"Americano" is a song recorded by American singer Lady Gaga, taken from her second studio album, Born This Way (2011). The song was written and produced by Gaga with DJ White Shadow, Fernando Garibay, and Brian Lee. "Americano" was influenced by the events surrounding the repeal of the controversial California Proposition 8—a ballot proposition that defined marriage as a union between opposite-sex couples, thereby prohibiting and invalidating same-sex marriage throughout the state—as well as the growing struggles of Mexican immigrants. It combines mariachi, house, and techno genres with elements from Latin music. Lyrically, the song talks about Lady Gaga's infatuation with a woman.
Gaga had previously experimented with Latin music on the track "Alejandro" from The Fame Monster (2009), but with "Americano" she took the musical composition to another direction. One of the producers of the track, Fernando Garibay, recalled that the inspiration came from the events that took place in August 2010, when Proposition 8 was overturned in California.[4] Coupled with the immigration related troubles faced by Mexicans living in the United States, Gaga had the idea to put all the incidents as direct inspiration for the track.[5] She had even messaged on her Twitter account about the ruling, noting that she wrote "Americano" around that time only. Garibay experimented with sounds on his guitar while Gaga played the piano, and they wrote the song.[4]
Recording and composition
French chanson singer Édith Piaf was an influence in the song's composition.
Lyrically it talks about the Prop 8 and the immigration laws, and sounds like a pop song comparable to the work of Judy Garland,[15] with Gaga claiming that she sees influence from French chanson singer Édith Piaf.[16] The singer wanted to "go big" with the composition including genres like mariachi as well as Latin percussions. She wanted to rebuke the claim in the music industry that Latin music was "a bit cheesy" and so the song took on a full Mexican form.[4] The campy nature of the track had allusions to the disco version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (1964) by Santa Esmeralda.[9] The lyrics also have allusions to a lesbian-themed marriage in Mexico, with the pro-immigrant message told through a love story set in California.[7][11]
Reception
The track received a mixed response from music critics. Dan Martin from NME gave a positive review, saying that the bilingual language song proved that the overstylization of the composition worked in its favor, making it one of Gaga's best outputs.[9] Jody Rosen from Rolling Stone found "Americano" hilarious, noting it as the "campiest song Gaga's recorded yet". She deciphered the location of the song's storyline as being in East Los Angeles.[13] In their 2011 ranking of Gaga's music catalog, "Americano" was listed at number 18, with the description as "The greatest Anglo-Latina lesbian marriage story ever set to a disco-cabaret beat".[17]Billboard's Keri Mason found the composition to be Gaga's way of trying to imitate the chart success of "Alejandro".[15] Ian White from BBC Music found essences of musical theatre in the futuristic composition of "Americano".[18]Vulture, an online blog associated with New York Magazine regarded "Americano" as "an initially dizzying listen, though there’s a tenderness in the eye of the storm."[19]Prefixmag's Craig Jen deemed the "Latin-tinged" track inferior to Gaga's earlier "Alejandro".[20]
"Americano" debuted and peaked at 17 on the BillboardDance/Electronic Digital Songs on the week ending on June 11, 2011. The song stayed on the chart for five weeks.[21] On the South Korean Gaon International Downloads chart, "Americano" debuted at number 98—the week Born This Way was released there—with sales of 4,434 copies.[22]
Live performances and media usage
Gaga and her dancers during the performance of "Americano" on the Born This Way Ball tour, wearing artificial recreations of Gaga's "meat dress"
Gaga debuted the song in Guadalajara, Mexico on May 3, 2011, during The Monster Ball Tour, where she performed it in an acoustic version.[2] She later included "Americano" on the set list of her Born This Way Ball tour (2012–2013). During the performance the singer wore a modified version of her famous meat dress and sang the song while faux meat carcasses hung around her.[23] Gaga was surrounded by her dancers who were semi-nude onstage.[24] The sequence portrayed a wedding with an extended Spanish guitar intro and Gaga appearing on the meat counter as the bride in the meat dress. It ends with the singer shooting her husband onstage.[25] After finishing the song, Gaga told the audience "In 1970, women would no longer be treated like meat. On the cover of Hustler magazine or at the Born This Way Ball, meat is precisely how we treat them."[26]
.jpg)
