Bailamos
Encyclopedia
"Bailamos" is a Latin pop
song from singer Enrique Iglesias
, sung in English and Spanish. It was the debut single of Iglesias in the English-language market, and attained immense success, reaching the #1 spot in the Billboard Hot 100
.
and Mark Taylor
and produced by Barry and Brian Rawling, the same team which wrote and produced Cher
's hit "Believe
". The track first appeared on a limited edition of his Spanish studio album
Cosas del Amor
and was released as a single in parts of Latin America and Europe. After attending one of Enrique's concerts, Will Smith
asked Enrique to contribute to the soundtrack of his upcoming movie Wild Wild West
and Bailamos was chosen to appear. The song quickly became most requested on pop radio in New York
, Los Angeles
and Miami. Due to the song's popularity, it was released as a single throughout the world. In English, Bailamos means "We Dance" (We Are Dancing), or in this case, "Let's Dance". The song was dedicated to three students: Brandon Kimball, Thomas McHugh, and Marisa Bisaccia. The students rescued Enrique during The Running of the Bulls several years ago. In the United States
, the song was seen as part of a wave of crossover music from Latin America
n singers and a general increase in interest in Latin music, which was started by Ricky Martin
's release "Livin' La Vida Loca
". The single reached number one on the US pop charts, making it Iglesias' first chart topper on Billboard's Hot 100
. The Latin song "Smooth
" by Carlos Santana
released at the end of the year was one of the most successful song in chart history. Its immense success could, to some extent, be credited to "Bailamos"' and other Latin pop songs during the era. The success of "Bailamos" was a breakthrough for Iglesias, which enabled him to sign a multi-album deal with Interscope. The song would go on to appear on his debut English album Enrique
, though slightly altered to fit with the sound of the album. The soundtrack version has a different arrangement in mix from the Album Version.
UK CD2
European CD Single
USA CD Single
dancers. After the song was chosen to be part of the Wild Wild West soundtrack, a second video was made, directed by Nigel Dick
. A portion of this video was shot in Mexico, while most of it shot in the backlot at Universal Studios
. In this video, Iglesias is depicted as a wanted man with the opening shot being a poster calling for his capture "dead or alive". Entering a sleepy Mexican town, he attracts several women who dance around him. Picking one out, they kiss until they are interrupted by people trying to claim the reward. Both Iglesias and the love interest manage to escape. The video also contains small snippets of scenes from the Wild Wild West
movie. The third music video of Bailamos is directed by another famous music video director, Paul Hunter
. The video is plotless, and simply features Iglesias as a barman in a night club as he watches flamenco dancers on stage. It is also intercut with shots of Iglesias interacting with the lead dancer played by Staci Flood
. The video ends with Iglesias and Flood leaving the now empty club.
chart in the United States
, also became the 11th number 1 single for Iglesias in the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart for 1 week. It did hit the top spot also in Spain
and Latvia
. The single also peaked on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs and Billboard Adult Contemporary Songs chart. It peaked into top 10 in many countries including UK, France
, Netherlands
, New Zealand
, Norway
, Sweden
and Switzerland
.
Latin pop
Latin pop generally refers to pop music that has what may be perceived a Latin American influence...
song from singer Enrique Iglesias
Enrique Iglesias
Enrique Iglesias is a Spanish pop music singer, a son of singer Julio Iglesias.Enrique started his musical career on Mexican label Fonovisa...
, sung in English and Spanish. It was the debut single of Iglesias in the English-language market, and attained immense success, reaching the #1 spot in the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
.
Song information
"Bailamos" was written by Paul BarryPaul Barry (songwriter)
Paul Michael Barry is a British songwriter and musician. Some of his best-known songs include "Believe" by Cher, and "Hero" and "Bailamos" by Enrique Iglesias. He has won three Ivor Novello Awards and ASCAP PRS writer of the year 2000. He has scored three U.S...
and Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor (record producer)
Mark Taylor is a Grammy Award winning British record producer and songwriter. Having sold over 50 million records, he has produced and written for artists such as Cher, Enrique Iglesias, Britney Spears, Diana Ross, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, Kylie Minogue, and Lady Gaga...
and produced by Barry and Brian Rawling, the same team which wrote and produced Cher
Cher
Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...
's hit "Believe
Believe (Cher song)
"Believe" is a song by American recording artist Cher. It was released on November 24, 1998 as the lead single from her twenty-third studio album of the same name. It was written by Brian Higgins, Stuart McLennen, Paul Barry, Steven Torch, Matthew Gray, and Timothy Powell and produced by Mark...
". The track first appeared on a limited edition of his Spanish studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
Cosas del Amor
Cosas del Amor (Enrique Iglesias album)
Cosas del Amor is the third Spanish studio album from Pop singer Enrique Iglesias. In 1999 the Album received a nomination for Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Performance.- Album information :...
and was released as a single in parts of Latin America and Europe. After attending one of Enrique's concerts, Will Smith
Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...
asked Enrique to contribute to the soundtrack of his upcoming movie Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West is a 1999 American steampunk action-comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline , Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek.Similar to the original TV series it was based on, The Wild Wild West, the film features a large amount of gadgetry...
and Bailamos was chosen to appear. The song quickly became most requested on pop radio in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Miami. Due to the song's popularity, it was released as a single throughout the world. In English, Bailamos means "We Dance" (We Are Dancing), or in this case, "Let's Dance". The song was dedicated to three students: Brandon Kimball, Thomas McHugh, and Marisa Bisaccia. The students rescued Enrique during The Running of the Bulls several years ago. In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the song was seen as part of a wave of crossover music from Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n singers and a general increase in interest in Latin music, which was started by Ricky Martin
Ricky Martin
Enrique "Ricky" Martín Morales , better known as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican and Spanish pop singer and actor who achieved prominence, first as a member of the Latin boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991.During his career he has sold more than 60 million album copies worldwide...
