The hottest new singers on Lycos won't be found on MTV. Their CD isn't in stores yet. You can't hear them on most pop radio stations right now. But they're climbing up our search logs nonetheless. Who -- or what -- is Las Ketchup?

Las Ketchup are Pilar, Lola, and Lucia Munoz, a singing trio of attractive sisters from Cordoba, Spain. Their single, "Asereje" is a huge summer hit in Spain and across the world, especially in Latin America. "Asereje" has hit the top five in most Spanish-speaking countries, and their album is already platinum in Spain.

The band's weird name comes from their strong musical pedigree. The three sisters are daughters of a famous flamenco guitarist called Tomate. Thus, the name Las Ketchup, and the album title Hijas del Tomate, or "daughters of Tomate."

"Asereje" is a summer song about a summer song. It tells the story of Diego, who likes a popular English tune but doesn't know the words, so he pronounces them as gibberish. It's a novelty song, combined with a "Macarena"-like dance routine that is shown in the video. Hmmm, "Macarena" was also a summer hit in Europe that crossed over to America, it was catchy, the lyrics didn't make much sense. Could "Asereje" be the next "Macarena"?

Searches for the band seem to be coming from all over the globe -- we're getting searches from the U.S., Spanish-speaking nations like Mexico and Venezuela, even non-Spanish speaking countries like Germany, Italy, and Israel. And that doesn't even count searches on Terra U.S. for Spanish-speaking Americans, or any of the international Terra search engines across Latin America and Spain.

Last week, Las Ketchup got more searches on Lycos than much better known musicians including rapper Lil' Kim, rap-rocker Kid Rock, and country singer Faith Hill. Searches for the song title "Asereje" on Lycos.com (although not Lycos Music) were higher than searches for Eminem's "Without Me," Nelly's "Hot in Herre," and Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" -- combined.

Terra, the Spanish half of our company, is featuring the band both in Venezuela and in Spain. You can hear the song and download the video -- and get inundated by Venezuelan advertisements for Heinz ketchup.

Could this be the next "Macarena"? Or, like most European hits, will "Asereje" fizzle in the States? Only time will tell. The album Hijas del Tomate hits U.S. stores next Tuesday.

TOMORROW: Fore!