"Hotel Nacional" ("National Hotel") is a song by Cuban-American recording artist

Gloria Estefan Gloria Estefan (; born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García; born 1 September 1957) is a Cuban-American singer, actress, and businesswoman. Estefan is a seven-time Grammy Award winner, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and has been ...

. It was released as the second single from her studio album '' Miss Little Havana'' (2011). Written by Estefan, the song portrays the need to dance, going to parties and being glamorous. On February 3, 2012 a sneak peek of the video for the song was provided to an audience at the

American Airlines Arena FTX Arena (known as American Airlines Arena from 1999 to 2021) is a multi-purpose arena located in Miami, Florida, along Biscayne Bay. It was constructed beginning in 1998 as a replacement for the Miami Arena and designed by the architecture f ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. The song became commercially successful when it debuted at the top of the ''Billboard'' Latin Songs chart, the first number-one debut for Estefan and the first single by a female performer to start at this position. "Hotel Nacional" has been widely

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

ed by several DJs including

Pablo Flores Pablo Flores is a Puerto Rican DJ, record producer, remixer and arranger. Remixes for Gloria Estefan * " Abriendo Puertas" * " Bad Boy" * "Bailando!'" (Special edition Megamix) * " Betcha Say That" * "Cherchez La Femme" * "Como Me Duele Perder ...

Ralphi Rosario Ralphi Rosario is an American house musician and founding member of the influential Chicago DJ group Hot Mix 5. Biography When Hot Mix 5 was formed in 1981 on radio station WBMX (now WVAZ), Rosario, the youngest member of the group, was still in ...

, Mike Cruz, Funk3d among others.

Background

Cuban-American singer

announced her retirement from the large world tours after the release of her studio album ''

90 Millas ''90 Millas'' (''90 Miles'' in English, pronounced "no-VEN-ta Mi-yas" in Spanish) is the eleventh solo studio album by the Cuban-American singer-songwriter Gloria Estefan, and her fourth Spanish language album, coming after ''Mi Tierra, Abriendo ...

'' in 2007. Three years later American producer and performer

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...

presented Estefan with two songs, "I Can't Believe" and "Miss Little Havana", which the singer liked, and they began working on them in the recording studio while writing the rest of the songs included on ''Miss Little Havana''. The album was recorded in English with some Spanish and French lyrics. Coincidentally, the album was released on the 25th anniversary of her single "

Conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

", and with the album purchase a new version of the track, titled "Conga 25", can be downloaded.

Composition and reception

"Hotel Nacional" was described by Estefan as a "very woody, old fashioned sound, cause it's jitterbuggy ... It's got clarinets, it's got saxes, and a whole different vibe-it just sounds like you could be in the 20s but with hardcore dance", while commenting on the tracks included her album on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

''. On the review for ''Miss Little Havana'',

Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

related the lyrics "cuchi cuchi" to Spanish performer

Charo María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza, professionally known by her stage name Charo, is a Spanish-American actress, singer, comedian, and flamenco guitarist. Charo began playing guitar at the age of nine and trained under the famed A ...

. Eric Henderson of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' noted that the track "undercuts its pitched beat with wonky

Dixieland Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...

clarinet riffs." On the review of the parent album by ''Soul Bounce'', they commended the way producer Motiff reinterprets the "big-band sound loops" of

house music House is a music genre characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 120 beats per minute. It was created by Disc jockey, DJs and music producers from Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago' ...

in the late '80s on the track.

Chart performance

The song debuted at the top of the ''Billboard'' Top Latin Songs chart dated on the week of January 14, 2012, becoming the fifteenth number-one song for Estefan, her number-one debut and debut at the top by a female performer. Estefan joined

Juanes file:Juanes ZMF 2015 jm49108.jpg, Juanes at the Zelt Musik Festival 2015 in Freiburg, Germany file:Juanes ZMF 2015 jm49211.jpg, Juanes at the Zelt Musik Festival 2015 in Freiburg, Germany Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez (born 9 August 19 ...

Enrique Iglesias Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (; (born 8 May 1975) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He started his recording career in the mid-1990s on the Mexican indie label Fonovisa and became the bestselling Spanish-language act of the decade. By the ...

Juan Gabriel Alberto Aguilera Valadez (; January 7, 1950 – August 28, 2016), known professionally as Juan Gabriel (), was a Mexican singer, songwriter and actor. Colloquially nicknamed as Juanga () and El Divo de Juárez, Juan Gabriel was known for his f ...

Maná Maná () is a Mexican pop rock band. The band is considered one of the best-selling Latin music artists and the most successful Latin American band of all time with over 40 million records sold worldwide. The group's current lineup consists o ...

Ricky Martin Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography spanning ...

Romeo Santos Anthony "Romeo" Santos (born July 21, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and actor who is best known as the frontman and lead vocalist of the bachata group Aventura. In 2002, the song " Obsesión" reached number one in It ...

Marco Antonio Solís Marco Antonio Solís Sosa (born 29 December 1959) is a Mexican musician, singer, composer, and record producer. Born and raised in Ario de Rosales, Michoacán, Solís began his musical career at the age of six, performing part of Los Hermanito ...

and

Los Temerarios Los Temerarios are a Mexican Grupera band from Fresnillo, Zacatecas started in 1978 by brothers Adolfo Angel and Gustavo Angel and their cousin Fernando Angel. During their early years, they were known as ''Conjunto La Brisa''. ''Los Temerario ...

in the group of performers that have debuted at the top of the chart at the time. With "Hotel Nacional" Estefan extends her record as the female performer with most number-one songs on the list and the third performer overall, only surpassed by Iglesias and

Luis Miguel Luis Miguel Gallego Basteri (born 19 April 1970) is a Puerto Rican-born Mexican singer, often referred to as ''El Sol de México'' (The Sun of Mexico), which is the nickname his mother gave him as a child—"mi sol". Luis Miguel has sung in mu ...

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Gloria Estefan singles 2011 singles Gloria Estefan songs Macaronic songs Songs written by Gloria Estefan Songs written by Emilio Estefan Songs written by Pharrell Williams