Ananda (album)

After the Pau-Latina Tour in support of Rubio's seventh studio album Pau-Latina finalized in June 2005, she announced she would take a break from her career. However, throughout that year, different media reported that she was still working on new music, including an album in English and another in Spanish.[6]

In mid-2005, participated in Coti's live album, Esta Mañana Y Otros Cuentos, she performed the song "Otra Vez" in duet with Coti, and "Nada Fue Un Error", with the himself Argentine singer-songwriter, and her compatriot Julieta Venegas.

In her residence in Miami, Rubio met with different songwriters about possible collaborations.

The recording sessions were carried out for 18 months and thirteen songs were selected from the eighty that they had contemplated.[7] The process of recording the album was spontaneously and naturally, where the producers and songwriters did not set a time to finish it. Rubo said in an interview after receiving his first platinum certification in Spain that "this circumstance gave us a lot of freedom, it allowed us not to have schedules and, if there was a good run, we did not have to stop; it has been a reflection of everything we did. at our bohemian gatherings."[8] For the production of her eighth studio album, Rubio 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 .

In July 2006, through different media specialized in music, the name of the album and the official release were announced.[9] The album's first single is the mellow pop rock song, "Ni una Sola Palabra", was released on radio on July 24, 2006.[10]

'Ananda' was scheduled to be published on September 18 in Mexico and Latin America, but 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.

Rubio and her record label team considered titling the album Rubia, which she thought was a "pun with the last name", but they considered it a cliché; they discarded the idea and called it Ananda, because its same Paulina' house name, where almost the entire album was recorded.[11] The album also takes its title to cite the primary attendant of the Buddha, Ānanda, as she felt it touched on the album "mystical" concept "more free and more fresh."[12] Also, it is a Sanskrit word, a classical language of South Asia, which in English means "happiness". Jason Birchmeier by AllMusic, opined that the album title is upon "a worldwide movement based on the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda, a spiritual form of yoga."

The artwork was shot by French fashion photographer Lionel Deluy in Rubio's residence in Miami Beach, Florida. The main color in the picture are magenta and shades of gold to reinforce the album's title. Features a close-up shot of Rubio positioned herself in a bold pose while wearing pale make up, with the blonde hair fur on her shoulders.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[13]

The album received positives reviews from music critics with most of them acknowledging Rubio's mature perceptions. 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 (the stilted Border Girl, probably best forgotten)." Rapsody reviewer Sarah Bardeen considered Rubio's transition to pop rock "a bit dialed down" of "catchy pop effervescence", save for "lovely songs" like "Aunque No Sea Conmigo," "No Te Cambio" and "Nada Puede Cambiarme." [14]

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.[15] With two months after its release, Ananda sold 80,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen Soundscan.[16] The album peaked at #15 in its first week on the Argentine charts.[17] In Spain, the album peaked at number two and certified Platinum in its first week for selling 80,000 copies.[18] Worldwide, the album sold more than 600,000 units as of 2007.[5]

"Ni Una Sola Palabra" won for Female Latin Single of the Year and Ananda won for Female Latin Pop Album at the 2007 Latin Billboard Music Awards. Cachorro López was among the producers which nominated for the Producer of the Year at the 8th Annual Latin Grammy Awards for his work in Ananda.

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.

Notes

• The English version of the Spanish song Miénteme Una Vez Más titled as 'Beautiful Lie' was not made part of the album/track-listings in any of the physically or digitally released versions of the album Ananda or ever officially released by Universal, however it was incorporated into Rubio's set-list of her international tour Amor, Luz y Sonido Tour.