For anyone concerned about the whereabouts of Sean Paul, don’t worry: he’s on the English edit…
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[5.67]
Alfred Soto: I don’t usually make these remarks, so I’m excused: the lyrics are so bonehead stupid that I question everything, from the acoustic guitar and Iglesias’ theta-ing his zetas to deciding to rewrite the title and rhythm of one of his biggest crossover hits. The baile is a circle jerk, and Romeo Santos doesn’t want to interrupt, Kiki.
[3]
Brad Shoup: He can sing about liquor and beer all he wants — at this point in his career, you’ll need a crowbar to pry him out of the club — but it’s when Bueno steps up that you can feel the dance. Gente De Zona’s cubaton, sprightly and modest, allows the new-sincerity grandiosity to take off. But really, it’s new to hear a grown-ass man on an Enrique record.
[6]
Megan Harrington: The beat, the arching refrain vocals, the tinny keys — everything about “Bailando” is worn in like a favorite shirt you’ve slept in since high school. Iglesias is a performer who knows his safety net and it gently catches his biggest singles. That this sounds vaguely like his other musical seductions only adds to its comfort.
[7]
Will Adams: Without those cluttered dancepop grooves around him, Enrique can be a convincing, if still somewhat nasally, performer. The chorus hints at a big takeoff but never quite gets off the ground; if only those weighty verses could be thrown over as ballast.
[6]
Scott Mildenhall: The man’s become a dichotomy: English songs nearly all banging R&BDM, Spanish ones nearly all Sensitive Croons. This one comes in both languages, so it makes a certain sense that it’s of neither mould: the dancing of the former and the gentleness of the latter cancelling each other out to leave something competent if completely ordinary. A Paradisio cover would have been so much better.
[5]
Ramzi Awn: World Cup music never hurt anybody. “Bailando” is produced like a music box playing on a hot summer night. Nobody’s dancing until Enrique starts singing and, unsurprisingly, he sounds great.
[7]