No sabes bien como me arrepiento

How have I not mentioned "Egoísta" on the site yet?



Mexican pop singer Belinda rose to fame on children's television before releasing an album in 2003 that sounded pretty much like those released by her American counterparts: very light teen pop-rock. Pretty forgettable stuff, though anyone who loves cataloging the recycling of songs might find it interesting.

It was in the beginning of the campaign for her second album, 2006's Utopía, that Belinda began to show any signs of being a popstar worth anyone's time. Lead single "Ni Freud ni tu mamá" was a stompy electro-rock pop song with a snappy title, but it was its English version "If We Were" that really made me fall in love. Belinda might have been ostensibly listing all the great things she'd do for this guy if he'd be with her, but her sweet nothings sound a lot more like threats. The angry, biting edge to the song was irresistible.



(You can spot Raven and Drew Seeley in the video, presumably due to the Disney connections Belinda picked up through her appearance in a Cheetah Girls movie.)

Utopía, though once again no masterpiece, contained several other enjoyable songs. Whoever was A&Ring the record had a surprisingly interesting idea for what it should sound like. The title track, for example, is written by Sia and Greg Kurstin, and even if it was just a matter of someone asking Sia for an unreleased song she had lying around, it was still a pleasantly unique idea back in 2006. Several other cases of recycling appear on the album--an unreleased Skye Sweetnam, a cover of a Pussycat Dolls' bonus track--but the end result was still a step forward compared to Belinda's first album.

Belinda released her third album, Carpe Diem, this year and, in typical Belinda fashion, its tunes are not entirely unfamiliar to international pop fans (she covers Kim Lian for the second time in her career). You can make a solid EP out of its tracks, though.

In general, Carpe Diem moves Belinda closer towards spacey pop-dance, but "Egoísta" picks up right where "Ni Freud ni tu mamá" left off, with a robo-voiced Belinda delivering menacing insults to a guy over a hard electro-pop-rock beat. It's basically amazing on all fronts, including the chanty "ego-ego-ego-egoista" that makes up the song's main hook. Pitbull shows up, but since he brings with him the radar-style beeps of "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)," it's not an unwelcome appearance. There is, once again, an English version, but this time I'll be sticking with the Spanish version; Belinda doesn't sound nearly as much like a blank-eyed assassin in English this time out.

You can buy Belinda's third album Carpe Diem here (physical) or, if you live in the U.S., here (digital). The iTunes only bonus track "Duele," written by Cathy Dennis and Chris Braide, is better than many of the songs actually on the album, though, so you might be better off going to iTunes.

#32 Belinda, "If We Were"

We'd be the most beautiful mess
If we were forever

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: the English version of eighteen year old Mexican singer Belinda's "Ni Freud ni tu mama" lost my two favorite things about the Spanish original and yet somehow managed to appeal to me far more than the Spanish language original did (though after loving the English version, I went back and listened to the Spanish version again and love that too). "If We Were" doesn't have the snappy title of the original or the whole random English-in-the-middle-of-Spanish, tossed-off "you're hot...I forgot" line (its place is still there, but, though it's an important line to the song, the line has changed in meaning and loses its attitude and funny kind of randomness), but somehow having lyrics in English allowed me to better "get" how great its stompy electro-popness (with a little rock influence thrown in) was. It's a little like Kelly Osbourne's "One Word," but with more of a hard-hitting edge. Belinda sounds kind of creepy on this song, which I actually like--it takes it beyond typical "we'd be so great together" meaning and makes everything she's saying sound ominous, almost threatening. She does not sound like a girl you'd want to mess with on this song, even if, after all her "think of what'd you'd get if we were together" lyrics, she reminds us "but we're not...I forgot," giving a whole new meaning to the (even if accidental) threatening tones she's been using throughout the song.

Find it on: Utopia 2

We'd be the most beautiful mess

This post is maybe a little bit of a cheat, as I've already posted one of these songs before, back in December 2006, but there is a difference: it's in English now. And that really does change something about it.

Trying not to jump ahead too much, though, Mexican singer Belinda became a child star with some acting and her self-titled debut album (the second single off of which was a cover of Kim Lian's "Teenage Superstar"), which came out in 2003. She must've decided the light pop (-rock) of most of that album wasn't what she wanted and that she wanted a more mature, "edgy" image, though, because in 2005 she starred in Mexico's resident knowingly-throwback-to-the-'80's rock group Moderatto's music video for "Muriendo lento" and featured on the song (though her collaboration in the U.S. would be with the decidedly less cool Cheetah Girls). In 2006, she released her second album, Utopia, pretty obviously designed to pitch Belinda as "edgier" and less "just for kids," even right down to the album artwork and accompanying photo shoots. This year, she re-released the album, retitled Utopia 2, with some of the songs on it re-recorded in English, and it's two of those I'm posting today (toyed with posting these when the album first came out, but then Electroqueer covered her; I think enough time has passed that it's worth mentioning her again, though).

If We Were--I have to say, I really think I like this a lot more in English. For some reason, the Spanish version didn't feel as catchy to me, somehow felt impenetrable--but, and it's probably just because I'm hearing the song in my native language now, the song feels catchier in this version. The fact that "If We Were" manages to beat out the original is no small feat, though, considering it loses my two favorite things about the Spanish version: the casually tossed off "you were hot...I forgot" (which, yes, was in English while pretty much the rest of the song was in Spanish, making it even more random and even funnier) and the snappy title of the original, "Ni Freud Ni Tu Mama," which is a heck of an awesome brush-off (Belinda's leaving a guy, and tells him she was never Freud [his therapist/someone who could change him] or his mom [someone to take care of him/make him grow up]). When Belinda sings in English, she often has a rough, harsh edge to her voice (not an extreme one, but it peeks through here and there), which can be a little bit of a problem when she's singing something as light as, say, her Cheetah Girls 2 song "Why Wait," but here, it fits the drama and strong dark electro sound of the song. The song's got a nice stompy feel to it that I love and fantastic backing music that apparently still works fairly well even though the message of the song has completely changed (from a brush-off to wanting to be with a guy).

End Of The Day--the English version of "Bella Traición" and, once again proving that I either didn't pay close enough attention the first time around or just "get" the songs more in English, the original version never jumped out at me as much as this one has. "End Of The Day" is a lot lighter and less electro than "If We Were," but it's still catchy and still really good pop, even if the line "I'm not sorry 'cause that would mean I'm not cool with myself" does make me laugh a little bit.

To buy Belinda's album Utopia 2, go here (physical) or here (digital). If you're looking for a dramatic half-power ballad, the English version of "Pudo ser tan fácil," "Takes One To Know One," is worth a listen.

Next up: maybe something else in Spanish, or Italian.