Al Otro Lado del Río

"Al otro lado del río"
Song by Jorge Drexler from the album The Motorcycle Diaries (soundtrack)
Released	2004
Studio	Smart Studios, Madison, WI
Genre	Latin pop Soundtrack
Length	3:13
Writer(s)	Jorge Drexler
Language	Spanish
Producer(s)	Jorge Drexler and Leo Sidran

"Al otro lado del río" (English: On the Other Side of the River) is a song, written and performed by Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler for the film The Motorcycle Diaries (2004). Besides the film's soundtrack, it can also be found in Drexler's seventh album Eco; in the soundtrack the bassist Jeff Eckels also performed.

"Al otro lado del río" received the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 77th Academy Awards, becoming the first song in Spanish, the second in a foreign language, to receive such an honor, and the first by a Uruguayan artist.

The Oscars ceremony producers would not let the then relatively unknown Drexler perform the song during the show for fear of losing ratings. Instead, the song was performed by the more well known Carlos Santana and Antonio Banderas, who were introduced by gushing Salma Hayek. Drexler's acceptance speech for the award consisted of him singing a few lines of his song a cappella, and closed by simply saying Chau! (English: Goodbye).

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Wikipedia