La Modelo (Ozuna song)

"La Modelo" ("The Model") is a song by Ozuna and Cardi B. It was released by VP Records on December 22, 2017. The track was written by Ozuna, Cardi B, José Aponte, Vincente Saavedra and its producers Yampi, Hi Flow, Gaby Music and Chris Jeday. It is the first single from Ozuna's second album Aura, released in August 2018.

Background and composition
Ozuna told Billboard, in an interview: "I've done a lot of collabs, but most of the time, it's me on someone else's track. I'd never brought someone like Cardi B into my own music. When you hear [the song], you'll say: 'Wow, that woman is amazing,' in English and in Spanish. That to me is the real crossover: a mainstream artist singing in Spanish."

The song comprises a steady, mid-tempo dancehall-infused beat with a "reggaetón soul". Ozuna described the song as "Jamaican dancehall, brought to the club". Cardi B performs verses and choruses in Spanish and a rap bridge in English.

Critical reception
In Pitchfork, Matthew Ismael Ruiz opined how "Cardi's versatility is on full display... The tender [Ozuna]'s smoothed[-]out alto suits Cardi's grittier voice, and they manage to capture the bubbly giddiness of fresh love with a casual swagger. Her bars in English are merely serviceable, but she sounds at home crooning in Spanish alongside Ozuna." He concluded by saying "The song highlights why Cardi is so important to pop this year: Her bilingual, pan-Caribbean aesthetic represents a modern depiction of Latinidad, and proves its mainstream appeal." In 2022, Rolling Stone listed the song at number 100 on its list of the 100 greatest reggaetón songs of all time.

Music video
Directed by Nuno Gomes and filmed in Jamaica, the music video was released on December 19, 2017. The video features a short sequence of street scenes and various people around Jamaica, before panning-out to the shot of a giant mansion overlooking the ocean. Inside the mansion, and on the front steps, Cardi B and a troupe of female dancers perform. Ozuna appears throughout, as well as scene inside the mansion with Cardi (without dancers), and in several scenes in the middle of an intersection in Jamaica. During the rap bridge, both singers and their dancers are filmed at a house party scene, with Cardi rapping on the dancefloor.

On Ozuna's official channel on YouTube, the music video currently has over 3.1 million likes and 565 million views (as of 2024).