Mi Chico Latino
"Mi Chico Latino" (English: "My Latin Boy"), is a song recorded by English singer Geri Halliwell for her debut solo album Schizophonic (1999). It was written by Halliwell, Andy Watkins and Paul Wilson, whilst produced by the latter two, who are known collectively as Absolute. "Mi Chico Latino" was released as the album's second single on 16 August 1999, by EMI. It is a Latin pop song which is centred on a lost love theme. The song was written by Halliwell in order to pay homage to her mother, who has Spanish background, whilst it also has a number of Spanish lyrics.
"Mi Chico Latino" | ||||
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Single by Geri Halliwell | ||||
from the album Schizophonic | ||||
B-side |
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Released | 16 August 1999 | |||
Recorded | 1998 | |||
Genre | Latin pop | |||
Length | 3:15 | |||
Label | EMI | |||
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) | Absolute | |||
Geri Halliwell singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Mi Chico Latino" on YouTube |
"Mi Chico Latino" received mixed reviews from music critics, who noted it was a contribution to the Latin pop phenom at the time, while others criticized Halliwell's Spanish pronunciation. The song was a commercial success in the United Kingdom, debuting at number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Halliwell's first number-one solo single in the country. The song also attracted some moderate success worldwide. "Mi Chico Latino"'s accompanying music video was directed by Doug Nichol and filmed on the island of Sardinia. It depicts the singer wearing a black bikini and dancing with semi-nude male dancers on a boat. In order to promote the single, Halliwell performed the song on Top of the Pops and Party in the Park in 1999.
Background and development
"Mi Chico Latino" was written by Halliwell, Andy Watkins and Paul Wilson in the autumn of 1998. The singer wanted to make a song with Spanish influences, in order to pay homage for her Spanish mother. During a day in the studio, they came up with a melody but did not have any words. Then she called her mother for help.[1] Halliwell recalled asking her, "Mum, what do you say to a bloke in Spanish if you fancy him and are being romantic?" Her mother then said she did not remember that. So she asked her look at her library of Spanish language romances, and she read the titles out to Halliwell. Eventually she came out with "¿Dónde está el hombre con fuego en la sangre?" ("Where is the man with fire in his blood?" in English), and she liked the way it sounded, and included the line at the beginning of the song. After "Look at Me" peaked only at number two, her record company wanted her to release "Lift Me Up", while the Absolute team wanted "Bag It Up", but she chose to release "Mi Chico Latino" after receiving good reception from children.[1] She also thought,
"First and foremost I thought it was a good record. It was poppy and catchy and perfect for the summer. I think my core audience is young teenage girls and gay guys. Both of those groups tend to like pure pop music and I think that's what 'Chico' was. It was very different from the slightly leftfield style of 'Look at Me'. [...] The other thing that 'Chico' had going for it was that the music was Latin-based, I had written the song back in 1998 but by the time the summer of 1999 came around Latin-influenced music was ruling the charts. Ricky Martin had recently had a number one and there were others on the way. So it was a strange example of synchronicity that I should be ready to go with a Latin track which I had written almost a year before".[1]
Composition
"Mi Chico Latino" is a Latin pop song which moves at a moderate tempo of 104 beats per minute.[2][3] At the beginning of the song, Halliwell chants the spoken word line "¿Dónde está el hombre con fuego en la sangre?" (which translates to Where is the man with fire in the blood?).[4] The lyrics to the song are centred on a lost love theme, with castanets in the background.[3] During the song, the singer also sings in Italian on its chorus, when everything else is Spanish.[3] According to biographer David Sinclair in his book Spice Girls Revisited: How The Spice Girls Reinvented Pop, Halliwell continued to explore the Riviera-pop theme of her former group's song, "Viva Forever", whilst "murmuring sweet nothings in a peculiar brand of estuary Spanish while castanets and timbales clattered alongside a cod-flamenco guitar".[5]
Controversy
In 1999, Israeli singer Alabina said "Mi Chico Latino" was a plagiarism from her song "Alabina (De La Noche A La Manana)", released the year before. A spokesman for Alabina's French record label Atal said that they were "anxiously contacting" Halliwell's record label about the songs' similarities. However, no legal actions were made.[6]
Critical reception
