of success in the Valencia region.
In the 1970s, he set up an audiovisual studio, and it was then that his connection to Mercadona would begin, which by the way also hails from the land of oranges and Fallas.
Spain’s most popular supermarket had a predecessor called Supermercados Doña Amparo, established by Mercadona’s founder Juan Roig, now one of the richest men in Spain.
Roig needed a jingle for Doña Amparo, and Campos was there to provide him with a theme song.
When Mercadona took over Doña Amparo, Roig came knocking again.
"The famous "Mercadoooona, Mercadona" came about without even thinking about it, like an impulse from nature," Campos told Vice.
"The melody just popped into my head. I hummed it a few times and then I nailed the brand.
"Sometimes you compose a song in five minutes without meaning to, and other times you give it more importance and it takes several years."
And ever since then - 1986 to be exact - we've all been hearing "Mercadooona, Mercadona" throughout the years.
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Campos earned around 100,000 pesetas (€600 today) for the song, and zero royalties.
Given the frequency with which it's played at the supermarkets, he could have made a much more handsome profit, but that didn’t seem to bother him.
The woman who actually sings the iconic jingle is actress Mamen García, and she was paid even less - just €60.
Campos passed away in 2023 at the age of 79, and was described in the national press as one of the driving forces of Valencian popular music, rather than the man behind the Mercadona jingle (which no doubt is how he would rather be remembered).
Nevertheless, the upbeat and melodic "Mercadooona, Mercadona" was arguably his biggest triumph.
It evokes feelings of comfort and familiarity for millions - the daily shop, their favourite Hacendado products, bumping into their neighbours in the supermarket aisle, taking their shopping back through the sunny streets of their Spanish town.
And let’s be honest, for most of us the Mercadona jingle is the background music of our lives in Spain, much more so than the stereotypical castanets and guitar play of flamenco.
As one foreigner said in of the countless videos and remixes of la canción del Mercadona (the Mercadona song) posted on YouTube: "Mercadooona, Mercadona - Welcome to Spain!".
READ ALSO: Why do so many Spaniards want to work for Mercadona supermarkets?
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