In 2011, “On The Floor” became one of the biggest hits of Jennifer Lopez’s career. Now, it’s her first song in the Spotify Billions Club. The Pitbull collab has entered into vaunted territory on the streaming platform, becoming Lopez’s first song to surpass a billion plays.
“On The Floor” was the lead single and opening track from Lopez’s 2011 album Love?, her first for Island Records. Leaning into Lopez’s background as a dancer and referencing her Latin heritage, the electronic dance-pop track interpolates the Bolivian folk song “Llorando se fue,” written by Gonzalo and Ulises Hermosa of Los Kjarka and popularized by Kaoma’s 1989 reworking “Lambada.” The Hermosas are credited as writers of “On The Floor” along with Kinnda “Kee” Hamid, AJ Junior, Teddy Sky, Bilal “The Chef” Hajji, Pitbull, and RedOne, who also produced the track.
“It feels like me today, which I like,” Lopez told MTV at the time. “It’s not something that you hear and you’re like, ‘That’s not her,’ but you also go, ‘Is that her? I like that. It’s new.’ And that’s what I wanted. I wanted it to be very me, but I wanted it to be me not from my first album or my second album, but for today.”
The release of “On The Floor” coincided with her joining American Idol as a judge. The show provided a promotional launchpad for “On The Floor,” giving Lopez a venue to debut the music video and perform the song live for the first time. “On The Floor” rose to No. 3 in the U.S. and hit No. 1 in several countries around the world. The song sold more than 13 million copies worldwide in 2011, making it the year’s best selling single by a female artist.
Not only was “On The Floor” a success on the charts, it also won Lopez praise from critics. The Observer called it a “triumph,” while Rolling Stone pegged it as “music worth getting lost in” and the Los Angeles Times praised the “sweat-inducing, sticky dance floor track” as “vintage J.Lo.”
