Alejandro Fernández ft. Christina Aguilera – Hoy Tengo Ganas De Ti

OH SHIT GRINGOS!…

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[4.00]Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: I’m not sure when I first heard “Hoy Tengo Ganas De Ti,” or even what incarnation I was introduced to. It’s a Latin pop standard, first released in 1975 by Miguel Gallardo and covered countless times in multiple incarnations. If you have a karaoke machine and speak Spanish, I imagine you are not far from mauling it. It is deathless. It is legion. Despite its familiarity, I admit that I don’t care for it outside of the annual wine-fuelled Christmas singalongs. (What yuh know ’bout India y Marc Anthony singalongs, huh?) Fernández and Aguilera don’t do much with the song, deciding to sing around it, as if Gallardo’s composition was encased in epoxy resin for the world’s admiration. I can’t blame them — they do their gloopy singing as voraciously as possible then disappear, successfully keeping the song in karaoke rotation for the next twenty-five years. Mission accomplished.
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Iain Mew: Alejandro Fernández has clearly got pulling power, with Rod Stewart on his album as well. For the first single (and telenovela theme) he’s got Christina Aguilera on board. Research tells me that aside from the original of the song they’re covering by Miguel Gallardo in ’75, there was also a prominent version by Ricardo Montener in ’07; it’s interesting that Fernández has gone less bombastic in his version, even after the necessary bombast increase that comes with duets. Which (at least from a point of view of not understanding most of the words) works out fine, as Fernández handling the ponderous opening before handing over to Aguilera for a boost of intensity adds some dynamism. The song as a whole remains awfully ponderous, though, and swapping out the guitar solo for trumpet and wailing doesn’t help much.
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Anthony Easton: Even with The Voice, Xtina’s Anglo singing career has sort of tanked. So we have her latch onto a Mexican legend and, without much of a nod to hospitality, she completely steamrolls him. This is her diva moment, demonstrating her power as a vocalist in a very specific tradition. It’s a kind of homecoming, but a homecoming that almost evades the stink of desperation.
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Jonathan Bogart: The song itself is exactly the kind of standard that gets mauled and pummeled to death season after season on Latin editions of Pop Idol and The Voice, and Fernández (who’s better than this) and Aguilera (who isn’t) sing like they’re in danger of being sent home this week. A novela-theme paycheck is a novela-theme paycheck, but when the only thing of musical interest is a horn line buried in the mix too late in the proceedings to matter, I find myself reaching for phrases like “what I like about you guys is you really go for it, but….”
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Brad Shoup: With ballads, I’m always painting my way around the true showstoppers. Like, I melt with Miguel Rios — but that’s due to the Leone-alike treatment and the funky middle sixteen. I’ll swoon for “No Nos Vamos Olvidar” — but that’s a series of still small voices and an organ part you can hang from your ceiling. Turning to the feature, “Beautiful” is the exact type of showstopper I love: ever-expanding widths of violin, a lingering piano lilt, a bit of slack in the backbeat. Miguel Gallardo began his original “Hoy” in a modest soft-rock tenor, and the orchestra kept bumping his lines with these “Gone Away”-type figures. Fernández just trembles for a bit, then unloads. Meanwhile, the strings are drawing all the curtains in the house. It’s literally soap opera schmaltz — nearly all music is pantomime on some level, but Fernández and Aguilera are pulling some Rushmore-sized faces. It’s as if the only way to feel were to be felt at, as hard as humanly possible. (See: gospel and emo.) If you want to feel something, try pity for the epically disinterested drummer/trumpet combo.
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Will Adams: Alejandro and Christina are both good at being maudlin, but the music is better.
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