Colombian Superstars Carlos Vives & Shakira Go For A Ride On “La Bicicleta”, Future Latin Number One Hit? [NEW SONG / STREAM]
Unfortunately this song doesn’t mean Shakira’s new album is around the corner. In fact, word in the street is that it won’t be out till early 2017. However, this new song titled “La Bicicleta” (“The Bicycle”) is indeed new music from Shakira. Well, actually it is the new single from Colombian superstar Carlos Vives but it features fellow Colombian Shakira as a guest. “La Bicicleta”, which hit all digital platforms today, Friday, May 27th, will be included on Carlos Vives’ forthcoming fifteenth studio album, simply called “Vives”, which will arrive in stores in Latin America, the US, and Spain later in 2016.
As you can deduce from the title, “La Bicicleta” is a Spanish song (entirely in Spanish / not even a trace of Spanglish), and in it Carlos Vives and Shakira trade places to sing verses and choruses one each, but come together for the bridge and outro.
NEW SINGLE OUT TODAY! #LaBicicleta @CarlosVives & Shakira. iTunes: https://t.co/nh4UVFnMzo https://t.co/2mdRKqQ5Rs ShakHQ ????
— Shakira (@shakira) 27 de mayo de 2016
Never heard the combination of Vallenato (Colombian regional music) and reggaeton? No? Then your ears will lose their virginity in this “genre” with “La Bicicleta” (mine too). But keeping it honest, this “hybrid” has been a bit difficult to swallow. There has been such an anticipation to hear this first collaboration between Colombian stars Carlos Vives and Shakira and honestly I’ve been somewhat disappointed. I expected more from the production, and “quality” of the song. “La Bicicleta” is way too mainstream, for reggaeton is really the genre that gets all of the attention - as if Carlos Vives had only in mind making this an “easy” hit while creating it, leaving aside his usual quality work. Let’s simply do a quick retrospective of Carlos’ previous material and you will see all of his singles are well-thought, with “soul”, and with a believable story. In contrast, “La Bicicleta” is clearly a decrease in quality - although no doubt it will be a hit, due to the fact it’s a collaboration between these two stars.
In “La Bicicleta”, Carlos Vives and Shakira sing about a couple of Colombians, who have experienced heartbreak, whose roads have crossed, they’ve fallen in love, they feel like destiny has given them a second chance, and they say that the only thing they want to do is get their bicycles and explore the beautiful beaches of Santa Marta and La Arenosa in Colombia together. Who wouldn’t, right? (lol).
There’s no doubt Shakira participated in the writing of this song as she mentions Barcelona and “Piqué” (the last name of her boyfriend and father of her two sons) repeatedly throughout. Couldn’t she have avoided these words, though? I mean, I know that she is free to write what she wants but I don’t think it’s very clever to make so many mentions of these two words in the song as I’m sure many of Shakira fans are fans of Real Madrid, the nemesis of F.C Barcelona, her boyfriend’s soccer club - and I don’t think these Madrid fans will be happy to sing about Barcelona and Gerard Piqué in "La Bicicleta", ha!
Anyway, check out a stream of the future Latin hit “La Bicicleta” below: