Wepa

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Wepa" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

"Wepa"
Single by Gloria Estefan
from the album Miss Little Havana
Released	July 24, 2011 (2011-07-24)
Recorded	2010
Studio	Crescent Moon Studios (Miami, Florida)
Genre	Dance-pop latin house merengue Hi-NRG
Length	3:57
Label	Crescent Moon Records Verve Forecast Records
Songwriter(s)	Pharrell Williams Gloria Estefan Emilio Estefan Jr.
Producer(s)	Pharrell Williams Emilio Estefan Jr.
Gloria Estefan singles chronology
"Somos El Mundo" (2010) "Wepa" (2011) "Hotel Nacional" (2011)

"Wepa" is a song recorded by Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan for her twelfth studio album, Miss Little Havana. The song was written by Gloria Estefan and her husband, Emilio Estefan Jr. and by American producer and musician Pharrell Williams, while production was credited to Estefan Jr. and Williams. The single was released by Verve Forecast Records on July 24, 2011, digitally worldwide as the lead single from Miss Little Havana.

Backed by strong synthesizers, "Wepa" is a dance-pop song with strong elements of latin house music, merengue rhythms, and a bit of Hi-NRG. Upon its release the song received favorable reviews, praising her connection with the early records with the Miami Sound Machine dance-numbers.

Commercially, the single was a success, becoming Estefan's sixth number-one song on the "Hot Dance Club Songs" chart, being her twenty-third entry on the chart, since she began with her first dance-hit "Dr. Beat" back in 1984. An accompanying music video was premiered to support the single; the song was also remixed to fit different formats, including several remixes done by global DJs such as Ralphi Rosario, Chuckie and R3hab, who featured a special collaboration with rapper Pitbull.

In Puerto Rican Spanish, Wepa is a versatile slang interjection that likely originates as an imitation of the English "Woo-hoo!". The term rose to prominence in Puerto Rico thanks to the 1974 song "El Jolgorio (Wepa Wepa Wepa)" by Puerto Rican Salsa musician Alfonso Vélez.^[1]