Pitbull Featuring Shakira - Get It Started

August 03, 2012 Critic Jonni 0 Comments

My Collaboration Special continues, luckily, this was the one I was worried that might not be released in time, luckily it happened. Pitbull, who's real name is Armando Pérez, is definitely an international star, some even call him "Mr. Worldwide" as everyone wants to collaborate with him, hence why in nearly every song of his he calls himself Mr. Worldwide. Now it's Shakira's turn to properly collaborate with him. In the past they have made remixes, so officially it's their third time collaborating together. Shakira, real name Shakira Ripoll, has become very well-known around the world, but recently she has disappeared, but she's back with an amazing collaboration with Pitbull, this could possibly be what brings her back.

"Get It Started" was written by a number of song writers, I dread typing them all, but here I go... Armando Pérez, Bigram Zayas, Durrell Babbs, Kris Stephens, Marc Kinchen, Sidney Samson, Urales Vargas and Shakira. It would be interesting to know who wrote what, but that would be difficult to find as they may have came up with the lyrics together, or the music together and so therefore they can't claim certain parts. However this song I wasn't too sure about after first listen, I really didn't think Pitbull's rapping and Shakira's voice fit well, and I didn't like how much the song changes when the next person sings, it's like they've matched up two songs together, but extremely poorly. On the other hand, after hearing it a couple of times it's grown on me and now it's stuck in my head.

A lot of people are currently talking about this music video, on first watch I thought it was not good at all, but on the second time I looked more closely and saw the hidden narrative that you don't see the first time around. This is a new music video, it was released yesterday, it could have been delayed, and if it were, I wouldn't be sure what music video I would be reviewing as my Collaboration Special would have been a disaster. So thank you Pitbull and Shakira and Vevo for releasing the music video on time.

It's both a performance and a narrative piece, and the performance is included in the narrative which is quite clever. It took me a while to realise there was a storyline, but I've worked it out. This woman has fallen out of love with her husband, and has fallen in love with Pitbull, she wants to leave her husband, but it's not as simple as just walking away. He is a high-profiled person with lots of money, he gets his work-force to find her and bring her back, she keeps running away until Pitbull comes along and drives her away, but they are still after her and chases Pitbull in their car, after a few manoeuvres he evades the people after them. He takes her to his concert where she's safe back-stage. What would have made this interesting if someone stole her right at the end, leaving a cliff-hanger ending, but I guess a fairytale ending is perfectly fine too.

There's a few surprising things such as references to Pitbull and his lover having sex. Which is totally a reference in the title, especially since "It" is a generally used term. I like how we hear him whisper to her "don't start what you can't finish", which is usually spoken by a woman to a man... What would've made this that little bit better would be if Shakira had been the woman who fell in love with Pitbull as she is singing the song, however I totally understand that these are two very busy artists and getting them to film together would be very difficult.

Overall they have done an amazing job, the song is catchy after a few listens, and the accompanying music video is amazing, it's one of those videos that every time you watch it you see something new and it excites you even more. I haven't got a bad thing to say about this, so I have no choice but give to this video the rating it clearly deserves.