Hotel Nacional (3:28)

“Hotel Nacional” (“National Hotel”) is a song by Cuban-American recording artist Gloria Estefan. It was released as the second single from her studio album Miss Little Havana (2011). Written by Estefan, Emilio Estefan and Motiff, the song portrays the need to dance, going to parties and being glamorous. On February 3, 2012 a sneak peak of the video for the song was provided to an audience at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida.

The song became commercially successful when it debuted at the top of the Billboard Latin Songs chart, the first number-one debut for Estefan and the first single by a female performer to start at this position. “Hotel Nacional” has been widely remixed by several DJ’s including Pablo Flores, Ralphi Rosario, Mike Cruz, Funk3d among others.

“Hotel Nacional” was described by Estefan as a “very woody, old fashioned sound, cause it’s jitterbuggy … It’s got clarinets, it’s got saxes, and a whole different vibe-it just sounds like you could be in the 20s but with hardcore dance”, while commenting on the tracks included her album on Billboard. On the review for Miss Little Havana, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic relate the lyrics “cuchi cuchi” to Spanish performer Charo. Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine noted that the track “undercuts its pitched beat with wonky Dixieland clarinet riffs.” On the review of the parent album by Soul Bounce, they commended the way producer Motiff reinterprets the “big-band sound loops” of house music in the late ’80s on the track