The Grammy-winning, Mexican-American heartthrob Miguel Jontel Pimentel is undeniably Latino but as an R&B star who sings in English, hes rarely counted among the league of Latin pop stars pervading American airwaves.
Yet that perception would change in 2017, after Miguel joined Mexican pop singer Natalia Lafourcade in a heartrending rendition of the Coco theme song, Remember Me. Miguel would push the bounds even further that year by flexing his Spanish-language skills in the jaunty funk-rock Caramelo Duro: a cut off his album War & Leisure, which features vocals by Colombian-American songstress Kali Uchis.
Now, two years later, its only fitting that Miguel releases Te Lo Dije: a five-song Spanglish tribute to his bilingual fanbase.Christened after his buoyant 2017 hit, I Told You So, his new EP features artists from across the Spanish-speaking popverse: He resurges his original duet with Kali Uchis, and beckons Madrid rapper C. Tangana to spit verses in Criminal. Meanwhile the all-female mariachi band, Flor de Toloache, suffuse the title track with a brass-laden bachata infusion, intricate harmonies and heaps of loving cario. When Miguel goes solo in the slinky Banana Clip and ethereal bop Skywalker, he finesses every high and low with the utmost cool.
Crazy, wrote Miguel in a recent press release, I think I like these songs better in Spanish; and listeners both old and new, foreign and stateside, may have to agree. Te Lo Dije is a vivid, kaleidoscopic peek into Miguels technicolor Chicano soul.
Te Lo Dije is out now on all streaming services.