's release "Livin' La Vida Loca
Livin' la Vida Loca
"Livin' la Vida Loca" is a song by Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin. It was released on March 23, 1999 from Martin's self-titled debut English album. The song was composed by Desmond Child and Draco Rosa and topped the charts during 1999...
". The single reached number one on the US pop charts, making it Iglesias' first chart topper on Billboard's Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. The Latin song "Smooth
Smooth (song)
"Smooth" is a collaboration between latin rock band Santana and Rob Thomas of the rock group Matchbox Twenty. The song was written by Thomas and Itaal Shur, sung by Thomas, and won three Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.-Concept...
" by Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
released at the end of the year was one of the most successful song in chart history. Its immense success could, to some extent, be credited to "Bailamos"' and other Latin pop songs during the era. The success of "Bailamos" was a breakthrough for Iglesias, which enabled him to sign a multi-album deal with Interscope. The song would go on to appear on his debut English album Enrique
Enrique (1999 album)
Enrique is the debut English album by Enrique Iglesias recorded in English and released in 1999.-Making of Enrique:After the success of his first English crossover single "Bailamos", Enrique signed a multi-album deal with Interscope and spent the next two months recording the first English album...
, though slightly altered to fit with the sound of the album. The soundtrack version has a different arrangement in mix from the Album Version.
Track listing
UK CD1- "Bailamos" (Album Version) - 3:37
- "Bailamos" (The Groove Brothers Remix) - 5:06
- "Bailamos" (Fernando's Latin Mix) - 5:30
UK CD2
- "Bailamos" (The Groove Brothers Radio Edit) - 3:25
- "Bailamos" (Davidson Ospina Club Mix) - 6:59
- "Bailamos" (Video - Paul Hunter Version) - 3:36
European CD Single
- "Bailamos" (Album Version) - 3:37
- "Nunca Te Olvidare" - 3:18
- "Bailamos" (The Groove Brothers Remix) - 6:25
USA CD Single
- "Bailamos" (Harry Choo Choo Romero & Eric Morillo Vocal Mix) - 6:29
- "Bailamos" (Fernando G. Latin Mix) - 5:30
- "Bailamos" (Ospina Club Anthem Mix) - 6:08
- "Bailamos" (Pablo La Rosa Techno Dub) - 6:13
- "Bailamos" (Mijangos Recycled Dub) - 9:23
- "Bailamos" (Album Version) - 3:37
Music videos
The original music video for Bailamos was shot in Miami. It has a montage of different scenes involving Iglesias, starting off with a scene of Iglesias in an apartment talking on the phone and later looking out of a window to the Miami skyline. Subsequent scenes involve Iglesias walking the streets and staring into a building as he watches two flamencoFlamenco
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
dancers. After the song was chosen to be part of the Wild Wild West soundtrack, a second video was made, directed by Nigel Dick
Nigel Dick
Nigel Dick is an English music video and film director, writer and musician based in Los Angeles, California. He directed the Band Aid video "Do They Know It's Christmas?", as well as over 300 other music videos.Nigel Dick should not be confused with the Australian Dr...
. A portion of this video was shot in Mexico, while most of it shot in the backlot at Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
. In this video, Iglesias is depicted as a wanted man with the opening shot being a poster calling for his capture "dead or alive". Entering a sleepy Mexican town, he attracts several women who dance around him. Picking one out, they kiss until they are interrupted by people trying to claim the reward. Both Iglesias and the love interest manage to escape. The video also contains small snippets of scenes from the Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West is a 1999 American steampunk action-comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline , Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek.Similar to the original TV series it was based on, The Wild Wild West, the film features a large amount of gadgetry...
movie. The third music video of Bailamos is directed by another famous music video director, Paul Hunter
Paul Hunter (director)
Paul Hunter is a music video director known for his high-budget, visually distinctive videos for popular music singles. He has directed over 100 music videos, many television advertisements and was nominated for an Emmy for Nike's Freestyle commercial...
. The video is plotless, and simply features Iglesias as a barman in a night club as he watches flamenco dancers on stage. It is also intercut with shots of Iglesias interacting with the lead dancer played by Staci Flood
Staci Flood
Staci Beth Codorniz Lavine Costa de Souza Flood is an American singer, dancer and model best known for her lead dance roles in the music videos "Bailamos" by Enrique Iglesias and "Rock Your Body" by Justin Timberlake ....
. The video ends with Iglesias and Flood leaving the now empty club.
Chart performance
The track peaked at number 1 for two weeks in the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, also became the 11th number 1 single for Iglesias in the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart for 1 week. It did hit the top spot also in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
. The single also peaked on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs and Billboard Adult Contemporary Songs chart. It peaked into top 10 in many countries including UK, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Charts
| Chart (1999)/(2000) | Peak position |
|---|
End of year charts
| End of year chart (1999) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA charts ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
55 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 26 |
Certifications
See also
- List of number-one hits (United States)
- Number-one hits of 1999 (U.S. Hot Latin Tracks)Number-one hits of 1999 (U.S. Hot Latin Tracks)This is a list containing the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks number-ones of 1999.-Top-Ten Hits in 1999:*Olga Tañón & Cristian Castro: Escondidos *Frankie Negrón: Princesa...
- Number-one dance hits of 1999 (USA)Number-one dance hits of 1999 (USA)These are the Billboard magazine Hot Dance Club Play number one hits of 1999.-See also:*1999 in music*List of number-one dance hits *List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance chart...