Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 2020


TKN (song)

Buy TKN (song) now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




"'TKN'" (phonetic abbreviation for "Tekken", a 1994 Japanese fight videogame) is a song performed by Spanish singer-songwriter Rosala and American rapper and singer Travis Scott. Produced by Rosala, El Guincho, Sky Rompiendo el Bajo, Tainy and Teo Halm, the song was released on May 28, 2020, through Columbia Records. This marks the second collaboration between the performers, the first one being a remix of Scott's "Highest in the Room". The song reached number one in Spain and Colombia, as well as the top ten in Panama, Costa Rica, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Argentina and New Zealand. Its music video, directed by Canada, was awarded a Latin Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video and a Premio Lo Nuestro for Video of the Year, among others.

Background



In March 2020, during the international lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rosala appeared on several radio stations and TV shows to promote her new work, a promotional single titled "Dolerme"; she told 'El Hormiguero' that she had released that track in substitution of a "very aggressive track that featured an American artist which was meant to be released that month but that didn't match the whole situation". In April, Rosala told Zane Lowe on Beats 1 that the collaborator was Travis Scott, who she personally met through Kylie Jenner in the summer of 2019 and then performed at his Astroworld Festival in Houston in November. She stated that "this song is so aggressive, it has like an energy that I think that is so specific for a certain moment. It is really meant to be played in a club".

On May 22, Rosala shared a 30-second clip on Instagram stories of her in Miami listening to the song on her phone. The clip showed Scott rapping in Spanish for the first time in his career. Three days later, she officially announced the name of the track as well as its respective cover art. On May 27, Rosala changed the picture of her selfmade Spotify playlist 'La Rosala' with one that was taken during the filming of the music video. Later, she shared a preview of the song and the music video on social media.

Composition and lyrics



"TKN" was first written by Rosala in a homemade studio in Hollywood Hills in January 2019 as a solo project. However, the track was re-recorded at the Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles in February and turned into a duet. The track is two minutes and nine seconds long, one of the shortest songs in both artists' repertoire. The track was written by DJ Nelson, Pablo Daz-Reixa and the performers themselves and produced mainly by Rosala and El Guincho, with help by Sky Rompiendo el Bajo, Tainy and Teo Halm. In July 2021, it was revealed that Puerto Rican singer Lunay was scheduled to collaborate on the track before Scott jumped on it.

The track is a conceptual song centered around a gangster family formed by the two performers, Rosala and Travis Scott. The song sees Scott being murdered in a gang war between drug networks, while Rosala becomes a widow who still dresses in black in order to express mourning. According to 'XXL's Trent Fitzgerald "The gang could either be Italian or Brazilian due to the uncountable Sicilian references, from 'capo' to 'omert' and for the use of the word 'brazuca', which references someone originary from Brazil". Rosala sings about how she cannot trust anyone anymore, while Scott's lyrics contains "a conversation with and about the woman of his life, his wife, and how she had nothing to do with this business, that he assumes all the responsibility". Rosala, the mother and wife, constantly talks about not breaking the 'omert' a.k.a. the Sicilian law of silence, which forbids talking about any criminal act or crime. The track also references Argentinian film director Gaspar No, whose films usually are about drugs, gangs, crime and sects; and a woman dressed in black named "Kika" which references the role played by Vernica Forqu on the 1993 Pedro Almodvar film 'Kika'.

On release day, Rosala told Spotify's "Baila Reggaeton" that she got inspired by the "squads" and "clans" some artists have. She stated that the song is based in the most pure and classical reggaeton. Production took a lot of time to develop and perfect, almost a year.

Critical reception



Sheldon Pearce wrote for 'Pitchfork': "In 'TKN' they sing in unison, meet on neutral ground, and disavow all potential interlopers. It's a vibrant cross-cultural exchange that proves that relying on new friends can be constructive". 'Vulture''s Justin Curto stated that: "The world is changing all around us, but some things remain constant, among them Rosala's ability to release a total club banger every few months". Music portal 'Vinilo Negro' wrote: "'TKN' brings back the best Rosala in just 2 minutes, with an impeccable Travis Scott".

Commercial performance



"TKN" debuted at the eighth position on the Spotify Global Chart with 3.4 million streams in over a day, marking the second time Rosala enters the chart. The track became a top ten iTunes hit in Spain and Latin America while the music video became the most trendy in many European and American countries, including the United States. For over two consecutive weeks, the track received an average of two million daily streams on Spotify. Due to this release, Rosala went from ten million monthly listeners on the platform to over 21 million, reaching 20 million again since September 2019, becoming one of the 100 most listened singers on the streaming platform for the first time ever.

