#beyonce week

It’s BEYONCE WEEK … All Week!

Beyonce and Jay-Z‘s “On the Run Tour” comes to a close this week, and since the show is coming to my area tomorrow I decided to make this week BEYONCE WEEK.

I’ve done Rihanna, Madonna, Mariah, Kanye and Jay-Zthemed weeks – and thought I’ve thought of doing Beyonce, it just never happened. I figured this week would be the perfect time to celebrate King Bey, and I’m going to do my best to make this…

RIFFS AND VARIATIONS

(Alternate Takes, Live Versions, and Early Mixes)

Beyoncé - “Beautiful Liar (Spanglish Version)” (Beyoncé "Week": Day 7)

Beyonce's 2007 collaboration with Shakira "Beautiful Liar" was an unabashed attempt to broaden Bey's appeal to Spanish speaking fans. Not only did was she now working with a genuine Latina superstar, but she also released both a Spanish language version of the song called "Bello Embustero" and a "Spanglish" version that wanders back and forth between the two languages, the latter of which is above. They marked the advent of a time when Bey took to recording both alternate versions of her English language tracks and original songs in Spanish. The songs that resulted are rather blatantly pandering, right down to their instrumentals which are full of strummy guitars and horn accents right out of Mexican restaurant muzak.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with this. To misquote a person close to the subject, Bey's not a businessman, she's a business, man. And, if you've ever looked at this blog before, you should know that recording alternative versions of songs in other tongues has a long history in pop music. Get that money, girl.

But, the thing I think makes these Spanish language reworks so interesting (aside from the fact that the Spanglish version is an utterly unnecessary Frankenstein of a track) is that neither of them features Shakira, unlike the English version of the track. Instead, Beyonce's accompanying herself. If you listen closely to the track above, you'll find that Shakira's been wholly excised from the recording; you won't hear one bit of her signature nasally, wordless singing on it.1

That decision, of course, seems counter-intuitive. Why wouldn't she make a track with both Shakira and Spanish lyrics for the appeal-to-Spanish-speakers double whammy? The reason, in my opinion, is that Bey was playing the long con with these tracks. They weren't just supposed to be a brief foray into Spanish language music, they were supposed to introduce Beyonce as a Spanish language artist. She collaborated with Shakira not just to trade on her cred, but also to establish the two as peers, two pop divas who record songs in Spanish. The message seems to be the Beyonce isn't a pop star taking dilettantish detour, she's a full-fledged Spanish singer.

Ultimately though, as with other foreign language reworks, its tough to tell how successful this gambit was. Artistically, they don't add much to the original, but "Bello Embustero" did eventually hit the top of the Spanish language pop charts and scored a Latin Grammy nomination for record of the year. But, on the other hand, it was not any more successful than her other singles and she hasn't recorded a Spanish language song since 2009's "Si Yo Fuera Un Chico" (a reworking of her single "If I Were A Boy"). It seems that it wasn't exactly a bust, but it didn't give her enough of a boost to warrant the effort.

If you're interested in hearing more of Bey's Spanish language music, you should pick up her EP Irreemplazable, which features original songs, reworkings, and a documentary called La Evolución Latina de Beyoncé (The Latin Evolution of Beyonce).2

-TWG

1. That's sounds mean, but I mean it in a good way. She has a strange resonant quality to her singing that I find bizarrely pleasurable to listen to. Somehow, it works really well with her accent / tendency to under-articulate. I really can't explain it.

RIFFS AND VARIATIONS

(Alternate Takes, Live Versions, and Early Mixes)

Beyoncé - "Halo (How To Dress Well Refix)" (Beyoncé Week: Day 4)

One of the things I love most about Beyoncé's 2009 single "Halo" is the fact that it kind of sounds like a dance-pop track in slow motion. Sure, B's soaring vocals are amazing and anthemic, but for purposes of this write-up, I'm going to draw your attention to the thudding bass drum / crunchy handclap percussion and steady laser light synths in the chorus. It sounds like a climactic emotional epiphany in the middle of a dancefloor that makes time seem to slow down around you.

And what better way to support this view of the track than by looking at a remix of it that speeds it up? That's what I've posted above. Well, technically avant-R&B alchemist How To Dress Well dubbed it a "Refix." Perhaps he considers it closer to a DJ-edit than a true remix. But that's really neither here nor there, because the bar for what's considered a remix is really pretty low. I mean, throw a rap verse before the bridge of a Katy Perry track and suddenly it's a ~~Brand New Remix, right?

Wait, what was I talking about before I started to digress on the nature of remixes?

Oh right, Beyoncé.

HDTW's edit does two things to this track: it speeds everything up and embellishes every element. He spreads the piano part that appears sporadically in the original across the entire track, and cranks those stomping bass beats up until they just verge on sounding blown out. But what's really notable is that by increasing the song's tempo, he turns into a full fledged dance track. That amazing club joint that you could always hear lurking in the background of the original version of the song explodes out into your speakers. 

I really love it as a remix because it's a worthy listen both for what it reveals about the original and just as a track on its own. And isn't that what every remix aspires to be?

You can download this remix here, if you so desire.

-TWG

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