Kygo and Ava Max channel Shakira on new single ‘Whatever’: Listen

Dance music has always been built upon the ability to mash up and reinvent classic songs to engage the audience, blurring the lines between new music and familiar melodies and lyrics. Kygo has joined forces with Ava Max to provide a new take upon a classic Shakira single from the early 2000s.

When Kygo first burst onto the scene with his classic debut album, Cloud Nine, the tropical vibes and infectious vocal melodies catapulted him to Mainstage status and he has continued to elevate his work ever since. Over the years, he has explored other sounds and styles but has always managed to keep some of that original spirit and energy in his works. For his latest single, he and Ava Max found inspiration in Columbia from one of the world’s biggest pop stars, Shakira. Using her classic single, Whenever, Wherever as the template, the single is transformed into a modern dance hit, with a twist to the lyrics to give them a new edge.

Ava Max opens the track right away as a pumping kick is filtered through the lightly strummed acoustic guitar, building the foundation of the single. As the pre-chorus arrives, the melody becomes even more familiar as hints of the original track slip through, but now Max sings, ‘Whatever, whatever, We were never good together, I’ll be here and you stay there, Truth is, I never cared.’

It is a hash rebuke of the limitless love that Shakira offers in the original, but the melody remains intact, a formula that David Guetta has perfected recently with his own hits, I’m Good (Blue) and Baby Don’t Hurt Me. Check out the new single from Kygo and Ava Max below and expect Whatever to be on repeat all year long at festivals and radio stations everywhere.