The song peaked on the 'Billboard' Hot 100 at number 66, becoming her first chart entry and the first time a Spanish female solo act does since Roco Jurado in 1985. It also reached the second position on the US Hot Latin Song chart. TKN" became a top 10 hit in Switzerland, New Zealand and Portugal, while reaching the top position in Spain, marking Rosala's sixth number one single in her home country and Scott's first one there. On June 27 the track reached 100 million combined streams, combining YouTube and Spotify. Later, on July 18, the track reached 100 million streams exclusively on Spotify.

In late June the song became very popular on TikTok thanks to a series of dance videos posted by media personalities Charli D'Amelio and Maddie Ziegler among others. The viral choreography, marked by movements of the waist and hips, was created by Retroconverse. Starting with D'Amelio's post on June 27, the audio became trending on the app. The audio went from 40,000 uses to 500,000 in a single week. Spotify streams in this period of time went from 1,5 million daily streams to over 2 million. This trend helped the track reach the top spots in the ITunes charts in Portugal and Czech Republic despite being released for over a month. The audio reached a million uses on TikTok on July 12.

Despite being released four month before, "TKN" still managed to enter the new 'Billboard' Global 200 chart and the Global Excl. US, which were launched in September 2020.

Music video



The music video for "TKN" was filmed in Los Angeles between February 15 and 17, 2020. As revealed to Barcelonian radio station RAC 1, the video was produced by Catalan production company CANADA, who also took part in the production of Rosala's 'Billboard' x 'Honda' 3-episode documentary and in some of her earlier songs like "Malamente" and "Pienso en tu Mir". During her interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 in April, Rosala confirmed that the music video was already finished. It premiered on YouTube on May 28 and scored a win for Best Short Form Music Video at the 2020 Latin Grammy Awards. It also won the Premio Lo Nuestro for Video of the Year and was nominated for a Los40 Music Award for Best Latin Video.

Synopsis

Directed by Nicols Mndez and produced by CANADA alongside The Directors Bureau, it shows Rosala with over thirty kids running through North Hollywood, Pomona and inside a house in South Los Angeles wearing outfits designed by Alexander Wang. These children portray the sons and daughters of Rosala and Travis Scott, who died in a shooting and whose body was discovered by the police sometime after. Rosala portrays a widow and a single mother. Paintings on the house's walls reflect the storyline. They show people with guns in their hands, three people holding burning torches and a dead bird, among others. A dead white dove also appears in the video. It falls to the ground and attracts the kids, who poke it with a stick The music video ends with Rosala hugging one of the children. Mariah Tavares child being held. The video's choreography was designed by Charm La'Donna.

Remix



On June 26, 2020, Venezuelan musician Arca played a special DJ set on BBC Radio 1 Dance to celebrate the release of her fourth studio album 'KiCk' i. The musician played multiple tracks off it as well as "KLK", her collaboration with Rosala and remixed the Spanish's track "TKN", which was moderately-well received by the public. The "TKN" remix includes distortionated voices, spaceship sounds and traffic noise effects among others.

Awards and nominations



Personnel



Credits adapted from Tidal.

* Rosala Vila vocals, songwriting, production, arrangement

* Travis Scott vocals, songwriting, production

* Pablo Daz-Reixa production, songwriting, arrangement, recording engineering

* Alejandro Ramrez composer, production

* DJ Nelson composer

* Marco Mass composer, production

* Teo Halm production

* Jos David Acedo Morales arrangement

* Robin Florent assistant engineering

* Jeremie Inhaber assistant engineering

* Scott Desmarais assistant engineering

* Sean Solymar assistant engineering

* Michelle Mancini master engineering

* Mike Dean mixing engineering

* Chris Galland mixing engineering

* Manny Marroquin mixing engineering

* David Rodrguez recording engineering

Charts



Weekly charts



Year-end charts



Certifications



Release history



References





Category:2020 singles

Category:Columbia Records singles

Category:Epic Records singles

Category:Number-one singles in Spain

Category:Rosala songs

Category:Travis Scott songs

Category:Song recordings produced by el Guincho

Category:Songs written by Rosala

Category:Songs written by el Guincho

Category:Songs written by Tainy

Category:Songs written by Travis Scott

Category:Song recordings produced by Tainy

Category:2020 songs

Category:Number-one singles in Colombia

Category:Gangsta rap songs

Category:Trap music songs

Buy TKN (song) now from Amazon

<-- Return to songs from 2020



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1108360430.