Border Girl
Border Girl is the sixth studio album and first English-language album by Mexican recording singer Paulina Rubio. It was released on 18 June 2002 internationally by Universal Records and later launched in Japan on 21 August 2002 by Umvd Labels. For her crossover into the English-language pop market, Rubio worked with writers and producers such as Kenny Flav, Lenio Purry, Doug Morris, Gen Rubin, Richard Marx, Brett James, Troy Verges, Michelle Bell, Jodi Marr and works again with Estefano, Chris Rodríguez and Marcello Acevedo. Its music incorporates genres of pop with influences of dance and pop rock, dived into elements of R&B, disco, ranchera, hip hop, house, and electronica. Its lyrics address the subjects of love, sexuality and self empowerment.
Upon its release, Border Girl received positive reviews from music critics, many of whom praised its production and ability to combine musical genres. The album was a commercial success in America and Spain. In the US, the album peaked at number eleven on the Billboard 200 chart, becoming Rubio's biggest album in the country; it was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of 500,000 units.
Six singles were released from the album. The lead single, "Don't Say Goodbye" was released in April 2002 and became a commercial success, would become her most successful song in English. Follow-up singles "The One You Love" and "Casanova" also performed well on charts internationally. "I'll Be Right Here " was released before the album was conceived, attracted the expectation of the audience in the Anglo-Saxon market. "Libre" and "Fire " was promoted to airplay radio Spain and US, respectively. As well as English songs on the album, have Spanish-language counterparts that became big hits on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart.
Background and production
In 1997, after it released Rubio's fourth studio album Planeta Paulina, EMI Music declined to release Rubio's first English crossover album, which was supposed to be the English version of its production. Some tracks were included on CD and Maxi singles formats from the songs "Solo Por Ti" and "Enamorada", but the promotion was limited. Eventually, Rubio got in a legal battle against EMI Music for not fulfilling what they had already planned and had to pay money through Universal Music to let her leave the record company.After the success of her previous album Paulina, which was certified four times-platinum in Rubio's native country Mexico for shipment of 600,000 units, and eight times-platinum in the US for shipment of 800,000 units, becoming the best-selling Latin album of 2001, Universal Records decided to launch Rubio's career in the English market. Contributions to the album's production came from a wide range of producers and songwriters, including Cheryl Yie, Gen Rubin, Calanit Ledani, Daryl Zero, Jeeve, Kevin Colbert, Kenny Flav, Lenio Purry, Richard Marx, Marcello Azevedo, Brett James, Troy Verges, Jodi Marr, Rodolfo Castillo, Michelle Bell, Desmond Child, and once again with Estéfano and Christian De Walden. Some of the songs from Paulina were re-recorded in English for the album, including the number one smash-singles "El Último Adiós", "Y Yo Sigo Aquí", "Yo No Soy Esa Mujer", and "Sexi Dance".
Title and artwork
The album's name takes the title of the song "Border Girl", written by Richard Marx. Rubio liked it as an album title because she wanted to "reflect who I am". Several media opined it was a pun, and that the singer was referring to her crossover music, since it was her first English-language album. But in every interview, Rubio explained that "Border Girl is Paulina, her story, her life, growing up in different countries of the world, absorbing that culture and putting it on her album", using the parallelism as a musical device between her album and herself.In reviewing Rubio's impact on U.S. Hispanic culture, Professor Angharad N. Valdivia wrote in her essay Latina/o Communication Studies Today, "The title of the album declares the intention to inhabit that liminal space of the border." She concluded, "Hence she becomes the 'bordergirl' and creates an album that utilizes the polyvocality of her 'bordergirl' identity" as a "hybridity of inspired content and projected self-identidy" about a girl who transgresses the border.
The artwork for Border Girl was shot by Spanish photographer Cesar Urrutia. On the cover, Rubio is seen resting her hand in the back pocket of her short jeans, giving the impression that she is subtly lowering her clothes to show her groin. She wears a crop top nude color and a short jeans. Frank Cogan from The Village Voice stated, "On the album cover she seems to be a dirty blonde" that show her most sexual facet. While Billboard journalist Leila Cobo gave a detailed description of Rubio's image as "part sex kitten, part dance diva", explained that she "comes across as the postcard-perfect party girl."
The cover also served as one of two CD single covers for single of the album, "Don't Say Goodbye" / "Si Tú Te Vas".
