Tonight (I'm Lovin' You)
by Enrique Iglesias (featuring Ludacris)

Album: Euphoria (2010)
Charted: 5 4
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Songfacts®:

  • Enrique Iglesias gets down and dirty on this song; the unabridged title is "Tonight (I'm F--kin' You)." The song finds the Spanish superstar making a somewhat crude offer to a lady, as he sings:

    Please excuse me
    I don't mean to be rude
    But tonight I'm f--king you


    He admitted to MTV News: "It's a little bit dirtier and raunchier than the things I've done in the past, but I like it. That's what I feel. I felt good about it.

    "I thought it was a strong statement... to say in a song, but it's fun," he added. "It's probably what a lot of guys and girls think about at times, but they don't have the guts to say. It's pretty straightforward. Music has become so direct and you can say whatever you want, which is cool. At the end of the day, it's just a song — you don't have to take it seriously. You can have fun with it."
  • Ludacris is featured on this track, spicing it up with his signature flow. Enrique Iglesias had been getting diminishing returns since his 2001 album Escape, but his Euphoria album got him back on track with a modern EDM sound and some prominent guests. The first single from the album was "I Like It," featuring Pitbull, a huge hit. The next single, "Heartbeat," features Nicole Scherzinger. Another track, "Dirty Dancer," has contributions from Usher and Lil Wayne.
  • The song was written by Jacob Luttrell and Lauren Christy, with additional lyrics by Iglesias; Ludacris wrote his rap. Luttrell's credits include "Walk It Out" by Jennifer Hudson and "Gangsta" by Kehlani; Christy had a bunch of hits as part of the songwriting team The Matrix, including "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne and "The Remedy (I Won't Worry)" by Jason Mraz.

    Iglesias' label sent him the demo of the song. "I listened to it, and I was like, 'Oh my God, this is a massive song. I need to record this song now,'" he told People. "I never geel that urge, especially when it's a song that I haven't written. But to me it was a perfectly written song in the sense that when it got to the chorus, you didn't pay so much attention to the F-word.
  • Iglesias isn't known for using expletives in his music. He explained to MTV News why he did on this song: "The minute I put vocals on it and it felt good, I'm like, 'I got to go with it.' 'Cause it's not that I was trying to push it; I just liked the song," he said. "Really, that's what it comes down to at the end of the day: If I like the song, the melody, the message. Some songs are supposed to be taken seriously; some songs are not supposed to be taken as seriously. This one, you can take both ways."
  • The song features DJ Frank E (real name Justin Franks), who also produced the track. Franks is a DJ and record producer from Denver, Colorado. His résumé includes production credits for Madonna, Flo Rida, T-Pain, Chris Brown, Travie McCoy, Sean Kingston, Nelly Furtado, Justin Bieber, B.o.B, Eminem and Kanye West.
  • When "Tonight (I'm Lovin' You)" reached #1 on Dance/Club Play Songs, Iglesias overtook Prince and Michael Jackson to become the male solo artist with the most chart-toppers in the history of the chart. The song was Iglesias' eighth leader on the list, bypassing Prince, who made seven visits to the summit between 1981 and 1991, and Michael Jackson, who had seven solo #1s from 1983 to 1995.

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