Borderline Latin is an exploration of the influence of Latin music in styles, places and rhythms beyond its traditional borders, and of different types of cross-pollination between Latin music and other musical creatures. Each week, we will feature a song or musical style whose rhythm, themes, melodic inflections or influences have earned it the name of Borderline Latin.
I have to admit this choice is a little twisted, but it comes with a great deal of obscure pop culture intertextuality, including early experiments in reality television, Mexican-American crossovers, and older woman-younger man erotic tensions. Sheena Easton’s career has been quite bumpy, taking her from Scotland to Broadway and Mexico City, and from the hit show Miami Vice to the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha, which she co-started with Raúl Julia. If you’ve never heard of her –well, you’re probably like most people, but hey: there’s always a first time.
Easton is Scottish, and just like Susan Boyle, she was discovered in the 1970s by one of Britain’s earliest reality TV shows, a strange series called The Big Time –really the mother of all reality TV. In the 1980s she recorded “For Your Eyes Only,” the theme song for the homonymous James Bond movie. After a moderate success in the US, Easton decided to cross-over the border into Mexico, and release a record featuring Spanish versions of her hit songs: the album called Todo me recuerda a ti. But 25-year-old Sheena was not satisfied with just releasing a bunch of Spanish versions of her old songs, so she recorded a brand new song, aided by a 14 year old Luis Miguel. This situation makes Sheena Easton one of the earliest incarnations of the MILF, by 80s standards –I say this with a huge respect for Easton and for MILFs everywhere.
So here it is: a video that makes this Earth a little bit stranger than it already was: Sheena Easton and Luis Miguel. By the way: this song won the second ever Grammy Award for best Mexican/Mexican American performance. Enjoy.
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Click HERE to read more “Borderline Latin” profiles. For comments and tips, please contact me at: Salvador@remezcla.com, and for more info on my “Borderline” works, visit Borderline Projects.