"Shaky Shaky" is a single by Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee that was intended to appear on his unreleased studio album El Disco Duro. The song was recorded in December 2015 as a freestyle during a recording session in Puerto Rico and later released on April 8, 2016 by El Cartel Records. The song was written by Daddy Yankee, Urbani "Urba" Mota and Luis "Rome" Romero. It was produced by Los Evo Jedis, the duo of Urbani Mota and Luis Romero.
The song became Yankee's fourth number one Billboards Hot Latin Songs chart and also his first Billboard Hot 100 entry since 2007. Its official music video, released on July 14, 2016, surpassed "Limbo" (2012) as Daddy Yankee's most-viewed YouTube video. Commercially, the topped the Dominican, Mexican and US Hot Latin Songs charts, while also reaching the top ten in Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. A remix version featuring reggaeton acts Nicky Jam and the duo Plan B was released alongside on October 14, 2016. The single was chosen by Billboard as the Best Latin Dance Song of 2016.
Composition
"Shaky Shaky" is a reggaeton song composed in 4/4 time with 88 beats per minute. According to Daddy Yankee, the main vocals were recorded in one-take and the lyrics were improvised during a recording session with the production duo Los Evo Jedis. Yankee and DJ Urba, member of the duo, had already worked together on albums including Los Homerun-es (2003), Barrio Fino (2004) and Barrio Fino En Directo (2005), highlighting singles such as "Gata Gangster", "No Me Dejes Solo" and "Rompe". The keyboard bass line was based on the electric guitar one from the single "Murder She Wrote" by Chaka Demus & Pliers, released in 1992.
Release and reception
The song was recorded and later officially announced on December 11, 2015 as a freestyle scheduled to be released that Christmas. Before its official release, a 16-second-long preview of the song was published by Daddy Yankee during early 2016 in order to incentivate his fans to make short video dancing to the track. The song became a trend without even being released, as a lot of fans around the world and other reggaeton acts, including Farruko, Zion & Lennox, Nicky Jam and J Balvin, uploaded videos dancing to the song's preview. "Shaky Shaky" was released on April 8, 2016 as the third single of his upcoming album: El Disco Duro. Because of the positive response by the fans, Yankee announced the Shaky Challenge in July, which consisted in sending a video dancing to the song, similar to what he intended to do when he released a short preview of the track before that year. The winner of the contest would have a video chat with Daddy Yankee and also would be able to participate on the remix's lyric video. It became his 44th song that managed to chart on Billboards Hot Latin Songs and also his fourth No. 1 hit single on the chart, being his first one since February 2013. The single spent four non-consecutive weeks at the top position of the chart. On the chart dated January 14, 2017, the song debuted at number 100 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, being Daddy Yankee's first appearance on that list since the chart dated May 26, 2007, when his single "Impacto" debuted at the 95th position. A remix version featuring Nicky Jam and the duo Plan B was released alongside its lyric video on October 14, 2016.
"Shaky Shaky" received positive reception among fans and music critics. Jon Caramanica, editor of The New York Times newspaper, described the song as "Nimble, simple and catchy, Daddy Yankee's umpteenth reggaeton hit is among his most effective, a throwback to his bold singles of a decade ago." Al Kendrick Noguera, editor of the Philippine television network GMA Network, said that "After 'Trumpets' came another viral sensation known as the #ShakyChallenge, derived from the single 'Shaky Shaky' from Daddy that made everyone dance in the Philippines." Jason Birchmeier, editor of the online music guide service AllMusic, stated that the song "reached the mainstream through a social network app and a hypermarket advertisement". American newspaper Latin Times described it as a contagious song whose lyrics are easy to remember: "If you repeat the song over and over while you're in your car, for example, you won't stop singing it the whole day." American magazine Billboard chose "Shaky Shaky" as the Best Latin Dance Song of 2016 and stated that "Clever Daddy Yankee [...] went on Musical.ly before the track was on radio or had a music video and asked fans to film themselves doing the 'Shaky Shaky'. Some of that made it onto the music video, which shows a dance that you should only attempt if you're a master at shaking that booty reggaeton-style. But 'Shaky Shaky' transcends."