Madonna will earn those spurs of hers someday by going to Nashville to record neo-country-swing versions of all her greatest hits. She’ll twang out “Like A Virgin” on banjo, pedal steel, and washboard, playing hillbilly chanteuse to match all her shitkicker-chic fashion.


The results will be equivalent to Mexican mega-pop star/ultra-sex symbol/soap opera siren Thalìa’s move to get rootsy a la banda Sinaloense. Adapting her pop goldmine of tunes to the regional Mexican ranchera sounds based in military marches and folk balladry from the 19th century, Thalìa is assisted by a competent cast of musicians (on crisp and beefy brass, woodwinds, and percussion) and producers (including Emilio Estefan Jr.) to create tight and danceable cuts. But this is not their story.
Like Madonna, Thalìa continues to plumb the depths of world pop and indigenous cultures for whatever scrap of spiritual-seeming sartorial epiphany, showing off the goods and dressing up yesterday’s party, this time with vaquero gear and touchstone references to tequila, tobacco, and rum. Though Thalìa has always had cultural nationalist flavor, dedicated fans of banda music should be skeptical of this move. But most will care more about how she looks in tight jeans dancing the quebradita in her next video.
October 2001, Illinois Entertainer

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