Can't Remember To Forget You

"Can't Remember to Forget You" by Shakira Featuring Rihanna

Picture the start of 2014: two of the most magnetic women in pop, each ruling her own corner of the music world, deciding to share a single record. Shakira had spent stretches away from the English-language charts, leaning into coaching duties on a hit television singing show and into motherhood, while Rihanna was riding the crest of one of the most relentless hit streaks of her generation. When their voices finally met on this rockabilly-tinged stomper, the result felt less like a calculated industry collaboration and more like two friends daring each other to push a little harder, to sing a little louder, to grin a little wider.

Two Powerhouses Find Common Ground

By 2014, Shakira was no longer the newcomer who had crossed over a decade earlier with hip-shaking Latin-pop and a voice that bent in ways no one else's could. She was an established global star searching for a fresh angle to relaunch her self-titled album and reintroduce herself to American radio. Rihanna, meanwhile, had become one of the defining hit-makers of the era, a woman whose every release seemed to set the tone for the months that followed. Pairing them was an audacious idea, and rather than smoothing over the contrast between their styles, the song leaned into it. The track served as the lead single from Shakira's 2014 album Shakira, and the chemistry between the two singers gave it an immediate, undeniable spark that radio noticed at once.

A Sound Built on Grit and Guitars

What surprises many first-time listeners is how rock-leaning the production is. Instead of the glossy EDM textures dominating the airwaves that year, the song rides a chugging, slightly retro guitar riff that nods toward surf-rock and new wave. It is a deliberately unfashionable choice, and that is exactly what makes it memorable. The two voices trade lines and then collide in the chorus, their tones blending in a way that feels both playful and a little dangerous, like a secret being shared. That decision gave the record an identity wholly distinct from the synth-heavy pack surrounding it, a guitar-driven flavor that stood out the moment it came on.

A Quick, Sharp Run on the Hot 100

The single moved fast and burned bright. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 dated February 1, 2014, at number 28, then briefly dipped before surging back upward with real force. It reached its peak of number 15 on February 15, 2014, in only its third week on the chart, a quick climb that showed how eager listeners were for it. Across its full run it spent 19 weeks on the Hot 100, a respectable showing for a song that never chased the conventional pop-radio formula. The accompanying video, with its smoldering visuals of the two stars trading glances, became a sensation in its own right and pushed the song even further.

A Lasting Echo Online

If the chart peak was modest, the streaming legacy was anything but. The official video has gathered roughly 1.4 billion views on YouTube, a staggering figure that testifies to the enduring pull of two icons sharing a single frame. The collaboration remains a curiosity in both their catalogs, because neither artist returned to quite this sound afterward. That makes the song feel like a sealed moment in time, a meeting that happened exactly once and left a lasting mark on both careers, a flash of rock-and-roll mischief between two women who usually played by different rules.

Why It Still Lands

Years later, the record holds up because it never tried too hard to fit in with everything around it. It sounds like two women genuinely enjoying themselves, leaning into a vintage groove while singing about the impossible business of letting go of someone who refuses to leave your mind. Put it on and you can hear that grin in their delivery, that little flicker of shared mischief that no amount of studio polish could manufacture.

Cue it up and let those guitars roll; the energy is contagious even now, all these years later.

"Can't Remember to Forget You" — Shakira Featuring Rihanna's singular moment on the 2010s charts.