Gyptian joins Jon Secada on pop-dancehall remake
REGGAE STAR Gyptian has teamed up with twotime Grammy awardee Jon Secada for a remake of the Latin star’s 1992 hit, Just Another Day.
The single, released at the end of September, was produced by Kemar McGregor, who combined elements of reggae, dancehall and pop music to create a seductive rendition of Secada’s most prominent MTVera love song.
A release to The Gleaner said Gyptian was added to give more flavour to the new version, and in the words of Secada himself: “The song talks about yearning, but when you hear the new version, it feels more like a standard love song – a passionate, straightforward love song. That’s what you want a new version of a song to do – to spark a different feeling.”
He added: “Kemar came to me with the idea for the track. I had done dance remixes of the song before. I had done it in Spanish as well. Once I heard it, I liked his version of it. The track takes the song to a place it hasn’t been before. The tonality is different, it allows my voice to be in a much smoother setting, so the melodic lines have much more feeling.”
Secada debuted as a solo artiste during the early 1990s, launching his triple-platinum LP, Jon Secada (1992). The album earned him three top-20 Billboard hits, including the original version of Just Another Day, which peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1992. The Spanish-language version of this song supplied the title of his crossover Spanish language album, Otro Dia Mas Sin Verte (EMI Latin 1992), which won the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop Album.
He has written songs for multi-Grammy winners Gloria Estefan and Ricky Martin, and his third Spanish-language album, a romantic-ballad collection titled Amor, earned him his second Grammy Award in 1996.
It was Secada’s new-found creative association with McGregor that kindled his interest in pop-reggae music, and created a seductive alterego to his already legendary single.
The song talks about yearning, but when you hear the new version, it feels more like a standard love song – a passionate straightforward love song. That’s what you want a new version of a song to do – to spark a different feeling.