Latest news with #AlejandroSanz
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How a Fresh Start Led Alejandro Sanz to a Stunning EP (and a Shakira Reunion)
Everything about Alejandro Sanz's latest EP ¿Y Ahora Que? was a deviation from the way he usually does things. For starters, the process was much more collaborative, with more producers and musicians than usual. 'What I liked to do was to lock myself in the studio, work for hours, and lose sunlight, practically living in there,' the Spanish artist says with a laugh. But in a lot of ways, this project marked brand new beginnings and new ways of doing things for Sanz: It's his first EP with his new label Sony Latin, his first songs since a major breakup, and his first music with new management. 'If you stop learning and trying different things in this profession, that's truly a kind of death, isn't it?' he says on a recent call with Rolling Stone. 'If you don't want to approach things in a new way, this becomes pretty tedious. So in actuality, this has been a process I've enjoyed a lot, and I'm happy with how it all turned out.' More from Rolling Stone Shakira and Alejandro Sanz Reunite - Again! - for Love Song 'Bésame' Watch Shakira's Intimate Performance of 'Antología' on 'Fallon' Shakira's MetLife Show Was All About Strength and Celebrating Your Inner She-Wolf Beyond the countless lessons buried in ¿Y Ahora Que?, the EP includes six songs, all which find Sanz exploring different sounds. The opening track, 'Palmeras en el Jardin,' takes Sanz back to his roots with a more acoustic sound. He pictured it as a first introduction to the listener where he outlines all the heartbreak and turmoil he's experiencing. 'I think fits well in the chronology and into a rhythm on the album that sets up how things are presented,' he explains. 'It's this process of healing in three phases: The first, on 'Palmeras en el Jardin,' you're listing out everything that's happening. On the second, 'Hoy No Me Siento Bien,' you recognize what you're feeling and you start to see the light. And on 'Besame,' you finally reach the other side to heal.' The songs that follow 'Palmeras en el Jardin' — 'Hoy No Me Siento Bien' with Grupo Frontera and 'Besame' with Shakira — include some of the biggest collaborations on the project. (Manuel Turizo also appears on 'Cómo Sería.') The Shakira feature marks a long-awaited reunion after the two artists worked on 'La Tortura' and 'Te Lo Agradezco, Pero No' in 2005 and 2006. They recently celebrated the anniversary of 'La Tortura,' which turned 20 this year; Shakira even brought him out during her concert in Charlotte, where she kicked off the U.S. leg of her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran tour. 'It was incredible to get back on stage with her, to share, to have a laugh. She seemed really great — she looked happy,' he says. 'She was completely dedicated to her show, working hard as always.' He notes that the day they rehearsed in Charlotte, Shakira was up until 5 a.m. doing soundcheck. 'There's a reason she's number one — she works that hard,' he adds. 'We took advantage of that time to record some content for the new song and to hang out the way we've always done.' The idea for 'Besame' had been a long time coming. 'We'd spent a long time trying to find a song so we could work together again. We'd been wanting to do something, and this is the third collaboration we've made together. I was always joking with her, saying, 'Stop singing with the young handsome guys. Let's make a song.'' Eventually, they landed on the romance and down-tempo rhythm of 'Besame.' 'She's really into Afrobeats, and I wanted to add a bit of this flamenco sound. We found this style and I think it really captured what we both wanted to do. Finding a good compromise between two artists over a song isn't always easy, but we did it and w're both happy with it. It's a beautiful one to me.' Other moments on the EP shine just as bright. The Grupo Frontera collaboration makes use of Sanz's signature rasp and also carries the project's message: On the song, Sanz sings about how he's feeling low but knows everything will get better. 'I had spent a lot of time without putting myself first, paying attention to other priorities,' he says. 'Eventually, you have let that go.' The project title comes from something Sanz used to say to himself throughout his career: 'Y ahora que?' which means 'now what?' Now that the EP is done, he has a long list of what to do next: Eventually, he wants to tour and perform these songs for his fans. But his attitude has changed: 'I don't want to think ahead too much. If you focus too much on the long-term, you don't look at what's in front of you. It's important to work trough each stage and never skip steps.' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Shakira and Alejandro Sanz Reunite — Again! — for Love Song ‘Bésame'
