The immediate, viral success of “TQG”, for “Te Quedó Grande”, which could be translated as “Too good for you”, of the two Colombian stars Shakira and Karol G is something to challenge. Released on the album Mañana Será Bonito, the song was ranked number 2 on Global Spotify the week it went live after racking up 6.92 million streams in 24 hours, just two days after its release on 24 February 2023.
The title denounces the infidelities of the exes of the two singers, the Spanish footballer Gerard Piqué and the Puerto Rican singer Anuel AA, and evokes the rebirth after a painful breakup: “Tú te fuiste y yo me puse triple M/Más buena, más dura, más level/Volver contigo never, tú eras la mala suerte/Porque ahora la’ bendicione’ me llueven.» (“You left and I got the triple M/Much sexier, much harder, much lighter/I’ll never get back with you, you was giving me bad luck/Now blessings are raining down on me.”)
The lyrics praise female empowerment, an unusual fact in reggaeton, long derided for its macho, misogynistic, sexist character, where women, relegated to the rank of sexual objects, essentially satisfy men’s desires. The popularity of Karol G and other headliners seems to contribute to an evolution of the genre: women are asserting themselves, refusing the stereotypes attached to them and controlling their sexuality, precisely by singing about their lives and their sexual desires.
Eroticized women and raw texts
Reggaeton was born in Panama at the end of the 1970s, in the province of Colón, first under the name of “Spanish reggae”. Strongly influenced by American hip-hop and imbued with Latin-Caribbean musical styles such as mambo, merengue or bachata, it is distinguished by its…
2023-04-24 07:56:52
#Latin #America #women #finally #making #mark #reggaeton
