February 12, 2001

Debelah Morgan : Dance With Me

Debelah catches up with the Latino-soul bandwagon just that little bit too late...

Blame Ricky Martin. Once everyone realized what a winner he was onto, everyone wanted a slice of the Livin' La Vida Loca' pie and 'Dance With Me' is a case in point.

It's just as well really, because until Martin, Inglesias, Aguilera and eek, J-Lo got on board the Latino pop bus, Debelah Morgan's career was in the doldrums. Here was a vocalist with an alarmingly strong voice whose sales didn't reflect her talent (just ask Deborah Cox) who had just lost her contract with Motown Records. For her, things looked over before they'd begun.

But ethnicity is in and Debelah (try saying that name with mouthful of paella) and her producer/songwriter brother Giloh tapped straight into the Latino/pop vibe (the groove to this track is actually taken from the musical, 'The Pajama Game'). Wisely, they've added a strong urban beat to the track but, as a whole, 'Dance With Me' is cute, inoffensive up-tempo exotic pop. It makes you think you should wear a big pleated skirt and twirl around madly as you dance to it. It makes you want to shout arriba! for no apparent reason.

This track has been popular in the UK since the autumn when its video was first arrived in the UK for cable rotation, so if it's not a hit here it's not through the fault of the song but because eveyone with more than four channels knows the song - and the dance moves - inside out.

Soul mama

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