JLo & Cardi B's 'Dinero' Plus Other Female Empowerment Anthems Of The Summer
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**Disclaimer: This article was supposed to be published in an online publication the first week of July, that's why some of the dates mentioned in it go back to the last week of June.**
With every summer, comes a new hit theme. A song (or songs) that will forever remind you of delicious BBQs, yard parties, beach getaways and festivities during the warm-weather months. This year, those tunes might be female-let, with Jennifer Lopez and Cardi B setting the stage for a wave of empowering songs by fierce women who prove we can do it better.
“Dinero” (“Money”), which came out in May with a catchy, Latin trap beat and bachata undertones, features Lopez declaring “Yo quiero, yo quiero dinero” (“I want, I want money”), while Cardi B’s verse celebrates, “Two bad bitches that came from the Bronx/Cardi from the pole and Jenny from the block,” referencing both of their past lives before becoming famous.
The music video features the women wearing $4.5 million worth of Tiffany & Co. diamonds and jewelry, as well as J-Lo roasting marshmallows over a pile of burning $100 bills. Although the video might be over-the-top, and the lyrics might sound superficial at first, it’s really a call for women everywhere to demand what’s right for them, break the glass ceiling and get the money they deserve.
Lopez said it herself during an interview with the Today Show back in May. In a fun segment, she was teaching Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie the dance moves featured in the “Dinero” music video. As she was doing a slow-downed version of the choreography, she was explaining what it meant. “I’m going to get the money,” she said. “We are women and we deserve equal pay, and then climb the rope to the top to break the glass ceiling.”
“As women take a rage inventory about all things that inflame them, after sexual assault and harassment, the question of equal pay and the desire to make money in a capitalist environment should be normalized as a healthy impulse,” said Professor Mary Valentis from the University at Albany.
Meanwhile, the Bronx diva added that whenever she thinks of the song by itself she thinks about her getting what she deserves. “I want the money. I want the money, I want the ring, I want whatever I want!” she expressed, also referencing her hit “El Anillo” (The Ring), in which she asks the question “¿El anillo pa’ cuando?” (When will I get the ring?).
While “Dinero” takes on the material part of female empowerment, there are many other girl power anthems heating up this summer that go through a whole range of facets of being a strong, independent woman from being emotionally sane to make important decisions, to owning your sexuality without shame.
“There are a couple of notable all-female collaborations doing really well at the moment on Spotify. There’s Nicki Minaj’s new track ‘Bed’ featuring Ariana Grande, which is resonating well with listeners around the world. We expect to see it continue to do well throughout the summer,” Shanon Cooke, Spotify Trends Expert, told Moneyish. “Then there’s ‘Sin Pijama,’ a saucy collaboration between Becky G and Natti Natasha which is climbing our Global Top 50 chart and has a great summer vibe.”
Another empowering track is “No Tears Left To Cry” by Ariana Grande, which Cooke predicts as one of this summer’s hottest tracks. “We’re seeing great success with Grande’s ‘No Tears Left To Cry,’ which is averaging 3 million streams a day,” she added.
Spotify takes into consideration songs on an upward trajectory, songs with strong engagement in key playlists, songs with strong chart performance, songs with momentum driving them, songs generating a buzz, songs that just sounds like summer and songs that their gut tells them to go for.
"At the end of the day, it comes down to the strength of the songs. While star power helps, a song has to be good to hook listeners and compel them to stream it repeatedly," Cooke explained.
Grande’s single currently sits at number nine on Billboard’s Hot 100 songs for the week of June 30. “No Tears Left To Cry” talks about picking yourself up, loving life and putting yourself out there despite the setbacks of life. “Right now, I'm in a state of mind I wanna be in like all the time/Ain't got no tears left to cry/So I'm pickin' it up, pickin' it up/I'm lovin', I'm livin', I'm pickin' it up,” Grande sings.
Another song with lasting empowerment vibes is Dua Lipa’s “New Rules.” Although the single came out last summer, it’s still standing on Billboard’s Hot 100 at number 41 in the week of June 30, with 47 weeks on the chart and peaking at number six.
"'New Rules' is such a great jam with more than 860 million streams on Spotify," said Cooke. "It likely resonates because it's catchy and listeners perhaps admire the song's confident approach to a break-up. Dua is on fire at the moment and has two tracks on our Global Top 50 chart - 'IDGAF' and 'One Kiss,' a collaboration with Calvin Harris."
When Cooke talks about the “confident approach to a break-up” she’s referring to the song’s chorus, which explains the “new rules” Dua Lipa keeps telling herself to get over her ex. “One, don't pick up the phone/You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone/Two, don't let him in/You'll have to kick him out again/Three, don't be his friend/You know you're gonna wake up in his bed in the morning/And if you're under him/You ain't getting over him,” she sings.
This is the type of message every girl (and guy) needs to successfully navigate through a break-up while keeping their emotions protected, and it’s one factor of the song’s enormous popularity, even a year after it was originally released.
Hailing all the way from Israel, Eurovision 2018 winner Netta Barzilai is bringing her unapologetic self to America. Her single “Toy” finally made it to the Billboard rankings debuting at number 35 of the Dance Club Songs in the week of June 30. The track celebrates female empowerment, calling ladies “Wonder Women” and reminding them that they are divine and powerful with lyrics such as “Look at me, I'm a beautiful creature/I don't care about your modern time preachers,” and “Wonder Woman don't you ever forget/You're divine and he's about to regret.”
As for a female artist we will be seeing everywhere this summer? Cardi B. In Spotify’s predictions for Songs of the Summer, Bardi’s “I Like It” featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin is the number one. Her collaboration with Maroon 5, “Girls Like You” is also included as number three, and currently, for the week of June 30, Cardi B has three songs ranking in Billboard’s Hot 100 chart: “I Like It” at number two, “Girls Like You” at number five, and “Be Careful” at number 29.
Throughout the years, there’s been too many songs to name that talk about female empowerment, from topics as simple as “sisters before misters” to others a bit more complex like getting over a heartbreak or realizing how valuable you are, to uplifting lyrics that inspire us to just be who we are, stand up for ourselves and fight for what we deserve. You might remember Spice Girls’ “Wannabe,” Selena Quintanilla’s “Si Una Vez” from 1994, No Doubt’s “Just A Girl” from 1995, Gloria Gaynor’s 1978 hit “I Will Survive,” and Madonna’s 1989 song “Express Yourself.”
Other female-led songs that have become the songs of the Summer through the years, according to Billboard are “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX, which was the hottest summer song in 2014; “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen in 2012; “I Kissed A Girl” by Katy Perry in 2008; “Genie In A Bottle” by Christina Aguilera in 1999; “Waterfalls” by TLC in 2995, and “Papa Don’t Preach” by Madonna in 1986, proving women can dominate the summer charts and rank number one during the hottest season of the year.