"Mi Chico Latino" received mixed reviews from music critics. Jon Perks, whilst reviewing Schizophonic for Sunday Mercury, gave a positive review, stating, "Okay, so it sounds like a hybrid of La Vida Loca and Madonna's La Isla Bonita, but with a swimming-costumed Geri on the cover and a summery tune, it's a winning combination".[7] Chris Charles from BBC News commented that "Mi Chico Latino" could be mistaken with "Spice Up Your Life", Halliwell's previous hit with the Spice Girls.[8] For Russell Baillie from The New Zealand Herald, Halliwell spends time on the album "flashing her eyelashes at [menfolk], especially if they're foreign", calling the song "glutinous".[9] According to Rolling Stone, "Mi Chico Latino" was her "impeccably timed contribution to the Latin-pop phenom, complete with awkwardly pronounced Spanglish".[10] Jonathan O'Brien from Hot Press magazine was negative, stating that "Mi Chico Latino" was "a dreadful pastiche of Madonna's 'La Isla Bonita'".[11]
Chart performance
"Mi Chico Latino" debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 22 August 1999, selling 132,000 copies in its first week,[12] becoming Halliwell's first number-one solo single in the country.[13] It also was the beginning of a sequence of four consecutive Halliwell singles reaching number one in the United Kingdom.[4] It spent fifteen weeks in the charts,[14] and went on to sell almost 383,000 copies in the UK and was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).[15] "Mi Chico Latino" experienced moderate success in other European markets. In Austria, it entered the singles chart at number 34, eventually peaking at number 27 and spending a total of eight weeks on the chart.[16] In France, the song peaked at number 40, remaining on the chart for ten weeks in total.[17] On the Swiss Singles Chart dated 19 September 1999, it peaked at number 26.[18] In Australia, "Mi Chico Latino" debuted at its peak of number 43 on the issue dated 5 September 1999.[19] The song also experienced success in the United States, peaking at number 19 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Songs chart.[20]
Music video
The accompanying music video for "Mi Chico Latino" was directed by Doug Nichol and filmed in Sardinia from 5–8 July 1999.[1][21] Halliwell wanted the video for the song to be very different in style to her previous single "Look At Me", as that one was filmed in Prague in the freezing cold, and she wanted something to connect with her fans. According to her, the video was also pretty easy to get: "a yacht, a girl in a bikini and some wicked boy dancers to keep both sets of fans [gay guys and teenage girls] happy". After the video was released, the singer got a huge amount of attention from it. "People came up to me and told me how great and how sexy it was. They also told me I looked really healthy, but how wrong they were. I wasn't healthy because I wasn't eating properly and although I was slim at the time, that was a mirage too because the tough regime of the diet was always going to lead me to binge and put the weight back on", and later, she began taking recovery meetings for bulimia.[1]
Live performances
Halliwell first performed "Mi Chico Latino" as the opening number at her show held at G-A-Y nightclub. According to Brian Logan from The Guardian, the performance "served only to stress" her certain brand of pop, referring to it as "Madonna-lite."[22] Halliwell also performed the single in front of 100,000 fans at Party in the Park event in early July 1999.[6] On 26 August 1999, the singer performed the song on Top of the Pops.[23] On 8 July 2001, whist promoting her second album Scream If You Wanna Go Faster, she performed the song again on Party in the Park.[24]
Credits and personnel
- Geri Halliwell – songwriter
- Absolute – songwriters, producers, instruments
- Tracey Ackerman – backing vocalist
- Milton Mcdonald – guitar
- Karlos Edwards – percussion
- Mike Higham – programming
- Paul "P" Dub Walton – audio engineer
- Mark "Spike" Stent – mixing
- Wayne Wilkins – mixing assistant
- Stylorouge – design, art direction
- Dean Freeman – photographer
Credits and personnel adapted from Schizophonic album liner notes.[25]
Formats and track listings
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Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
Certifications
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Notes
- Halliwell 2003, p. 85
- "Mi Chico Latino Sheet Music by Geri Halliwell". Sheet Music Now. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
- "GERI HALLIWELL – "Mi Chico Latino"". FreakyTigger. 25 November 2014. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- "Number 1 today in 1999: Geri Halliwell – Mi Chico Latino". Official Charts Company. 22 August 2014. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- Sinclair 2009, p. 167
- Harpin, Lee (11 June 2015). "Hot people: GERI'S NICKED MY No1 SINGLE; Chico a cheeko, says Israel star". The People. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- Perks, Jon (22 August 1999). "Believe your radio – Stereophonics on course for another smash hit; NEW RELEASES". Sunday Mercury. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- Charles, Chris (6 June 1999). "Entertainment: New Music Releases – CD Review: Geri Halliwell". BBC. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- Baillie, Russell (30 June 2000). "Geri Halliwell – Schizophonic". The New Zealand Herald. New Zealand Media and Entertainment. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Schizophonic – Geri Halliwell". Rolling Stone. Jann Wenner. 8 July 1999. Archived from the original on 8 May 2006. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- O'Brien, Jonathan (7 July 1999). "Schizophonic". Hot Press. Niall Stokes. Retrieved 5 April 2015.(subscription required)
