" " (English: The Torture) is a Reggaeton-pop song performed by singers Shakira and Alejandro Sanz. It was recorded for Shakira's sixth studio album , released in June 7, 2005. The song was released as a single in April 2005 (see 2005 in music), and achieved large-scale success on different radio and chart formats, becoming the most famous Spanish language track of both singers worldwide and the fourth most successful song in Shakira's career.

According to Media Traffic, "La Tortura" is the most successful song worldwide in Spanish and the forty-sixth most successful song since 1999.

The song won two Latin Grammy Awards at the 2006 Ceremony for Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

Song information

The single is a duet between Shakira and Spanish balladeer Alejandro Sanz, both of whom also composed it along with Luis Fernando Ochoa. It was mixed by Gustavo Celis.

It tells the story of a woman who has been emotionally "tortured" because her boyfriend cheated and eventually left her for another, and has now returned begging forgiveness. Some of Sanz's lines (e.g. Pero es que no estoy hecho de cart?n, which can be translated as Come on, I'm not made of stone) imply that the ex-lover exhibits a stereotypical Latin American machismo; he apologises extravagantly, but is ultimately thinking that some infidelity is natural for men and that for the woman not to forgive him would be tiresome and unreasonable. However, on the end of the song, Shakira's character humiliates him and says that she is not going to shed a single tear over him.

The single is Shakira's sixth in the United States, following the commercial success of her 2001 English language album Laundry Service.

Chart performance

Since its release as a single, the song has become one of the most important Latin songs to move into the mainstream English-speaking culture in the U.S. and Canada. The music video of the song was nominated for Best Female Video, Best Pop video and Viewer's Choice Award on the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, during which Shakira performed with Sanz (notably, the first time a guest performed a song entirely in a language other than English). " " reached a position on the top 30 (#23) of ''Billboard'''s Hot 100 in less than twenty weeks after its release. The song was certified Platinum by RIAA for over 1,000,000 digital sales.

After her performance at the "2005 MTV Video Music Awards", Z100 suddenly started to play the track due to a large number of requests. "La Tortura" managed to hit #1 on the "Interactive 9@9" in September 2005, staying at the top spot for about a month, and even managed to hit #5 on the top 100 songs of the year 2005, a very rare feat for a Spanish song. To date "La Tortura" is still in the top 100 songs played by Z100 of the week.

In Latin America the single is Shakira's first entry in the Latin America Top 40 since the creation of the chart, the single was an amazing hit debuted at #3 behind to song from Juanes to jump next week to #1 for 20 consecutives weeks to be repleaced by her next single No, the single top the Latin America Top 40 Year-End Chart and spend 38 weeks on the chart.

The track debuted at #1 in Spain Singles Chart and was a huge hit all over Europe, reaching the top ten in almost all the countries. In Switzerland, the song stayed fifteen consecutive weeks at the top five, although it could never reach the top position. "La Tortura" wasn't released as an official single in the United Kingdom until December 2006, bundled with the release of Illegal and charted at #36 on the ''UK Singles Chart''. The song also broke the record on the ''Billboard'''s Hot Latin Tracks chart, appearing at #1 more than any other single (a total of 25 non-consecutive weeks). As a result, it was featured in the 2007 edition of Guinness World Records. "La Tortura" was chosen as the fifth favorite song of the world in a global survey made by Sony Ericsson, in which 700,000 music fans of 66 countries contributed.

At Billboard magazine's year-end chart (that shows the hottest songs of the year); " " was announced as the #1 song on the Hot Latin Tracks chart. The single is also recognized as being the most successful single in Spanish of the United World Chart peaking at #2

Music video

The music video for "La Tortura", directed by Michael Haussman, has a simple plot: from his new girlfriend's apartment, Sanz spies on to Shakira as she is walking down the street holding a bag of onions on her way to her own apartment, which is on the other side of the street from Sanz' girlfriend's apartment. When Shakira enters her apartment, she changes clothes. From that moment on, Sanz remembers things the two had done in the past as a couple, while Shakira reveals her alter-ego dancing erotically on the building's roof, covered with black paint. The choreography of the music video was made by Jamie King and Shakira herself.

The music video is in itself somewhat notable, as it was the first time MTV showed a whole episode of their Making the Video series in another language (with English subtitles). It was also the second Spanish-language video ever to enter in ''Total Request Live'''s countdown, and peaked at number four on the countdown. It can also be noted that the video for " " was one of the first in the Spanish-language to get heavy rotation on mainstream American and Canadian music channels such as MTV, VH1 and MuchMusic as in all almost over world yahoo sites. The remix version of the song, known as "La Tortura (Shaketon Remix)", has it own video (also directed by Haussman) featuring some previously unseen scenes.

Track listing

*Maxi CD # "La Tortura" [Album version] - 3:22 # "La Tortura" [Shaketon Remix] - 3:12 # "La Pared" [Acoustic Version] - 2:39

Remixes

The single and the album also included a remix of the song by Gustavo Celis entitled "The Shaketon Mix", merging a reggaeton rhythm with the original rhythm of the song. A separate music video (also directed by Michael Haussman) was also made for this remix. This video also entered on ''TRL'''s countdown.

There is another official reggaeton remix called "E. Arroyo Reggaeton Remix". Another official mix has surfaced, the "Tracy Young Special According Mix" and other remixes have also been made by independent DJs. An alternative version of this song, which had been previously leaked on the internet, is featured as a bonus track in the re-release of Oral Fixation Vol. 2, with the chorus sung partially in the English-language.

Charts

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Awards and nominations

2005 MTV Video Music Awards *Viewer's Choice (nominated) *Best Female Video (nominated) *Best Dance Video (nominated)

2006 Latin Grammy Awards *Song Of The Year (won) *Record Of The Year (won) *Music Video Of The Year (nominated)

2005 MTV Video Music Awards Latinoamerica *Video Of The Year (won)

2006 NRJ Awards *International Song Of The Year (won)

2006 Latin Billboard Music Awards *Hot Latin Song Of The Year (won)

Personnel

* Invited artist: Alejandro Sanz (appears courtesy of Warner Music Benelux, BV) * Lyrics: Shakira, Alejandro Sanz * Music: Shakira, Luis F. Ochoa * Vocals: Shakira, Alejandro Sanz * Vocal arrangements: Shakira, Alejandro Sanz

Production * Producer: Shakira * Executive producer: Rick Rubin * Co-producer: Lester Mendez for Living Stereo * Additional production: Jos? "Gocho" Torres * Remixer: Jos? "Gocho" Torres ("Shaketon Mix")

Engineering * Recording engineers: Gustavo Celis, Rob Jacobs, Kevin Killen * Assistant engineers: Bryan Gallant, Juan Camarano, Felipe Alvarez * Programming: Pete Davis * Mix engineer: Gustavo Celis

Musicians * Electric guitar: Lyle Workman, Luis F. Ochoa * Acoustic guitar: Rene Toledo, Alejandro Sanz * Keyboards: Lester Mendez * Bass: Paul Bushnell * Percussion: Archie Pena * Accordion: Umberto Judex, Frank Morrocco