Jon Secada "Stop"

As Rob Thomas and Santana's "Smooth" dominated the radio well into Y2K, Jon Secada followed suit with his spicy uptempo "Stop". With an abundance of "Latin Explosion" artists like Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony and Christina Aguilera's all over the radio at the time, "Stop" got lost in the shuffle and the song barely registered on the Adult Contemporary Chart.

Madonna "Don't Cry for Me Argentina"

When your name is Madonna and you get handed one of the world's most recognized songs ("Don't Cry for Me Argentina"), what do you do? Since we're talking about Madonna, we can easily guess she will push the envelope and do something completely different to the song. Of course, that's exactly what she did. Madonna took the sleepy ballad famous for being delivered on a balcony and morphed it into a high-octane Latin-flavored dance tune. Not only did Top 40 radio stations take notice and put Madonna's "Miami Mix" of the song in heavy rotation, but dance clubs, discos and even Adult Contemporary radio stations embraced the high-energy take on the classic song. Critical reception to the song helped justify the decision to cast the controversial Madonna as Eva Peron in Evita. In Madonna's four-page letter to the movie's writer/director Alan Parker in 1994, she cited the video to "Take A Bow" as part of her audition for a role Madonna once told Vanity Fair that she was "born to play". 

Miami Sound Machine "Falling in Love (Uh-Oh)"

Even though Gloria Estefan joined Miami Sound Machine in 1977, her career took off nearly 10 years later. With the release of their Primitive Love album that featured the Latin-pop hits "Conga", "Bad Boy", "Words Get in the Way", and "Falling in Love (Uh-Oh)", Gloria's presence in the band took a giant step forward. A year later, Gloria's rise in popularity led many long-time members to depart the band, and the band renamed and re-branded itself: Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine.

Ricky Martin & Christina Aguilera "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely"

It was 2001 and the only way to get a copy of Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera's monster duet "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely" was to buy the song's album or record it off the radio.  Why?  The song was never released as a CD single -- meaning you couldn't go out and buy the song (or in today's terms: you couldn't just download the single from iTunes).  The song wound up being one of the biggest songs of the year and a real head-scratcher as the record companies who would soon lose their grip on CD sales with the rise of Napster and illegal downloads.

Rob Thomas "Lonely No More"

The year 2005 introduced the world to Rob Thomas the solo artist.  The lead singer of Matchbox Twenty went solo and created a song that radio formats up and down the dial all embraced: "Lonely No More".  With a more pop sound (and some Latin influence), Thomas' "Lonely No More" became his newest signature song and hit #1 on multiple charts including Adult Contemporary, Adult Top 40, and Hot Dance Club Play.

Gloria Estefan "Heaven's What I Feel"

With soaring melodies and a disco-like bassline, "Heaven's What I Feel" sounds like it was a Donna Summer tune plucked from the late-70s.  But, no.  The tune was originally given to Celine Dion, but she didn't think the upbeat ditty fit with her Let's Talk About Love album, so Gloria Estefan snatched it up and turned it into an Adult Contemporary hit in 1998.