"Me Haces Falta" is a song recorded by Jennifer Lopez for her fifth studio album Como ama una Mujer
It was written and produced by Marc Anthony and Estéfano.
The song was released on March 23, 2007 by Epic Records as the second and final single from the album.
"Me Haces Falta" is a latin pop song about self-loathing. Its instrumentation consists of drums, cello, bass and guitar.
Music critics were complimentary to the song's lyrics and to Jennifer's vocals, but dismissed its production.
An accompanying music video for the song was directed by Sanji.
The video portrays Jennifer as an undercover FBI agent who surrenders her lover to the police and has regrets afterwards.
"Me Haces Falta" was included in the set list of Jennifer's co-headling tour with Marc in 2007.
Song Background
Plans for Jennifer to release a Spanish language album materialized in 2004 when Lopez's then-husband Marc Anthony was finishing up production of his ninth studio album "Amar Sin Mentiras" with Estéfano and Julio Reyes.
Jennifer went into the recording studio with them to record a song entitled "Escapémonos," as a duet with Marc.
She enjoyed working on the song so much that she decided to record a full-length Spanish album which was something she had wanted to do for years.
Prior to breaking out into the music scene in May of 1999 with her single "If You Had My Love," Jennifer always pictured her music career to be in Spanish.
According to Jennifer: "My life took a different turn, which was great for me. But my heart was always kind of on the Spanish side."
Before recording began for her first Spanish album, Jennifer recorded and released her fourth English studio album "Rebirth."
In early 2006, it was announced that Jennifer would release her first Spanish album and her fifth studio album "Como Ama una Mujer" later that year.
The album was produced by Marc Anthony, Estéfano and Reyes over a span of three years.
According to Estéfano, Como Ama una Mujer will "prove critics wrong" from its "big songs that require a voice"; referring to the critics about Jennifer having a "limited" vocal tone.
The album was released on March 27, 2007 in the United States, preceding the release of its lead single "Qué Hiciste" in January. "Como ama una Mujer" received mixed reviews from music critics.
At Metacritic (which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics), the album received an average score of 45, based on 7 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews."
"Me Haces Falta" was announced to be the album's second single and was released digitally in select countries on March 23, 2007, such as Austria, Canada and Italy.
It was then serviced to radio on the week of June 29, 2007.
The song was later included as a B-side to "Do It Well" the lead single from Jennifer's sixth studio album "Brave" in September of 2007.
Music & Lyrics
"Me Haces Falta" is a latin pop ballad, with a length of three minutes and thirty-seven seconds.
Its instrumentation consists of drums, cello, bass and guitar. Estéfano wrote the lyrics to "Me Haces Falta" while Marc Anthony composed its music.
Both co-produced the song together while Julio Reyes provided the arrangement. Bruce Swedien and Peter Wade recorded Jennifer's vocals for the song at Midnight Blue Studios in Miami, Florida while its mixing was done by Reyes and Swedien
According to Jennifer, the song is about missing someone terribly:
"someone who is missing someone so much and has done something so wrong to the person that they know they can't fix it. So they just hate themselves right in that moment, they can't stand [it], they regret everything that they did and they wish they could change things."
James Reed of The Boston Globe noted the chorus of "Me Haces Falta" to be self-loathing, with the lines: "Tú me haces falta/Sí, me arrepiento/Me odio/Estoy desesperada" (English: "I miss you/Yes, I repent/I hate myself/I'm desperate").
Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly praised the song's lyrics, but dismissed the song's production, stating that it does not live up the song's "florid, romance-novel lyrics."