Ananda (album)


Ananda is the eighth studio album by Mexican recording artist Paulina Rubio, released on September 18, 2006 by Universal Music Latino.
The album's first single is the mellow pop rock song, "Ni una Sola Palabra", written by Xabier San Martín. The single was released on radio on July 24, 2006. Among the collaborators mentioned to appear on the album are Cachorro López, Colombian singer Juanes, Julieta Venegas and Coti.
On September 16, 2006 two days before the album's official release date, Mexican stores put the album on sale to avoid piracy; this led the album's leaking that same day. In addition, some stores carry a special version of the album that includes a poster autographed by Rubio. On August 29, 2007, Cachorro López received a Latin Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year, for his work on Ananda.
Ananda was certified gold and platinum in Mexico and Spain and sold over half million copies worldwide. The album was also awarded the first ever Tarabu de Oro award for digital sales of over 200,000 downloads in Mexico alone.

Album information

For the production of this album, Paulina collaborated with songwriters and producers Xabier San Martín from La Oreja de Van Gogh, Fernando Montesinos, Eric Sanicola, Brooke Ross, Gustavo Celis, Nika García, Julieta Venegas, Juanes, Cachorro López, Sebastian Schon, Sandra Baylac, Maria Christensen, Jonnie "Most" Davis, Marc Nelkin, Adrián Sosa, Áureo Baqueiro, Marcelo Berestovoy, Tricky Stewart and once again with Coti as well as featuring Guns N' Roses ex-guitarist Slash on the track "Nada Puede Cambiarme". Once more, Paulina takes part in the songwriting aspect of the album for the third time in three of the album's tracks: "Ayúdame", "Lo Que Pensamos" and "Tú y Yo".
At first the album was going to be called Rubia, but both Paulina and her record team found that "it was a cliché". In the end they understood that the album was more of a concept album since it had been recorded in Ananda, Paulina's house. So that name remained, what does "happiness" mean in Sanskrit.

Reception

The album received very good reviews. Jason Birchmeier, from AllMusic commented on the album saying: "With Ananda, her third impressive all-new album in a row, it seems like Paulina Rubio has her career as one of Latin pop's biggest and brightest hitmakers on safe ground, following a frustrating decade with EMI in the '90s and an unsuccessful bid for English-language-translated crossover in 2002."

Chart performance

Ananda entered the Billboard 200 chart at number 31 on October 7, 2006. It is the highest debut on the chart for a Paulina Rubio Spanish-language album, selling 26,000 copies in its first week in the United States. With two months after its release, Ananda sold 80,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen Soundscan. The album peaked at #15 in its first week on the Argentine charts. Worldwide, the album sold half million copies since its debut.

Singles

Ananda spawned only three official singles; one of them became Paulina's third number one single on Latin radio in the United States: "Ni una Sola Palabra". Even more, Paulina received several awards for this song's success and "Ni Una Sola Palabra" was certified platinum in Spain. Although a video featuring footage from Paulina's Love, Light and Sound Tour of "Qué Me Voy a Quedar" was filtered on the Internet, it was never released as an official single. With the exception of "Ni Una Sola Palabra", other singles from the album like "Ayúdame" and "Nada Puede Cambiarme" did not fare as well as did the singles from Pau-Latina.
"Me Siento Mucho Mas Fuerte" was a digital single that was launched with the deluxe edition of Ananda. "Hoy" was launched as a promotional single in Latin America.

Track listing

Notes
On March 20, 2007, Universal Records released a Deluxe Edition of Ananda which included three versions of two of the album's singles, a previously unreleased bonus track and a DVD with nearly 50 minutes of never-before seen material. This edition was released in North America only.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Chart Peak
position
Spanish Albums Chart49

Sales and certifications

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryResult
2006Casandra Award 2007International Artist of the YearWinner
2006GQ SpainWoman of the YearWinner
2007Latin Billboard Music AwardsFemale Latin Pop Album
Winner
2007Latin Billboard Music AwardsFemale Latin Single of the Year
Winner
2007Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2007Fashionista of the YearWinner