They're back! After multiple hit collaborations, including 'La Tortura' and 'Te Lo Agradezco, Pero No,' longtime friends Alejandro Sanz and Shakira have reunited again for 'Bésame,' a new collaboration featured on Sanz's new EP, ¿Y Ahora Qué? 'I'll tell you the truth, if life is beautiful, you and it are so similar/ In the end I don't dare let fate decide/ If there's any risk of seeing myself without you, I don't want to bet,' sings Sanz in Spanish on the love song, before Shakira chimes in with shining vocals. More from Rolling Stone Remy Bond Channels the 'Diamond Sadness' of the Seventies in 'Moviestar' Video St. Vincent Taps Mon Laferte for Spanglish Duet of 'Violent Times' Connie Francis Reacts to Going Viral on Tiktok for 1961 B-Side 'Pretty Little Baby' The new track comes just a few days after the stars linked up on stage in Charlotte for a performance of 'La Tortura' during Shakira's Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran tour. 'That was probably one of the very few songs that played in Spanish in America on American radio,' Shakira told Rolling Stone about that moment. 'So, it's like celebrating after 20 years the road that we've traveled, and how many obstacles as artists we have overcome.' 'Bésame' marks the third time they've worked together on a song. Twenty years ago, Sanz joined Shakira for Fijación Oral, Vol. 1's biggest hit. The pair then reconnected on his LP El Tren de Los Momentos in 2006 for 'Te Lo Agradezco, Pero No.' Sanz has been teasing the new collaboration on social media, sharing clips of their performances and snippets of the new song's lyrics. 'A thousand years may pass, along with a thousand more, but what happens to us on stage will remain one of a kind!' Shakira wrote on Instagram after they performed together. Sanz commented, 'Our chemistry is kept for the stage, but my love for you travels with me everywhere.' Sanz's new EP features tracks with Grupo Frontera on 'Hoy No Me Siento Bien' and Manuel Turizo on '¿Cómo Sería?' The new project follows 2021's self-titled album, Sanz. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Shakira Cancels WorldPride Concert Due to ‘Complications' With Previous Boston Show
Shakira's WorldPride Welcome Concert performance at Nationals Park has been canceled due to 'complications with the previous show in Boston,' which was also cancelled. A statement by the the Nationals Park said that the singer's full tour production could not be transported to Washington, D.C. in time for her scheduled performance on Saturday, May 31. 'Despite every effort to make it happen, it is not possible to move forward as planned,' said the organization, which informed ticket holders that refunds would be issued automatically for Ticketmaster and purchases. More from Rolling Stone Shakira Concert at Boston's Fenway Park Canceled Just Hours Before Showtime How a Fresh Start Led Alejandro Sanz to a Stunning EP (and a Shakira Reunion) Shakira and Alejandro Sanz Reunite - Again! - for Love Song 'Bésame' The four-time Grammy winner shared her disappointment in a separate statement to fans. 'Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am sad and heartbroken that I will not be able to be in Washington, D.C. with you tomorrow,' wrote Shakira. 'I hope that I can come back to D.C., as soon as I am able. Meanwhile, please know that I am eternally thankful for your unconditional support..' On Thursday, Shakira's Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran concert at Boston's Fenway Park was cancelled just hours before doors opened for the show. A source close to the situation told Rolling Stone that structural elements were identified as not being up to standard during a routine pre-show check, and the event was canceled as a result. According to Boston's 7News, a safety concern was reportedly spotted by the inspectional services department when preparing to sign off on the stage structure. Shakira embarked on her world tour in Brazil in February, and launched the North American leg of the trek on May 13 at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. Earlier this month, she told Rolling Stone of the record-breaking tour, 'I learned that this is more than a show, this is a communion, an encounter with my most-loyal fans and also my newest fans. It's really a moment of total identification.… I didn't want to save any effort, I didn't want to save any resources to take the best show possible to Latin America, because I feel and I really truly believe that my people deserve the best.' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
UPI
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- UPI
Watch: Shakira, Alejandro Sanz reunite in 'Besame' music video