Musical styles and content
Border Girl—a compendium of fifteen tracks: eleven in English and another five in Spanish—is "essentially a pop album", with prominent elements of Latino-influenced and dance. Follows predecessor Paulina, "it combines beautiful hooks with vocals and choruses, captivating rhythms and abundant energy." Dan Bova from Stuff wrote that the album is "fiercely danceable", and is characterized by a more cosmopolitan texture where "music to transcend boundaries." A similar opinion conceived musical radio network Los 40. The Village Voice music critic Frank Cogan identified it as " music plays in different ways for different listeners: as unnoticed or detested commercial pop, as pretty radio music on the drive home from work, as yet another Saturday-night beat to dance to, as a transcendent dancefloor moment when the sighs and reverb seem to inhabit all of space, as leisure-time sex and giggle." The album alternating wan ballads with disco-beat dance numbers, and encompasses various elements of other genres as pop rock, ballads, techno, electronic, hip hop, R&B, Hi-NRG and disco. The major lyrical content of Border Girl is about "the power of passion" and "the sparks that erupt from magical relationships best."The opening track, "Don't Say Goodbye", which starts with a spoken introduction by Rubio, is a dance-pop song "blends buoyant techno beats, sweeping keyboards, jangly guitars and stratospheric vocals." Rolling Stone described it as "a bouncy club anthem." In contrast to the "uplifting" sound, the lyrical content of "Don't Say Goodbye" is about a lost love. The song reminds Rubio "women that we have no problem saying when you really want someone not to leave." The Latin-style-rhythms "Casanova" is a dance-pop driven by salsa-fried instrumentals of Spanish-guitars. The title track and the first ballad of album, "Border Girl", is a "funky and melodic" song "whose underlying hip-hop beats only serve to make the song even more appealing." The love song "The One You Love" is a soft rock ballad with dramatic Latin-strings, and fancy harmonies. MTV described it "an effervescent pop melody colored with flamenco guitar" whose lyrical is "about the fulfillment of satisfying someone else's needs." "Not That Kind of Girl" is the original version of the previously Spanish-version "Yo No Soy Esa Mujer", the song is a little more arena-pop song that reflects on the tensions following a relationship. It holds the empowered and feminist anthem of the first recording.
"Undeniable" is a folk-tinged ballad song where Rubio "left to her own vocal devices." It considered one of the highlights of the album. Also as other "standout track", "The Last Goodbye", captures the Paulina's Mexican sound. A grandiose production driven by "traditional ranchera instrumentation, hip hop rhythms, and pop smarts." Vibe described it as "a searing kiss-off anthem." "Stereo" is a trip-hop-hued, R&B song that captures the affair between two young lovers. It features a rap by Pretty Willie with Kenny Flav on production. Lyrically, "it's about the rhythms of the streets, the feeling of having friends to share, partying and dancing to the sound of a good DJ." The ninth track, "I'll Be Right Here " —the first song considered for Border Girl— is the English version of Rubio's international smash hit "Y Yo Sigo Aquí". The pop song production grows into "Hi-NRG dance ditties" with the tenth track, "Fire." Over a few bland electronic-disco arrangement of finger-plucked strings, "I Was Made For Lovin' You" highlights as "a high-energy club cover of Kiss's 1979 hit" with a dance-heavy-style sound that differs to "Kiss' pyrotechnic bombast." In a retrospective observation, Mike Wass from Idolator commented that "only queen Paulina could turn this Kiss rock classic into a Hi-NRG dance anthem", and felt that the song "it's weird, wonderful and utterly endearing."
The album close with the Spanish-version songs—"Si Tú Te Vas", "Baila Casanova", "Todo Mi Amor", "Y Yo Sigo Aquí"— and the inedit dance-track "Libre".
Promotion
Media appearances
Prior to the album's release, Rubio premiered "Don't Say Goodbye" at the Alma Awards on 18 May 2002, where was nominated for Breakthrough Artist/Group of the Year; also played on the Wango Tango radio show in Los Angeles. Rubio's shooting performance on the Wango Tango concert was part of Pollstar cover 's holder of the calendar. In an interview, the senior VP of marketing of Universal Music Group, Kim Garner, said that " is probably Universal's number one pop priority," justifying Universal Music's decision to include Rubio on the cover of Pollstar. Rubio returned to Europe to an interview at the Cadena Dial radio station and talked about the album. Early June, Rubio presented Border Girl at a press conference in Madrid, where the most important media in Spain attended. She wore a long form-fitting dress that had a print based on Sandro Botticelli's painting The Birth of Venus.To promote the album's release, there were promotional advertisements aired on international television channels. One of the first promotional appearances did Rubio was in The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where the singer talked about the album and sing "Don't Say Goodbye"; the same evening Border Girl was released, 18 June 2002, after celebrating her birthday her Release Party in Beverly Hills. Rubio covered July issue La Vanguardia, the Spanish magazine cited: "Paulina Rubio heads the new generation of Latin American singers who crowds loves." One month earlier, she starred on the cover of People en Español as the cover star and she was chosen as the "most beautiful" of the list "the 25 Latin beauties" of 2002. Also, she appeared in other publications such as Miami's Ocean Drive and Cosmopolitan, where according to Agustin Gurza from Los Angeles Times, "Rubio assumes the lusty pose of a self-confident temptress, a hint of wildness in her tiger-striped blouse, her wraparound suede skirt with the cave-girl cut, and especially in her exotic, feline eyes." The writer wrote for the publication that "her look says she knows what she wants, a statement punctuated by a tousled mound of hair cascading down her shoulders" very Barbarella or Brigitte Bardot.
Rubio went back to United States during the half time of the MLS All Star match between the US National Team and the MLS All Stars team and performed "The One You Love" on 3 August 2002 at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.