I know this song, I love this song, but never knew the name of it until
used it in one of her Dingus posts. So thanks Lyz!The King of Latin Pop has a connection with my hometown, as it was here that he borrowed money from the family nanny, recorded a demo, and took it to his dad’s former publicist. He didn’t want to trade off of his famous name (dad is Latin icon Julio Iglesias) so the songs were released as Enrique Martínez, who has a completely different backstory.1
His career took off in the back half of the 90s as a Spanish singer and this prompted Will Smith to approach Iglesias to write a song for his movie Wild Wild West. The song had appeared on limited edition copies of his his Spanish studio album Cosas del Amor and was released as a single in parts of Latin America and Europe. Iglesias chose this one and it soon was released world-wide, bolting up the charts in 1999. In North America, it fit neatly with the trend of Latin crossover artists and it netted him a large record deal and appeared on his subsequent first English album Enrique. The soundtrack version and the album versions sound different, as it was altered to fit the overall sound of the album.
The song has a flamingo feel mixed with the 90s dance beat. Bailamos means we dance and that’s what this song is, a celebration of movement. In the singing he emphasizes the final syllable which isn’t how it’s pronounced but it fits with the music. The verses are all in English but the chorus features some Spanish, adding to the Latin flavour of the song.
It was written by Paul Barry and Mark Taylor, who had just had a huge hit with Cher’s Believe. Taylor also produced the song Brian Rawling, the same team on Believe. They saw Iglesias in concert before production, to make sure they matched it to his sound and personality.
The song has 3(!) different videos for it, one that was done for the initial limited Spanish release, a second for the movie soundtrack, and a third for the album release. The last is what appears on Iglesias’ official page. It was shot by prolific music video director Paul Hunter, who would direct Bulletproof Munk a few years later.2 It’s reminiscent of Copacabana - a barman watches a dancer on the floor. This one has a happy ending though - he leaves with the girl at the end and looking at the intercuts throughout the video, they have been a thing for a while.
Here’s the soundtrack video, directed by Nigel Dick who was a well-known video director from England who would be given a Lifetime Achievement award the following year by the Music Video Production Association. A portion of this video was shot in Mexico, while most of it was shot in the backlot at Universal Studios. Iglesias is a wanted man, both by the law and by the women of a Mexican town. The video also includes clips from Wild Wild West.
He also has the original Spanish version on his site. This was shot around of Miami. I can’t find out much about the director
Enjoy your song of the day!
Martinez was from Guatemala.
It didn’t go so well and he went back to doing music videos.
This is a great song. I also really like his "I Like It" which came out about a decade later.
During that "Latin" boom of the late '90s, I really dug this song a lot. This track, along with most of Santana's "Supernatural," were in my 5-disc CD changer for the better part of the second half of 1999.