| "Manos al Aire" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Nelly Furtado | ||||
| from the album Mi Plan | ||||
| Language | Spanish | |||
| Released | June 26, 2009 | |||
| Recorded | 2008 | |||
| Studio | Rumblecone, The Orange Lounge (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:29 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Songwriter(s) | Nelly Furtado, Alex Cuba, James Bryan | |||
| Producer(s) | Nelly Furtado, James Bryan | |||
| Nelly Furtado singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Manos Al Aire" on YouTube | ||||
"Manos al Aire" (pronounced [ˈmanos al ˈajɾe]; transl. "Hands up" or "I surrender", lit. "Hands in the Air") is a Spanish-language song by Canadian singer-songwriter Nelly Furtado. Written by Furtado, Alex Cuba and James Bryan, it was produced by Furtado and Bryan for the former's fourth studio album, Mi Plan (2009). Furtado explained the song is about "surrendering to love, and vulnerability". She felt that the song could only be sung in Spanish because it would be a "train-wreck" if it were sung in English, due to the complexity of the lyrics.
It was released by Nelstar Entertainment and Universal Music Latino as the first single to worldwide radio on June 29, 2009. "Manos al Aire" reached number-one on the US Billboard Latin Songs chart, becoming Furtado's first number-one song on the chart as a lead artist. Furtado also became the first North American act to have an originally written Spanish song to reach number-one on the chart. It peaked at number two in Germany, Czech Republic and Italy. It also peaked within the top 10 in Austria, Hungary, Switzerland and Spain. The music video of the song was filmed in Toronto and it portrayed Furtado as an angry lover who, during the video, throws away personal belongings and items, and removing articles of clothing which symbolizes her letting her guard down and surrendering to love. The song won a BMI Award in 2011.[1][2]
- ^ "2011 BMI Latin Awards Winners List". BMI.com. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
- ^ Russell Hall (December 15, 2011). "Spotlight: First-Time BMI Songwriting Award Winners". BMI.com. Retrieved March 4, 2015.