Flashback (Ivy Queen album)

Flashback
Studio album / compilation album by Ivy Queen
Released	October 4, 2005
Recorded	1995–2005
Genre	Reggaetón, hip hop
Length	60:02
Language	Spanish
Label	Univision, Filtro
Producer	Goguito "Willy" Guadalupe (exec.), Ivy Queen (co-exec.), Luny Tunes, Master Chris, Noriega, DJ Buddha, DJ Nelson, Iván Joy, Tempo, Don Omar, Gran Omar, Rafi Mercenario, DJ Adam, DJ Eric, DJ Joe, DJ Negro
Ivy Queen chronology
Real (2004) Flashback (2005) Sentimiento (2007)
Singles from Flashback
"Cuéntale" Released: September 24, 2005 "Te He Querido, Te He Llorado" Released: November 26, 2005 "Libertad" Released: February 4, 2006

Flashback is the fifth studio album by Puerto Rican reggaetón recording artist Ivy Queen, released on October 4, 2005 through Univision and on September 15, 2007 as Greatest Hits in Germany and Spain. It is often considered as a studio-compilation release due to the amount of the album being previously released material. Queen began working on Flashback after the moderate success of Real in early 2005. Featuring content dating back to 1995, when she was still a part of the all-male group The Noise, the album includes four new pieces of work all produced by Rafi Mercenario, the genre's most requested record producer at the time.

The four tracks were written and recorded after the end of Queen's nine-year marriage to Omar Navarro, months before the album's release. Lyrically, the remaining sixteen tracks tell stories of female empowerment, love and heartbreak and sociopolitical criticism. Following an international tour of South America which began in 2004 and presentations in the United States, Ivy Queen partnered with the co-founder of Perfect Image Records, José Guadalupe, to form her own record label Filtro Musik and signed a distribution deal with Univision Music Group in 2005. She was previously signed to Guadalupe's independent label Perfect Image Records which was distributed by Universal Music Latino. The Flashback Tour was launched in September 2005 to promote the album.

It spawned three singles, "Cuéntale", "Te He Querido, Te He Llorado", and "Libertad", all of which reached the Top 10 of various Latin charts in the United States. Commercially successful in the Latin market, the album peaked at number ten on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart, becoming her highest peak on that chart, until 2007 when her sixth studio album reached number four. Despite selling 5,000 copies in its first week, it failed to debut on the Billboard 200. It also reached number seven on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, number two on both the Billboard Top Heatseekers (Pacific) and Billboard Top Heatseekers (South Atlantic) chart. It reached number three on the newly instated Billboard Latin Rhythm Albums chart, making the album ineligible for the Tropical Albums and Reggae Albums charts, which had previously been dominated by Queen.

The album was met with generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised its lyrical content and musical production whilst some noticed that Queen's 1998 duet with Haitian rapper Wyclef Jean, "In The Zone", was missing from the track list. Critics also noted that there was scarce new material to be found on the album, but complimented the album's track list. It became one of the best-selling reggaetón albums of 2005 along with Real, when sales of both albums went "through the roof".^[1] This gained Queen several nominations for awards. At the Billboard Latin Music Awards 2006, it was nominated for "Reggaetón Album of the Year" and for "Urban Album of the Year" at the Premio Lo Nuestro 2007 award ceremony. It received a nomination for "Compilation Album of the Year" at the 2007 People's Choice Reggaetón and Urban Awards.