| "La Tortura" | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Shakira featuring Alejandro Sanz | |||||||||||||||||||
| from the album Fijación Oral Vol. 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Released | May 30, 2005[1] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Format | Digital download | ||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Latin pop | ||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 3:35 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Label | Epic | ||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Shakira Mebarak, Luis F. Ochoa | ||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | Shakira, Lester Mendez | ||||||||||||||||||
| Certification | 5x Platinum (Worldwide) Platinum (RIAA) Gold (AMPROFON) Gold (Danish)[2] |
||||||||||||||||||
| Shakira singles chronology | |||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
"La Tortura" (English: The Torture) is a Latin pop-reggaeton song performed by singers Shakira and Alejandro Sanz. It was recorded for Shakira's sixth studio album Fijación Oral Vol. 1, released on June 7, 2005. The song achieved large-scale success on different radio and chart formats, becoming the most famous Spanish language track of both singers worldwide and the sixth most successful song in Shakira's career behind "Hips Don't Lie", "Whenever, Wherever", "Underneath Your Clothes", "She Wolf", and "Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)" and the most successful song ever for Alejandro Sanz. The song won two Latin Grammy Awards at the 2006 Ceremony for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The song was number 1 on the Hot Latin Songs for 25 weeks during 2005, and was the biggest selling song of the year on that chart.
"La Tortura" is currently the highest-selling only-Spanish language digital track in United States at over 1,000,000 downloads[3] and the biggest-selling Spanish language track of the decade with sales of over 5 million copies worldwide.[4]
Contents |
The single is a duet between Shakira and Spanish balladeer Alejandro Sanz, both of whom also composed it along with Luis Fernando Ochoa. It was mixed by Gustavo Celis.
It tells the story of a woman who has been emotionally "tortured" because her boyfriend cheated and eventually left her for another, and has now returned begging forgiveness. He apologises extravagantly, but is ultimately thinking that some infidelity is natural for men and that for the woman not to forgive him would be tiresome and unreasonable. However, at the end of the song, Shakira's character humiliates him and says that she is not going to shed a single tear over him.
The single is Shakira's sixth in the United States, following the commercial success of her 2001 English language album Laundry Service.
Since its release as a single, the song has become one of the most important Latin songs to move into the mainstream English-speaking culture in the U.S. and Canada. The music video of the song was nominated for Best Female Video, Best Dance video and Viewer's Choice Award on the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, during which Shakira performed with Sanz (notably, the first time a guest performed a song entirely in a language other than English). "La Tortura" reached a position on the top 30 (#23) of Billboard's Hot 100 in less than twenty weeks after its release and was ranked #60 in the Year End Chart. The song was certified Platinum by RIAA for over 1,000,000 digital sales. The video became the first Spanish music video to be nominated at the MTV Video Music Awards.
The track debuted at #1 in Spain Singles Chart and was a huge hit all over Europe, reaching the top ten in almost all the countries. In Switzerland, the song was in the top five for fifteen consecutive weeks, although it never reached the top position. In Hungary, the song spent 8 exclusive weeks at number 1 position. "La Tortura" wasn't released as an official single in the United Kingdom until December 2006, bundled with the release of Illegal and charted at #34 on the UK Singles Chart. The song also broke the record on the Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart, appearing at #1 more than any other single (a total of 25 non-consecutive weeks). As a result, it was featured in the 2007 edition of Guinness World Records. "La Tortura" was chosen as the fifth favorite song of the world in a global survey made by Sony Ericsson, in which 700,000 music fans of 66 countries contributed.
At Billboard magazine's year-end chart (that shows the hottest songs of the year); "La Tortura" was announced as the #1 song on the Hot Latin Tracks chart and ranked 3rd at the Hot Latin Songs 25th Anniversary chart.[5]
The music video for "La Tortura", directed by Michael Haussman, has a simple plot: from his new girlfriend's apartment, Sanz spies on Shakira as she is walking down the street holding a bag of onions on her way to her own apartment, which is on the other side of the street from Sanz' girlfriend's apartment. When Shakira enters her apartment, she changes clothes. From that moment on, Sanz remembers things the two had done in the past as a couple, while Shakira reveals her alter-ego dancing erotically on the building's roof, covered with black paint. The choreography of the music video was made by Jamie King and Shakira herself.
The music video is in itself somewhat notable, as it was the first time MTV showed a whole episode of their Making the Video series in another language (with English subtitles). It was also the second Spanish-language video ever to enter in Total Request Live's countdown, and peaked at number four on the countdown. It can also be noted that the video for "La Tortura" was one of the first in the Spanish-language to get heavy rotation on mainstream American and Canadian music channels such as MTV, VH1 and MuchMusic as in all almost over world Yahoo! sites. The remix version of the song, known as "La Tortura (Shaketon Remix)", has it own video (also directed by Haussman) featuring some previously unseen scenes. This video can be seen on Oral Fixation Volumes 1 & 2 Bonus DVD.
The single and the album also included a remix of the song by Gustavo Celis entitled "The Shaketon Mix", merging a reggaeton rhythm with the original rhythm of the song. A separate music video (also directed by Michael Haussman) was also made for this remix. This video also entered on TRL's countdown.
There is another official reggaeton remix called "E. Arroyo Reggaeton Remix". Another official mix has surfaced, the "Tracy Young Special According Mix" and other remixes have also been made by independent DJs. An alternative version of this song, which had been previously leaked on the internet, is featured as a bonus track in the re-release of Oral Fixation Vol. 2, with the chorus sung partially in the English-language.
Charts
|
Sales and certifications
Year-end charts
|
| Preceded by "La Camisa Negra" by Juanes "La Camisa Negra" by Juanes "Nada Es Para Siempre" by Luis Fonsi |
U.S. Billboard Latin Songs number-one single June 4, 2005 - June 11, 2005 June 25, 2005 - August 20, 2005 September 3, 2005 - December 3, 2005 |
Succeeded by "La Camisa Negra" by Juanes "Nada Es Para Siempre" by Luis Fonsi "Rompe" by Daddy Yankee |
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Tú No Tienes Alma by Alejandro Sanz |
Latin Grammy Award for Song of the Year 2006 |
Succeeded by La Llave de Mi Corazón by Juan Luis Guerra |
| Preceded by Tú No Tienes Alma by Alejandro Sanz |
Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year 2006 |
Succeeded by La Llave de Mi Corazón by Juan Luis Guerra |
| Preceded by |
Best Short Form Music Video 2006 |
Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Café Tacuba by Eres |
Video Of The Year 2005 |
Succeeded by Maná by Labios Compartidos |
2005 Latin Billboard Music Awards
Production
Engineering
Musicians
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||