Shake Your Bon-Bon

Album: Ricky Martin (1999)
Charted: 12 22
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • You can shake your booty, your groove thing, your rump, and thanks to Ricky Martin, your bon-bon on the dance floor. Bonbons are little chocolate treats, but here they're repurposed in a rather wholesome euphemism for your backside. The song itself is a musical bonbon, a fun little dance tune where Ricky Martin takes us on an adventure around the world, with stops in the Sahara and the Himalayas.
  • Ricky Martin was an international superstar by the end of 1998, when he released his fourth album, Vuelve. But it was "Livin' La Vida Loca," from his next album (his first primarily in English), that broke him in America. That song is almost entirely in English but has a pulsating Latin rhythm and loads of energy. "Shake Your Bon-Bon" follows a similar formula, with an unrelenting groove and a few recognizable Spanish words thrown in for spice ("hola amiga!").
  • The lyrics are very singable, even if they don't make sense. "Bon-bon" sounds like a drumbeat and allows for a chorus of just one repeated line: "Shake your bon-bon." Elsewhere, we get "silhouette" rhyming with "Juliet" and "Himalaya" rhyming with "lay ya." It's all good fun, with the words there to support the beat.
  • This song was written by Desmond Child, Robi Rosa and George Noriega, three writers of Latin heritage who were a big part of Ricky Martin's rise to stardom. Child and Rosa also co-wrote "Livin' La Vida Loca"; Noriega, who also produced "Shake Your Bon-Bon," also worked on Martin's songs "She's All I Ever Had" and "Loaded."
  • The music video, directed by Wayne Isham, shows Martin performing in front of a bank of monitors that flash different scenes we sometimes enter, following the "around the world" theme. It picked up MTV Video Music Award nominations for Best Dance Video and Best Male Video.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Ramones

RamonesFact or Fiction

A band so baffling, even their names were contrived. Check your score in the Ramones version of Fact or Fiction.

Intentionally Atrocious

Intentionally AtrociousSong Writing

A selection of songs made to be terrible - some clearly achieved that goal.

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s Edition

Songs in Famous Movie Scenes: '80s EditionMusic Quiz

You know the scenes - Tom Cruise in his own pants-off dance off, Molly Ringwald celebrating her birthday - but do you remember what song is playing?

Wang Chung Pick The Top Songs Of The '80s

Wang Chung Pick The Top Songs Of The '80sSongwriter Interviews

'80s music ambassadors Wang Chung pick their top tracks of the decade, explaining what makes each one so special.

Superman in Song

Superman in SongSong Writing

Not everyone can be a superhero, but that hasn't stopped generations of musicians from trying to be Superman.

History Of Rock

History Of RockSong Writing

An interview with Dr. John Covach, music professor at the University of Rochester whose free online courses have become wildly popular.