Courtesy Photo – Bad Bunny featuring Drake, “Mia”
Viva Friday is a compilation of the best new songs, albums and videos recommended by Billboard editors. This week on the Viva Friday playlist…
Bad Bunny & Drake – “Mia”
Listening to Drake singing in Spanish with Bad Bunny makes the song unforgettable and it is an example of the growth of Latin music within the global music market. — SUZETTE FERNANDEZ
Roxiny- “Golden Prophet”
With visceral vocals that instantly submerge one into Roxiny’s brooding dark orbit, “Golden Prophet” sees the Dominican shifting the sound from her old days as part of the duo Jezehbel and moving toward a more mature format while still expressing bright exuberance. A suggestive performance, the song’s music video displays a bevy of women flowing harmoniously throughout, layered in white T-shirts and scatters her missive: female-empowerment messages stamped on hands and body parts, a message about sexual assault and violence against women.
Juanito Makandé
A native of Cadiz, Spain, Juanito Makandé releases “Vivir Sin Miedo,” the first single from his fifth LP, El Habitante De La Tarde Roja, a flamenco-pop-infused tune confident of its poetic language. Makandé’s raspy vocals teeter between flamenco guitar grooves, a dominant bass, a buzzing trumpet and a flugelhorn, giving way to a melancholic but optimistic chorus. The song traverses through a dialogue of a life with no constraints and full of expectations, before its climbing harmonies in the finale.
Trending Tropics – “Cyber Monday” feat. Vestusta Morla
As part of Trending Tropics — the producer-driven concept by Calle 13’s Visitante and singer-songwriter Vicente García, due Oct. 19 — “Cyber Monday” comes to life. The follow-up track to “Elintelné” features the distinct vocals of Spanish indie-rock band Vetusta Morla’s frontman Pucho (Juan Pedro Martí) and Carlos Alomar (David Bowie, Soda Stereo) on guitar. The track’s intro pushes an undertone of synth-generated exhilaration that builds throughout the verses, accompanied by technology-driven beats. The result, a funk-bathed tune with electronic nuances and crazy guitar riffs. Its lyrics? Let’s just leave that up to Vetusta Morla guitarist Guille Galván and Alomar: nostalgia genética animal (“animal genetic nostalgia”), no hay piscoanálisis que pueda asumir (“there is no psychoanalysis that I can undertake”.)
