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Carlos Vives and Ricky Martin have come together for their first joint project ever: a song titled, “Canción Bonita” or ”Pretty Song.”
Along with music video shot in Old San Juan, “Canción Bonita” is a celebration of Martin‘s roots in Puerto Rico along with Vives’ ties to Colombia. Both artists sat down with Billboard this week to talk about the track along with the journey they took to make it.
“If anything, we’re more childlike than the new generation,” Martin said when asked what he brought to the table in this new endeavor. “We’ll never change. We’re relaxed. We’ve achieved pretty things in life. We don’t have to prove anything to anyone.”
“We don’t want to change. We want to be the same people. And this song is a declaration of love to a city I love,” said Vives, who lived in Puerto Rico in the beginnings of his career. “And it’s one of Ricky’s cities. For me to have a piece of Ricky in this song...it’s total happiness.”
Because this is such a happy, celebratory song, the pandemic meant that the artists had to put a hold on releasing it until things started to look a little better for the world. After passing it back and forth for months, “Canción Bonita” was almost completed right when the pandemic began--but they had to press pause.
“It was a party song. We couldn’t release it at that point,” says Martin. He went on to add that he was in “total lockdown” until Vives came back to him with “Canción Bonita” at the beginning of this year. “Carlos Vives took me out of quarantine to film a video,” he laughs.
The Carlos Pérez-directed music video was shot in Old San Juan, in the middle of empty streets that are so used to being bustling. with tourists. Even though this trip was a little different than the Puerto Rico they‘re used to, it was enough to remind Vives why he was now paying homage to the city he used to live in.
“I came to live in Puerto Rico when Ricky’s career was taking off,” he said. “I was an actor with a hit series and I understood that special essence that the city has. This is my way of giving back.”
Check out the music video for “Canción Bonita” down below:
