✍🏻 LYRICS/COMPOSITION BY EME LATINA (2026) ----------- ABOUT: ----------- The Circuit, Round 11: Bossa Nova x Trip Hop Vocal: Male Instrument: Vibraphone Word to use: Smoke Trip-hop is slow, moody, and beat-driven, while Bossa nova is breezy Brazilian jazz-pop with a gentle swing. The vibraphone is a mallet instrument like a metal xylophone, with a shimmering, sustained tone. 🎶 For this round, the softness and elegance of Bossa Nova is blended with the darker, more atmospheric vibe of Trip Hop. The vibraphone is the star instrument and I like how it lends this dreaminess to the otherwise heavier, moodier production. For the story, I personified Death and gave him something he was never supposed to have: love. For once, Death knows exactly what will happen if he does his job, and he refuses. The last dance becomes both literal and symbolic. If he takes her in his arms, the dance ends with her death. So instead, he chooses to let her go. He denies the laws of the universe at a risk to himself. He’ll lose her either way, but in his final sacrifice she gets to live. ----------- LYRICS: ----------- Her name was written plainly on this paper that I hold, I’ve read a million names before and never was I told: "You'd be the ending and beginning of it all..." The flame that burned brightly, before it went up in smoke… I can’t give you this dance, though I’ve dreamt of it once, ’cause the moment that I hold you, you'll run out of bonne chance... So hate me when I leave you, curse the stranger dressed in black; I’d rather lose you now than know you can’t come back... Oh my, either way I lose, but losing you in my arms would be worse than losing myself in yours. You laughed and called me heartless Darling, if you only knew: Of all the things they’ve called me, that one almost would be true... (Except I couldn't bring myself to dance with you) I can’t give you this dance, I can’t give you this dance, though I’ve dreamt of it once, ’cause the moment that I hold you, you run out of bonne chance... So hate me when I leave you, curse the stranger dressed in black; I’d rather lose you now than know you can’t come back... Maybe someday you’ll forgive me for the dance I wouldn’t take. Maybe someday you’ll understand what I refused to let you pay. I don’t know if Death gets pardoned, or if laws can be undone, but if the stars demand an answer, let them come to me for one... I can’t give you this dance, though I’ve dreamt of it once, ’cause the moment that I hold you, you run out of bon chance... So hate me when I leave you, curse the stranger dressed in black; I’d rather lose you now than know you can’t come back... And if the heavens come asking why I held their angel back I’ll tell them Death fell in love once and refused the final dance.
