With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, it’s time to update your playlist with new songs to dedicate to your significant other. But with a love song as timeless as Juan Luis Guerra y 4.40’s “La Bilirrubina,” maybe what you need is just a little rework of the classics.
Fellow Dominican singer-songwriter and hopeless romantic Alex Ferreira took a shot at the quintessential merengue tune in the key of pop-rock for Amazon Music’s Amazon Original playlist Love Me. The result, which we’re premiering here at Remezcla, is elegantly heart-warming.
You can’t spin around the dance floor with Ferreira’s take on “La Bilirrubina,” but it does capture the intensity of the lyrics. Alex’s crystal-clear croon floats over scarce instrumentation led by a delicately-fingerpicked guitar. Ferreira harnesses the original track’s emotion with simple warmth.
“From a very young age, growing up in the Dominican Republic, Juan Luis Guerra’s work has made a mark on every stage of my life,” says Ferreira about the living legend. Guerra’s influence is present in Ferreira’s El Frente Caribe project and his stunning latest album Canapé. The singer-songwriter crafted a bare-bones rendition to prove Guerra’s excellence as a songsmith beyond genre boundaries. “No güira, no tambora, no crazy horn arrangements; just the lyrics, the structure and the melody. If a song still holds up by using these basic elements, then we have a great song.”
Alex Ferreira’s “La Bilirrubina” will be available, together with new love songs from 29 different artists, on February 9 through the Amazon Original Love Me and Love Me Not playlists.