The Sound of My Day: “Havana”

I desperately want to dance to this song, with its sultry tune over that steady driving beat. There are so many ways that dance could go, but listening to the lyrics feels like a stab to the heart with the story that it sings of regret that is so different than where you feel like the music should go.

Take me back, back, back…

Half of my heart is in ____…

I knew it when I met him…

I loved him when I left him…

It is story of a woman who fell in love with a bad boy who was careless and selfish with how he treated and “loved” her while she fully loved him. She still loves him despite himself but she can not go back.

What I’m hit with in the lyrics, regardless of what the songwriters say, is not so much the wanting to go back to him but rather a sense of regret at having made the choice in the first place.

It’s deeply saddening for me to listen to this song despite its wind-your-waist Latin flavor, tune, and beat as it reaches into my memories to the regrets I have about what I wish I’d done differently at different points in my past.

But who among us doesn’t have some of those regrets?

“Havana”

Camila Cabello, Camila, 2017

Songwriter: Adam Feeney, Jeffrey Williams, Pharrell Williams, Andrew Watt, Brian Lee, Ali Tamposa, Brittany Talia Hazzard, & Camila Cabello

Hey

Havana, ooh na-na (ay)
Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh-na-na (ay, ay)
He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na
Oh, but my heart is in Havana (ay)
There’s somethin’ ’bout his manners (uh huh)
Havana, ooh na-na (uh)

He didn’t walk up with that “how you doin’?” (uh)
(When he came in the room)
He said there’s a lot of girls I can do with (uh)
(But I can’t without you)
I knew him forever in a minute (hey)
(That summer night in June)
And papa says he got malo in him (uh)
He got me feelin’ like

Ooh-ooh-ooh, I knew it when I met him
I loved him when I left him
Got me feelin’ like
Ooh-ooh-ooh, and then I had to tell him
I had to go, oh na-na-na-na-na

Havana, ooh na-na (ay, ay)
Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh-na-na (ay, ay)
He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na (uh huh)
Oh, but my heart is in Havana (ay)
My heart is in Havana (ay)
Havana, ooh na-na

Jeffery
Just graduated, fresh on campus, mm
Fresh out East Atlanta with no manners, damn
Fresh out East Atlanta
Bump on her bumper like a traffic jam
Hey, I was quick to pay that girl like Uncle Sam (here you go, ay)
Back it on me, shawty cravin’ on me
Get to diggin’ on me (on me)
She waited on me (then what?)
Shawty cakin’ on me, got the bacon on me (wait up)
This is history in the makin’ on me (on me)
Point blank, close range, that be
If it cost a million, that’s me (that’s me)
I was gettin’ mula, man they feel me

Havana, ooh na-na (ay, ay)
Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh-na-na (oh, ay, ay)
He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na (oh no)
Oh, but my heart is in Havana (ay)
My heart is in Havana (ay)
Havana, ooh na-na

Ooh na-na, oh na-na-na (oo-ooh)
Take me back, back, back like
Ooh na-na, oh na-na-na (yeah, babe)
Take me back, back, back like
Ooh na-na, oh na-na-na (yea, yeah)
Take me back, back, back like
Ooh na-na, oh na-na-na (yea, babe)
Take me back, back, back
(Hey, hey)

Ooh-ooh-ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh
Take me back to my Havana

Havana, ooh na-na
Half of my heart is in Havana, ooh-na-na (oh, yeah)
He took me back to East Atlanta, na-na-na (ay, ay)
Oh, but my heart is in Havana
My heart is in Havana (ay)
Havana, ooh na-na

Uh huh
Oh na-na-na (oh na, yeah)
Oh na-na-na
Oh na-na-na
No, no, no, take me back
Oh na-na-na
Havana, ooh na-na