- https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/number-1-today-in-1999-geri-halliwell-mi-chico-latino__7712/
- Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 637. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- "Mi Chico Latino". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- "British single certifications – Geri Halliwell – Mi Chico Latino". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 22 August 2019. Select singles in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type Mi Chico Latino in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
- "Austriancharts.at – Geri Halliwell – Mi chico latino" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Lescharts.com – Geri Halliwell – Mi chico latino" (in French). Les classement single. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Swisscharts.com – Geri Halliwell – Mi chico latino". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Australian-charts.com – Geri Halliwell – Mi chico latino". ARIA Top 50 Singles. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Geri Halliwell Chart History (Dance Club Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- ""Mi Chico Latino" by Geri Halliwell". VH1. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- Logan, Brian (7 June 1999). "Geri for queen". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- "Top of the Pops, 26/08/1999". BBC One. 26 August 1999. Retrieved 7 April 2015.
- "Glee in the Park!". NME. 9 July 2001. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
- Schizophonic (album liner notes). Geri Halliwell. EMI. 1999. 7243 5 21009 2 7.CS1 maint: others (link)
- Mi Chico Latino (UK CD1/European CD Maxi-single liner notes). Geri Halliwell. EMI. 1999. 7243 8 87558 0 1.CS1 maint: others (link)
- Mi Chico Latino (UK CD2 single liner notes). Geri Halliwell. EMI. 1999. 7243 8 87559 2 4.CS1 maint: others (link)
- Mi Chico Latino (European CD single liner notes). Geri Halliwell. EMI. 1999. 7243 8 87595 0 2.CS1 maint: others (link)
- Mi Chico Latino (Australian CD Maxi-single liner notes). Geri Halliwell. EMI. 1999. 7243 8 87576 2 1.CS1 maint: others (link)
- Mi Chico Latino (French CD single liner notes). Geri Halliwell. EMI. 1999. 7243887633 2 5.CS1 maint: others (link)
- Mi Chico Latino (Italian 12-inch single liner notes). Geri Halliwell. EMI. 1999.CS1 maint: others (link)
- "Ultratop.be – Geri Halliwell – Mi chico latino" (in Dutch). Ultratip. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
- "Ultratop.be – Geri Halliwell – Mi chico latino" (in French). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Eurochart Hot 100 Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
- "Geri Halliwell: Mi chico latino" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Offiziellecharts.de – Geri Halliwell – Mi chico latino". GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Top 10 Greece" (PDF). Music & Media. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
- "Íslenski Listinn Topp 40 (Vikuna 23.9. – 30.9. 1999 39. Vika)" (PDF) (in Icelandic). Dagblaðið Vísir. Retrieved 13 July 2018. Cite magazine requires
|magazine=
(help) - "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Mi Chico Latino". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
- "Top National Singles" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 16 no. 39. 25 September 1999. p. 18. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
- "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 38, 1999" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40 Retrieved 2 July 2018.
- "Dutchcharts.nl – Geri Halliwell – Mi chico latino" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
- "Spanishcharts.com – Geri Halliwell – Mi chico latino" Canciones Top 50. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Swedishcharts.com – Geri Halliwell – Mi chico latino". Singles Top 100. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
- "Year in Focus – Eurochart Hot 100 Singles 1999" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 17 no. 1. 1 January 2000. p. 11. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
- "Romanian Top 100: Top of the Year 1999" (in Romanian). Romanian Top 100. Archived from the original on 22 January 2005.
- "Best Sellers of 1999: Singles Top 100". Music Week. London, England: United Business Media. 22 January 2000. p. 27.
- Myers, Justin (22 August 2019). "Number 1 today in 1999: Geri Halliwell – Mi Chico Latino". Official Charts Company.
References
- Kutner, Jon (2005). 1000 UK Number One Hits. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1844492834.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Halliwell, Geri (2003). Just For the Record. Ebury Press. ISBN 0091888042.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Sinclair, David (2007). Spice Girls Revisited: How the Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame. Omnibus Press. ISBN 1846090687.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)