"No Me Ames" (English: "Don't Love Me") is a Latin pop duet recorded by American singers Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony for Lopez's debut studio album, On the 6 (1999). It is a Spanish cover version of the Italian song "Non Amarmi", written by Giancarlo Bigazzi, Marco Falagiani and Aleandro Baldi and recorded by Baldi and Francesca Alotta for Baldi's album Il Sole (1993). The song was translated into Spanish by Ignacio Ballesteros at Anthony's request. Two versions of the song were produced for On the 6; one as a ballad and the other as a salsa. The ballad version was produced by Dan Shea, while the salsa version was arranged and produced by Juan Vicente Zambrano. The music video was directed by Kevin Bray and received a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Short Form Music Video. It served as the encore during the couple's co-headlining tour in 2007.
"No Me Ames" speaks of a complicated relationship between two lovers. It was first released by Work Records on May 11, 1999, as a B-side to "If You Had My Love" (1999). The work received generally positive reviews from critics. The song peaked at number one in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. It received a Latin Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Performance by a Duo/Group with Vocals". At the Billboard Latin Music Awards of 2000, the song received an award for Hot Latin Track of the Year by a Vocal Duo and two nominations for Tropical/Salsa Track of the Year and Hot Latin Track of the Year. It also received an award for Salsa Song of the Year at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Awards of 2000.
Background
"No Me Ames" is a cover of the chart-topping Italian song "Non Amarmi", originally recorded by Aleandro Baldi and Francesca Alotta for Baldi's album Il Sole (1993). "Non Amarmi" was issued as a single in 1992. The song speaks of a complicated relationship between two lovers. It was written by Giancarlo Bigazzi, Marco Falagiani and Baldi, and was later adapted into Spanish by Ignacio Ballesteros. The song peaked number 71 on the Eurochart Hot 100 Singles on the week ending April 4, 1992. It also won the "Newcomers" section of the 1992 Sanremo Music Festival. The first Spanish version of the song was released by Mexican singer Yuri and her husband Rodrigo Espinoza with different lyrics titled "Hoy Que Estamos Juntos" ("Now That We're Together") on her album Huellas (1997).
One day, whilst working on On the 6, Jennifer Lopez "happened to be" recording at the same recording studio where American recording artist Marc Anthony was recording. Anthony, who had become intrigued by Lopez after seeing her in Selena (1997), came into her studio and asked her to appear in the music video for his song "No Me Conoces". She agreed, but only if he recorded a song with her, to which he in turn agreed. Lopez recalled the events on her Feelin' So Good video album by stating: "So at that time I called Tommy [Mottola] and I'm like 'Look, so Marc Anthony said he would do a song and I really don't want to do a duet with just anybody, I want to do a duet with him. So can you force him to sign something, so he has to do a record with me? If I do this video!'". The two first shot the video and then began working on the song.
According to Lopez, Anthony had the idea to translate "Non Amarmi", an "old Italian song", into Spanish. Two versions of the songs were produced for On the 6, a ballad and a salsa production. The ballad was produced by Dan Shea, while the other was produced by Juan Vicente Zambrano. Lopez stated: "I don't want to be straight Latin! I want it to be more like, y'know, dance-y music-y".
Chart performance
The song was released on May 11, 1999, as a B-side to "If You Had My Love". The song was promoted by Sony Discos, who released both versions of the song in their respective radio formats. "No Me Ames" debuted in the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart at number 23 in the week of May 15, 1999, climbing to the top ten three weeks later. The song peaked atop the chart for the week of June 26, 1999, replacing "Livin' la Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin and was succeeded by "Bailamos", by Spanish singer-songwriter Enrique Iglesias, two weeks later. The song returned to number one on the week of July 3, 1999, lasting five weeks until it was displaced by Alejandro Fernández's "Loco". "No Me Ames" ended 1999 as the third best performing Latin track of the year in the United States.