RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesIt took a whole lot of heartache to bump Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos and its title track off the No. 1 spots on Billboard ’s Top Latin Albums and Hot Latin Songs chart. But Karol G did it. Not with hardcore perreo or the female empowerment anthems that have become her trademark, but with the vulnerability of a broken heart.
Karol G’s No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto (I’m Not Sorry for Feeling So Much) debuted at No. 1 on Billboard ’s Top Latin Albums chart (dated Aug. 22), putting an end to Bad Bunny’s reign on top with Debí Tirar Más Fotos , which hadn’t moved from the top spot since Jan. 24. All told, that album has spent a record 77 nonconsecutive weeks atop the chart, and could easily claim that spot again.
Not this week, though: Karol G’s Me Arrepiento holds firm at No. 1 for a second week (on the Billboard 200, the album dropped from No. 8 to No. 11). And on top of that, the Colombian star has also continued to hold “DtMF” from the top spot on Hot Latin Songs.
There, Karol G claimed the top spot last week with “Ahí,” featuring Drake, and this week, she did it again with a different song — “Bby WOW” — featuring two Spanish up and comers: singer-songwriter Judeline and producer-keyboardist rusowsky.
It takes a lot to move Bad Bunny from any position of dominance. That Karol has managed to do so with unconventional pairings and unconventional music (for her) says a lot about the rarified position she’s carved for herself in today’s pop music landscape, able to traverse genres and moods and still hold fast to her fans.
Her feat also highlights how those fans are willing and able to move from the heavy-handed reggaetón beat that long dominated the charts to more sophisticated and understated fare, underscoring that Latin music tastes have decidedly evolved over the years, regardless of what new music playlists decide to include.
Bad Bunny also made a big change to his sound with his Fotos album. But while Bad Bunny delved back into his roots for his acclaimed blockbutser, Karol G went more into a universal pop/dance/alt mood, and the two tracks from her new set that have topped Hot Latin Songs offer glimmers of mid-tempo rhythm on an album where melancholy dominates, awash in different sonic ambiences.
And then, there are the lyrics.
Karol G thrives musically on heartache. Her best songs have long been rooted in failed relationships — their aftermath and then, their redemption — going back as far as 2017’s melancholic “A Ella,” dedicated to the woman who stole her man. But here, nearly a decade later, she’s amped up her message. She’s devastated rather than angry; her loneliness doesn’t throw her into other arms; she’s not looking for revenge. She’s looking for understanding, and, like her album title, she’s not afraid of feeling so much.
Feeling too much is a tough path to take for women — or even men — in music. We’ve grown used to them heartbroken, vindictive or vindicated. But the steady supply of sadness, regret, pain and loss that Karol G dishes out in Me Arrepiento is not customary.
To be clear, there is that one bichota , “female empowerment” track. “Matadora” gets very explicit in its description of a woman ready for non-romantic sex, and it’s also racking up streams. It’s the kind of club-banger that can propel an album.
But this isn’t a banger album, and “Matadora” isn’t the biggest song from it so far. No Me Arrepiento is more defined by a slow burn of emotions, beautifully and painfully put into words. It’s a different kind of diva that Karol is giving us now — and audiences are showing that we like her, too.
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