"Fast & Furious" Puts Accent On Latin Music
Apr 18th, 2009 - Leila Cobo
"Fast & Furious," set in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and East Los Angeles, is not the first mainstream movie to use Latin settings. But it is the first in recent memory to prominently feature Latin music on its soundtrack."It's not a Latin-themed movie," says Universal Pictures president of film music Kathy Nelson. "It's car racing and drugs. That could be anything. But we wanted the soundtrack album to be Latin."
The soundtrack includes six Latin-tinged tracks, including reggaeton artist Don Omar's "Virtual Diva" and the theme "Blanco," performed in English and Spanish by Pitbull featuring Pharrell.
The movie's score is also Latin-influenced and includes three Omar titles, among them "Bandoleros," the song that originally spurred star Vin Diesel's interest in using Omar and Tego Calderon for the film. As Nelson and Omar tell it, Diesel went to an Omar show in Los Angeles and climbed onstage with him to perform "Bandoleros." Months later, Diesel -- who also serves as a producer on the film -- called Omar and asked him to be in "Fast & Furious."
The move made sense from a cinematic standpoint; each film in the "Fast & Furious" franchise has featured cameos by musicians. In this case, Nelson says, given the Latin settings, it made sense to bring in Omar and Calderon.
The focus on reggaeton is a reflection of the onscreen action. "There are no spots for ballads in the movie," Nelson says. "We needed high-energy music."