Billboard is celebrating the 2010s with essays on the 100 songs that we feel most define the decade that was — the songs that both shaped and reflected the music and culture of the period — with help telling their stories from some of the artists, behind-the-scenes collaborators and industry insiders involved.
Becky G knew “Sin Pijama” was going to be a hit when she first recorded it as a solo cut. “It was two chords and one verse, but it just stuck. I felt in my heart that something has to happen with this song,” Becky said in 2018 of the track. “I wanted to get all the girls on it — Karol G, Leslie Grace, Lali. There’s more women in the Latin music space right now, and I’m proud to call them my friends. It worked out for it to be me and Natti.”
After nudging and convincing her then-doubtful record label to release the single, the sultry reggaetón collaboration with Natti Natasha became an empowering anthem for women around the world, and a song that changed the game in Latin music.
In “Sin Pijama” (“Without pajamas”), which dropped April 20, 2018, Becky and Natti took the reins and unapologetically sang about sex, weed, and booty calls, sending the message that it’s OK for women to talk about these topics. At the time, this sex and drug-themed content was exceedingly normal for collabs between male artists in the Latin industry — as heard in Farruko, Bad Bunny, and Rvssian’s “Krippy Kush” and Maluma’s controversial “Cuatro Babys” featuring Noriel, Bryant Myers, and Juhn — but much less so for an all-female duet.
“It’s totally acceptable to be sexy, to be leaders, to be us, without being judged,” Natti, who jumped on the track after she first heard it at the Pina Records studio, tells Billboard. “That we can speak our minds without worrying about criticism, because that will always exist; that we are human beings that are equal. We have a voice and it’s OK to express ourselves freely.”
The flirty track was born over a year before its release in Los Angeles, where Becky teamed up with Mau & Ricky, Camilo Echeverry, Jon Leone, Kyle Shearer and Nate Campany for a writing session. Despite the song’s creators knowing they had a hit on their hands, the record label was hesitant to release the song.
“It was taking the label so long for them to decide if it was going to be a single or not. We were so convinced it was going to be a hit,” Ricky Montaner of Mau & Ricky says. “Mau and I secretly started freaking out about it. We even put a bit of pressure on the label, telling them that if they didn’t plan on releasing it, we were going to make a guy version.”
“It was definitely for the best because I prefer picturing Natti and Becky ‘sin pijama’ instead of me and Mau,” he jokes.
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On the Aug. 11, 2018-dated chart, “Sin Pijama” topped the Latin Airplay chart, becoming the first time since the chart’s inception in 1994 that a title with two credited women led the list. It also entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart peaking at No. 70 on the chart dated Aug. 11, 2018, marking the highest-charting Latin title for both artists. The music video, which includes a small Prince Royce cameo and shows the two artists having fun with friends during a slumber party while wearing sexy lingerie, joined YouTube’s billionaire club by the year’s end.
Trusting her gut — dropping risque and unfiltered lyrics — was all it took Becky to change the way the male-dominated Latin industry viewed women in music in the 2000s.
“I think the song’s legacy has a lot to do with that fact that it was the first time that women in our industry said things without the fear of being judged,” Montaner says. “‘Sin Pijama’ was a global female anthem that connected with everyone. We couldn’t water the song down. It had to be this strong.”
“Our message is to empower all women,” Becky told Billboard last year. “If it means that you want to walk around your house in lingerie all day, then you go, girl. And if you want to be in a onesie, sweatpants all day, there’s also nothing wrong with that either.”
