Tu

Album: Donde Estan Los Ladrones? (1998)
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Songfacts®:

  • In this Spanish-language ballad, Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira pledges her devotion to her lover and can't imagine life without him. Songwriter Dillon O'Brian (Amy Grant, Trisha Yearwood) borrowed the chorus melody and chords from one of his unreleased solo tracks and Shakira added the lyrics.
  • O'Brian forgot all about the song until he heard it playing years later in a Mexican restaurant. "The song was in Spanish and for a second, I couldn't place it. I asked my friend, who is a songwriter, 'Is this one of your songs?' And she said no. And then when it got to the chorus, I said 'Oh, yeah!'" he recalled to the Latin publication Remezcla.

    He added of his experience working with Shakira: "It really had been incredible - we were just two people sitting on the same bench at the piano, and we didn't speak each other's languages. It was just a totally cool, organic thing. We were there for a few hours and it was one of those rare moments where there were four to five people in the studio, but only two people are there for the specific purpose of writing a song."
  • The Spanish title "Tu" translates to "You" in English.
  • Shakira's perfectionist tendencies came out on the album – particularly on this track. "This song, in specific, is one of many that had more than two or three demos before being recorded," she said. "I think I was really insistent with myself, and I didn't record any song until I was completely satisfied."
  • This was a #1 hit on the US Hot Latin Songs and Hot Latin Pop Songs charts.

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