"She Bangs" is a song recorded by Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin for his sixth studio album, Sound Loaded (2000). The song was written by Desmond Child, Walter Afanasieff, and Draco Rosa, while the production was handled by Afanasieff and Rosa. It was released to radio stations by Columbia Records as the lead single from the album on September 22, 2000. A dance track with Latin and salsa music influences, its lyrics see Martin wanting to hold on to a woman, and the song is a "metaphor for the universe". The song received widely positive reviews from music critics, who often noted similarities with Martin's 1999 single "Livin' la Vida Loca", and received a nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 2001 Grammy Awards. "She Bangs" was commercially successful, reaching number one in seven countries, including Italy and Sweden, as well as the top five in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and several other countries.
A Spanish-language version of "She Bangs" was recorded under the same title and reached the summit of the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart in the United States. To promote the original version of the song, Martin performed it on several television programs and award shows, including both the Billboard Music Awards and the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2000. The music video for the song was filmed in the Bahamas and directed by Wayne Isham. The suggested sexual content of the video caused controversy and led to it being banned in several Latin American countries. Despite the backlash, the visual won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Music Video, the Lo Nuestro Award for Video of the Year, and the Billboard Music Video Award for Best Clip of the Year — Latin, all in 2001. The song has been covered by several artists, including William Hung on American Idol in 2004. His cover version received generally unfavorable responses from both the judges at the show and music critics.
Background and release
From 1999 to 2000, Martin embarked on his fifth tour the Livin' la Vida Loca Tour to promote his first English album Ricky Martin. While on tour in 2000, Martin returned to the studio and began recording material for Sound Loaded. On August 29, 2000, El Siglo de Torreón revealed the lead single's name as "She Bangs" in an article and mentioned that in addition to the original version of the song that is in English, it will feature a Spanish version. In an interview with the newspaper, Martin's then representative Ricardo Cordero said She Bangs' is going to show Ricky one step further up in his career", and announced the possibilities of Martin performing an acoustic concert for MTV. Also, Martin's publicist Nanette Camboy told El Siglo de Torreón that although "Ricky is still putting the final touches on his production in studios in Miami and New York", the song's music video had already been shot in the Bahamas on August 15, 2000. "She Bangs" was included as the first track on Martin's sixth studio album Sound Loaded, released November 14, 2000, and the Spanish version was included as the tenth track.