Tatiana, the '80s Mexican teen star; before her KidVid days
Written: Jul 29 '00 (Updated Dec 17 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Pleasant light pop in Spanish
Cons: Slightly bratty-sounding voice; she matured better later
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| dtobias's Full Review: Chicas de Hoy by Tatiana |
A while back I reviewed Tatiana's current album, consisting of Spanish-language children's music, and I've also reviewed her TV show (El Espacio de Tatiana). These have since become my least-often read reviews, showing that few in the Epinions community give a dern about Tatiana. (When somebody does give a dern, which Dern is it? I prefer Laura Dern.) All the how-to articles posted in the "About Epinions" sections say to try to write your Epinions about things that the community is very interested in so you get more hits; so I'm showing how contrary I am by blatantly disregarding this advice and posting another Tatiana review anyway. (At least I might not get to see how unpopular this review is; the hit counters have been busted all week.) Well, the handful of people who did read my other reviews did "Highly Recommend" them, so let's see if I at least keep that streak going.
As I mentioned in my earlier reviews:
http://dantobias.epinions.com/elec-review-3789-F851EF3-3952AC05-prod5
http://dantobias.epinions.com/musc-review-10B1-6B310DE-395A973E-prod1
Tatiana started as a teen pop star in Mexico before turning to children's music and TV hosting. I've gotten hold of one of her albums from that era -- Chicas De Hoy, released in 1986 - so that is what I am reviewing now.
As far as I know, this album is long out of print, so to find it you'll have to check out places where you can find used and rare records, tapes, and CDs. gemm.com is one such place. I got mine on Ebay, however. It went (in cassette form) for a pretty low price (about $3). However, soon afterward, a vinyl LP version of the same album went for a much higher price (about $25) to somebody else. One reason, of course, is that vinyl records are much better in sound quality (if you're one of the shrinking group of people who actually has a turntable and a stereo receiver that can handle one) and generally considered more collectible; but what might be an even more significant factor is that the listing for the LP version played up the presence of two duets with former Menudo member Johnny Lozada, mentioning that name in the listing title. Menudo fans seem to be a fairly powerful group on Ebay, and will drive up the price of anything involving current or former members of this group (Ricky Martin especially). The lesson is that if you've got one of this album you're trying to unload, be sure to mention Menudo. If you're trying to buy one, see if you can find a copy somewhere that doesn't mention the Menudo connection, and maybe you'll get a better price.
Anyway, since the version I got is on cassette, its sound quality is not very great - it appears to be cheaply manufactured to begin with, and has had over ten years to wear out further. I'd prefer a CD, but I don't know if this album was ever released in that format. [Note: I've since found many of the songs from this album on "greatest-hits" Tatiana CDs.]
Getting to the music itself, Chicas De Hoy is your basic '80s teenage-girl pop music, though with a Latin flair. The style of the songs is such that they'd be more or less at home being sung by Tiffany on one of her late-'80s teen albums, other than that they're in Spanish. That's OK with me, since I like Tiffany, but those whose musical tastes are elsewhere probably won't find much of interest here.
Tatiana's voice at this point hasn't yet matured to its current state; she sounds a little "bratty." Her current-day children's music ironically sounds more mature - now, she's an adult singing songs for children, while when Chicas De Hoy was released she was a child. (I'm not positive exactly how old she is, but I think she was around 16 or 17 when this album was released, and about 30 now.) Comparing and contrasting teen vocalists and their later adult voices, I find that Tiffany has a voice that hasn't changed very much over the years (and is to my liking); Debbie Gibson's also has stayed fairly constant (but a little syrupy to my tastes); but Tatiana has changed quite a bit in vocal style (and fortunately for the better). [Note: Since writing this review, I've had the chance to hear some of the songs from this album on CD or on higher-quality cassettes than the one I have of this album itself, and I find that some of my impression of her vocal quality was distorted by the poor sound reproduction on the original cassette. I still think her voice has improved with age, but her young voice was better than my original impression of it, and sounds nice and clear when listened to with better sound reproduction.]
Even so, I still found the songs on Chicas De Hoy to be enjoyable; her voice, though not as good as it is later, is not annoying either, and the songs are very pleasant even if I don't know enough Spanish to understand all the lyrics. Incidentally, in both her teen and adult selves, Tatiana has a nice clear voice that gives the listener a good chance of at least making out what the words are, even if they're not understood due to language barriers; this contrasts with many vocalists whose lyrics in English are totally incomprehensible to me. It's not really an exaggeration to say that I understand more in a typical Tatiana song than I ever have in "Louie Louie" [by the Kingsmen] or "Blinded By The Light" [as performed by Manfred Mann's Earth Band; the original Bruce Springsteen version is at least vocally understandable even if the meaning of the lyrics is so obscure it might as well have been in Spanish].
Anyway, here are the songs on this album (and my probably-pathetic attempts to translate them):
1) Mario (Did she have a boyfriend of that name at the time? The name comes up in at least one other song on the album too.)
2) Sola ("Only")
3) Esperame ("I am awaiting")
4) Chicas De Hoy ("Girls of Today") The title track, which she re-recorded in a somewhat livelier version on her 2000 album Vamos A Jugar.
5) Me Voy a Enamorar ("I am going to win [somebody's?] heart")
6) Cuando Estemos Juntos ("When we are together") One of the two duets with Johnny Lozada. There's actually an interesting story behind these duets; they were created as part of a campaign to promote abstinence from teenage sex. The lyrics of this song are about how hot two teenage lovers feel for one another, but how she's still saying no to his sexual advances because it's best to wait instead of possibly doing something foolish now in the heat of passion. This campaign got a lot of publicity, including being featured on the ABC TV show "20/20" in a segment hosted by John Stossel, who was generally favorable about it, but expressed some skepticism about whether the campaign would actually have any effect on teenage behavior. Some critics attacked the song for being too "sexy" itself and undermining its own campaign.
7) Maldito Telefono ("Cursed [or "Damned"] Telephone") OK, that's maybe stronger language than I'd expect on an '80s Tiffany album.
8) Basta ("Enough!")
9) No Soy Muñeca de Piedra ("I'm Not a Doll [or puppet] of Stone") My favorite song on the album. "Muñeca" is one of the Spanish words that I think sounds much better in lyrics than the English equivalent (that "ñ" helps), and it can mean a doll or a puppet (and takes the -a ending if feminine or -o if masculine). It can also mean "wrist," but that's not relevant here. One of Tatiana's characters in her kids' TV show is "La Muñeca Vestida de Azul" (The Doll/Puppet Dressed in Blue).
10) Creo Que Es Amor ("I Believe This is Love")
11) Eres El Heroe ("You Are The Hero") The lyrics say something about dreaming in Technicolor.
12) Detente ("I was held prisoner"; don't confuse the word with the English word "détente", used to describe U.S./Soviet reduction in tension, and deriving from a French word completely unrelated to this Spanish word. Such confusing similarities are known to language students as "false friends." [¿Amigos falsos?]) This is the second duet with Johnny Lozada.
All in all, it's a pleasant album, if you like teen-pop songs and can tolerate them being in a non-English language.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dtobias
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Member: Daniel Tobias
Location: Boca Raton, FL
Reviews written: 167
Trusted by: 94 members
About Me:
A programmer and Internet developer who's been a "computer geek" for over 20 years now.
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