Santeria (3:04)

“Santeria” is a song by Sublime on their third album, Sublime. The band Sublime has reggae, rock, and mexican influences. Many would say their largest influence is the Jamaican reggae artist Bob Marley. The song includes the bassline and pre-rhythm guitar riff from Sublime’s earlier song “Lincoln Highway Dub” off the album Robbin’ The Hood.

This song tells the story of a jealous ex-boyfriend pursuing to reclaim his ex-girlfriend from a man. The lead singer of Sublime, Bradley Nowell refers to the man as “sancho” and his ex-girlfriend as “heina”. In Mexico, a man who steals another man’s girl is often refered to as “el Sancho” and a man’s woman or girlfriend is refered to as “heina”.

A music video was filmed in 1997 after the death of lead singer Bradley Nowell, who makes a cameo via stock footage. The video was a visualization of the story told in the song in the form of a Western, and featured Tom Lister, Jr. as Sancho.

Santeria is a playable track on the 2008 video game Guitar Hero: World Tour.

Santeria was covered by ska punk band Spunge on their second album, Room for Abuse and by pop punk bands The Cab and The Academy Is… on their 14 show Hot Topic acoustic tour (Hello My Name Is…) in January 2009.