“La Tortura” (“The Torture”) is a song by Colombian singer Shakira, featuring Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz, from Shakira’s sixth studio album Filacion Oral, Vol. 1 (2005). It was released in April 2005, by Epic Records as the lead single from the album. The song was written and produced by Shakira, with additional writing and production from longtime collaborators Luis Fernando Ochoa and Lester Mendez respectively. “La Tortura” is a song with prominent influences of reggaeton, and lyrically tells the story of a woman who has been emotionally “tortured” because her boyfriend cheated and eventually left her for another, and has now returned begging forgiveness. Since its release as a single, the song has become one of the most important Latin songs to move into the mainstream English-speaking culture in the US and Canada. “La Tortura” reached a position of number 23 on the Billboard. It was not released as an official single in the United Kingdom until December 2006, bundled with the release of “Illegal” and charted at 34 in the UK.
“Keine Lust” (“no desire”) is a song by German band Rammstein. It was released as the fourth and final single from their fourth studio album, Reise, Reise (2004), in February 2005 in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The music video was filmed in January 2005 and premiered a month later. It depicts a reunion between Rammstein, whose members are visibly aged and morbidly obese, and their instruments are old and dusty. They arrive at an underground parking garage in luxurious white cars driven by beautiful women in white clothes, who help them set up the instruments, and the band’s clothes and instruments are also white. Only keyboardist Flake appears not to have gained any weight. He arrives in a motorized wheelchair, just in time to play the keyboard part of the song. At the end of the video, the rest of the band leaves, abandoning Flake who has managed to stand during the song and now cannot sit back down (or walk). It reached No. 35 inthe UK chart.
“Hoppípolla” is a song by Icelandic band Sigur Ros from their 2005 album Takk… It was released as the album’s second single in November 2005. The song title is a univerbation of hoppa í polla, which is Icelandic for “hopping into puddles”, and the lyrics are mainly in Icelandic, with some nonsensical phrases, a “language” the band calls Vonlenska (“Hopelandic”). As with many of the band’s songs, it was given a nickname in the early stages of writing. “Hoppípolla” was “The Money Song”, as the band was certain they had written a song which would have commercial success. “Hoppípolla” is the band’s most successful single, charting at number 24 in the UK in May 2006. It is considered the best-known song within its genre.
“Gasolina” (“Gasoline”) is a song on Daddy Yankee’s 2004 album Barrio Fino. It features Glory, who sings the line “dame más gasolina” (meaning “Give me more gasoline”). The song was released as the album’s lead single in November 2004 and became a hit in 2005, peaking inside the top 10 on some of the charts it entered. “Gasolina” is the first reggaeton song to be nominated for the Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year. In 2015, the song reached the number nine position on the “50 Greatest Latin Songs of All Time” list according to Billboard. In 2021, it was ranked number 50 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. In July 2005, “Gasolina” was released as a single in the UK, it reached No 5 on the chart and eventually earned a Silver certification in March 2019.
“Chacarron” (often known as “Chacarron Macarron“) is a song by Panamanian artists Rodney Clark (El Chombo) and Andres de la Cruz (also known as Andy’s Val Gourmet). It is a reworking of the original version from 2003 by Andy’s Val Gourmet, who is credited as ‘Andy’s Val’ on the release. El Chombo and Andy’s Val Gourmet’s version reached the top 20 on the UK Singles Chart in December 2006. The song gained attention online when the chorus was used on a YTMND page by the name of “Ualuealuealeuale” which was created sometime in late 2005. It contained a .gif of Batman played by Adam West being drugged in a scene from the 1966 series first episode. The page also gained popularity on YouTube with a reupload of it gaining millions of views.
