Robbed hit of the week 6/26/23 - Paulina Rubio's "Don't Say Goodbye"...
"Don't Say Goodbye" - Paulina Rubio
from the album Border Girl (2002)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #41
This week's "robbed hit" comes from Paulina Rubio, who was born in Mexico, but raised in both the country and Los Angeles, as her mother, Susana Dosamentes, was a popular actress. As a child, she started early in acting and music, joining the Latin children's pop group Timbiriche in the 1980s. A decade later, Rubio left to pursue a solo career, signing with Capitol Latin Records and releasing her debut album La Chica Dorada ("The Golden Girl") in 1992. The record went to #42 on Billboard magazine's Latin Albums chart, and spun off three top ten hits on their Hot Latin Songs chart, with her debut "Mio" ("Mine") going to #3. She went on to release three more studio albums for Capitol (which evolved into EMI Latin) through the 1990's, with each sporting a change in genre of music, but none of them captured the American market like her debut.
Paulina switched over to Universal, where she put out her fifth album Paulina in 2000. The record, moving more in a dance-pop direction but still taking influences from various Latin music styles, was a big success, topping Billboard's Latin Albums chart, and placing her on their Billboard 200 sales tally for the first time at #156. Six singles from the eleven-track record made the Hot Latin Songs chart in Billboard, with "Y Yo Sigo Aqui" ("And I'm Still Here") peaking at #3. The album was nominated for two Latin Grammy Awards in 2001, for Album of the Year and Best Female Pop Album, losing the latter to pop superstar Christina Aguilera for her Mi Reflejo record.
After a couple of compilations of her work so far, Paulina recorded her first English-language album Border Girl in 2002. The "Latin Explosion" from the end of the previous decade was still sending aftershocks, and like Enrique and Ricky and Jennifer, this went even farther to be a mainstream dance-pop affair. The first single promoted from the album was "Don't Say Goodbye", written by Cheryl Yie with producer Gen Rubin. The production pulls right from the sound that Cher was delivering to the gheys, as well as Jennifer Lopez when she was still trying to be a dance-pop star instead of being "on the block". The track is your typical minor-chord mainstream club nugget, with lyrics about starting and ending a relationship at the same time (it seems). Nevertheless, its a well produced dance track, and with a music video full of the CGI of the time, Paulina made her biggest shot for American mainstream success...
While "Don't Say Goodbye" climbed to #24 on Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, and #35 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format, the song stalled one notch short of the top-40 on their Hot 100 at #41 in June of 2002. The remixes of the song, done by Mike Rizzo and the Sharp Boys among others, helped it land in the top ten of Billboard's Dance Club Play chart at #6. Internationally, the single topped the chart in Spain, and made the top-40 in Canada (#7 sales), Italy (#18), Australia (#19), and Romania (#19), and was a minor hit in the United Kingdom at #68. The Border Girl album, released in June as the single was cresting, came in at #11 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a half-million copies.
For her follow-up, Paulina released "The One You Love", written by Brett James and Troy Verges, who are more known in the country music world. It attempted to infuse a little more "Latin" flavor in the prominent acoustic guitar placement, but the rest of the production was certainly more boy-band style. It slipped on to the Hot 100 for a few weeks with a high of #97, while becoming a second top ten hit in Spain at #10. That was followed by the Latin dance-pop of "Baila Casanova", which was a minor Latin radio hit (#22 Latin Pop Airplay). A final American radio single, "Fire (Sexy Dance)", got exposure on the show Queer As Folk but didn't make the charts.
With the attempt to capture the English pop market not really giving results, Rubio went back to Latin music (and the Universal Latin label), releasing Pau-Latina in 2004, which went to #105 on the Billboard 200. Latin radio welcomed her with open arms, racking up four top ten hits on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart, including two #1's in "Te Quise Tanto" ("I Loved You So Much") and "Dame Otro Tequila" ("Give Me Another Tequila"). The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album, losing to Marc Anthony's Amar Sin Mentiras.
Two years later, Rubio re-emerged with Ananda, which brought her back into the top-40 on the Billboard 200 sales chart at #31 in 2006. From the record the song "Ni Una Sola Paraba" ("Not A Single Word") went to #1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart. Her next album, Gran City Pop, also landed a #1 Hot Latin Songs hit with "Causa Y Efecto" ("Cause & Effect"). The record garnered Paulina's second Grammy nomination for Best Latin Pop Album, which Spanish pop/rock band La Quinta Estacion took home for Sin Frenos. The album went to #44 on the Billboard 200, her last album so far to make the main list.
Rubio dabbled again in English-language music on her tenth album Brava!, which came out in various versions in 2011 and 2012, and spun of two top-20 Billboard Dance Club Play hits with "Heat Of The Night" (#16) and "Boys Will Be Boys" (#17). Another track from the regular album, "Me Gusta Tambo" ("I Like You So Much"), topped Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart, her fifth and so far most recent time at the top.
The singer's most recent studio album, Deseo ("Desire"), was released in 2018, and peaked at #13 on the Latin Pop Albums chart in Billboard. Since then she's released music periodically; in 2020 Paulina collaborated with electro-cumbia artist Raymix for the single "Tú Y Yo", ("You and I"), which went to #9 on Billboard's Latin Pop Airplay chart. Her most recent solo single "No Es Mi Culpa" ("It's Not My Fault"), came out this February.
(5/10)
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The Spanish-language version of "Don't Say Goodbye", titled "Si Tu Te Vas", climbed to #5 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart...
The singer performed on The Tonight Show to promote the single..
She performed a "Spanglish" version of the song at the ALMA (American Latino Media Arts) Awards in 2002...
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