Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler has built a reputation for poetic songwriting across three decades. On 15 September, he released “El Fin y el Medio”, a song that places direct, uncompromising words against a carefully built musical frame. It is also the first piece he has written with his son Pablo (pablopablo), who composed the music. Drexler explained that he began the lyric years ago but only recently found the way to finish it, observing that “songs have their own time.”

The text leaves little room for ambiguity. “Un refugiado es un refugiado, / un niño es un niño / y el miedo es el miedo” (“A refugee is a refugee, / a child is a child / and fear is fear”). The refrain repeats: “No hay un solo fin que justifique cualquier medio” (“There is not a single end that justifies any means”). Across the verses, the message refuses collateral damage and insists that children belong to everyone: “si son niños son nuestros” (“if they are children, they are ours”).

Musically, Drexler’s guitar and voice remain central, surrounded by electronic layers and live instruments. Programming comes from Tadu Vázquez, keyboards from Facu Balta, and percussion from Nasrine Rahmani and Borja Barrueta. Drexler co-produced with Lucas Piedracueva, with Carles “Campi” Campón mixing and Fred Kevorkian mastering. The result is sparse yet forceful, with the voice carrying the song’s weight while the arrangement frames it with restraint.

“El Fin y el Medio” marks a new chapter in Drexler’s catalogue: a song begun years ago, completed with his son, and released with lyrics that confront harm and displacement head-on.

Listen to the single HERE