1 of 5 | Shakira arrives on the red carpet at the 2025 Met Gala celebrating the opening of "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5. She released a new song Thursday with Alejandro Sanz. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo May 29 (UPI) -- Shakira and Alejandro Sanz have reunited after two decades for a new song and music video. The pair released "Bésame" on Thursday after previously collaborating on the 2005 hit "La Tortura." They recently performed "La Tortura" together during the North American leg of Shakira's Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran world tour. "We'd been talking for a while about working together again," Sanz told Billboard in an interview. "I used to joke with her, saying, 'When are we going to make another song? You only make songs with talented, handsome guys!' We hadn't found the right song that we both connected with. It's tough after making a song like 'La Tortura' to find the right reason to team up again." "You don't want to be too predictable or repeat the same thing, but you also want the new collaboration to be just as sweet," he added. The track appears on Sanza's EP Y Ahora Que?, which dropped Friday. The EP contains six songs, and also includes collaborations with Grupo Frontera and Manuel Turizo. Shakira turns 48: a look back Shakira poses for the media at the MTV Video Music Awards in New York City on September 6, 2001. That same year, Shakira sold 13 million copies of her first English-language album "Laundry Service." Photo by Ezio Petersen/UPI | License Photo
New York Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Karol G's Ode to Curves, Plus 7 More New Songs
Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week's most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs. Karol G: 'Latina Foreva' The Colombian singer and rapper Karol G cheerfully fends off some unwanted male attention by praising Latin women instead: 'Those curves don't even exist in NASCAR.' The inventive pop-reggaeton production stays light and changeable, with little keyboard blips and string lines making sure the familiar beat is always laced with bits of melody. Alejandro Sanz featuring Shakira: 'Bésame' Husky meets breathy in 'Bésame' ('Kiss Me'), the new duet by Alejandro Sanz, from Spain, and Shakira, from Colombia: a 20-years-later reconnection after their 2005 megahit 'La Tortura.' They trade endearments over a track that connects Latin pop to Nigerian Afrobeats — and, in the bridge, tosses in some flamenco handclaps for more trans-Atlantic fusion. Guedra Guedra: 'Drift of Drummer' Abdellah M. Hassak, the Moroccan electronic producer, records as Guedra Guedra. Guedra is a Tuareg dance that shares its name with a cook pot that becomes a drum when covered with an animal skin. 'Drift of Drummer' mixes field recordings that Hassak gathered in his travels across Africa with hand drum machines and synthesizers. Juggling ever-changing layers of percussion over a brisk implied pulse and a terse bass line, the song is a cauldron of rhythms, humanized by snippets of speaking voices. St. Vincent featuring Mon Laferte: 'Tiempos Violentos' St. Vincent is joined by another high-drama songwriter and singer, Mon Laferte, for a third iteration of 'Violent Times,' which appeared on her 2024 album 'All Born Screaming' and its Spanish-language version, 'Todos Nacen Gritando.' The ominous horns, looming drumbeats and James Bond-theme chords of the original track remain. Where Laferte takes over certain lines, she brings her own sharp-clawed sweetness. Stereolab: 'Melodie Is a Wound' In the 15 years between the band's studio albums — and extensive archival releases in the interim — Stereolab has had ample time to assess and focus its strengths and ambitions. Its new album, 'Instant Holograms On Metal Film,' reinvigorates and concentrates all of Stereolab's best ideas from the 1990s: perky minimalist cycles, odd meters, amiable pop melodies, wavery analog synthesizer tones and calm denunciations of oppressive power structures. In 'Melodie Is a Wound,' Laetitia Sadier warns about, among other things, disinformation that's meant to 'Snuff out the very idea of clarity / Strangle your longing for truth and trust.' The seven-minute track detours into an instrumental coda that starts out breezy, dissolves into noise, reassembles itself and then proceeds to climb through changes of key and texture that cannot contain a rising anxiety. Julia Michaels: 'Try Your Luck' Flirtation can be fraught. Julia Michaels urges a timid suitor to 'Try Your Luck,' offering advice with equal parts nonchalance, encouragement, amusement and exasperation: 'If you want the goal, then you gotta shoot the puck,' she sings, backed by easygoing, guitar-scrubbing R&B. 'I could be into it too, depending on you,' she nudges, waiting for the hint to be taken. Laura Stevenson: 'Honey' Romance is thorny and ill-starred for Laura Stevenson in 'Honey.' 'No one's come close enough to ever love me back,' she sings. 'I'm not enough, I never am.' What starts out modest and folky, with a lone guitar and then a country-ish band, metamorphoses into a psychedelic reverie, at first delicate and then buffeted by distorted guitars as all her troubled longing surfaces. Kieran Hebden and William Tyler: 'If I Had a Boat' In a thoroughly unexpected collaboration, the electronic musician Kieran Hebden (who also performs as Four Tet) joins the meditative guitarist William Tyler for an 11-minute instrumental fantasia on Lyle Lovett's 'If I Had a Boat,' from an album due in September. Tyler fingerpicks the song's cozy, folky chord progression partway through. But most of the track forges electroacoustic hybrids: sustained resonances, metronomic blips, what might be either scraped strings or synthesizer tones. It trades Lovett's verbal free associations for sonic ones.
