After a slightly disappointing start to her solo career, missing out on #1 by a few hundred copies to Boyzone, Ginger becomes the second Spice Girl to make top spot away from the band, and the first to do so completely on her own…
Mi Chico Latino, by Geri Halliwell (her 1st of four solo #1s)
1 week, from 22nd – 29th August 1999
Just a few weeks on from ‘Livin’ la Vida Loca’, Geri Halliwell hops aboard the Latin-revival bandwagon. Or is it the mid-80s Madonna bandwagon? For this slice of Spanish silliness owes quite a large debt to Madge’s 1987 chart-topper ‘La Isla Bonita’. It also reminds me of holiday classic ‘Lambada’ in the melancholy chord progressions, not to mention ‘Viva Forever’s flamenco guitars, and even ‘Spice Up Your Life’ in the propulsive beat.
But what ‘Mi Chico Latino’ lacks in originality, it makes up for in camp charm. From the start, Geri clearly knew that her core fanbase were gay men, and she had no illusions of much wider appeal. (The video features a liberal amount of men in trunks, while the ‘B’-side was literally titled ‘G.A.Y.’) And she is, as has been well documented, no great vocalist. But she carries this tune along with a likeable purr in her voice.
Geri has, I have just discovered, a Spanish mother, which gives the lyrics a little more respectability. She chucks around some GCSE-level stuff like confetti – Donde esta… Yo no se… – but I’m fairly sure there was no mention of el hombre con fuego en la sangre in the textbooks my school used… I might have studied a bit harder if there had been.
Like the Westlife song it replaced at number one, nobody is going to argue that ‘Mi Chico Latino’ is a classic. But at the same time, it is. Sort of. A classic of the summer of ’99, when Latin pop was having a resurgence, and a one-time Spice Girl was on her way to becoming the country’s biggest female star, for a year or two at least. There’s something quite appealing in the way this record barrels along, on the castanets and the ayayays. ‘Loveably crap’ might be a good way to sum it up. That might also be a good way to sum up the entire solo career Geri Halliwell, my now-favourite Spice Girl.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
You mentioned Madonna…I would rather hear….and NO doubt see this girl! Where was Oasis during this time? They have been missing in action…I’m looking for a lifeline here.
Oasis took a good three years between albums 3 and 4. They’ll be back pretty soon, early 2000.
Ok thanks…I was wondering where the rock was.
It’s a ginger La Isla Bonita, you can’t spin the ‘pastiche’ any other way than straight up copy. But it’s OK for what it is. And at least it’s a million times more endurable and less push-button than the previous number one that used the words ‘la vida’.
I agree with the comment above, it’s a La Isla Bonita-inspired (lesser) track, but I have a soft spot for this one (and it’s not the usual soft-spot I save for Geri’s tracks), as it came on the radio while I was driving my brother and nephew to Torquay to see the (almost) total eclipse of the sun. Cue memories of a field overlooking Torbay with other sun-spotters, videoing the event and clouds blocking the view right at the crucial moment, doh! It did go dark, though, and all the sheep in the field started bleating till daylight returned. So I always associate Mi Chico Latino with sheep and darkness. There’s probably a punchline somewhere in there…
Nice! I was in Whitby, I think, and remember watching it through a homemade pinhole projector. No Geri Halliwell related memories of it though, sadly.
I do like the spunky spoken bit too, cheekily out there in one camp chunk whereas Madonna scattered it subtly throughout.
The funny thing about this song is that last night I’ve added La Isla Bonita to my extremely vast playlist, and Geri’s song will come in the next 10 I’ve planned.
If you want to give my playlist a listen, search: Popescu Dragos Special songs. Take care!