Have you ever professed feelings to the love of your life while a Pitbull song was playing in the background? Oh, you haven’t? You should give it a try sometime. Clearly, it works wonders—because in Bridgerton, it leads to one of the series’ greatest love stories. Pitbull is a romantic genius.
(Warning: Spoilers ahead for Bridgerton Season 3, Part 1.)
Let’s set the scene: Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) is having a tense carriage ride back to her home across from the Bridgerton estate. She’s fed up with Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton), who has vexed her for years as the charming boy next door. He just ruined her one chance at marriage by intercepting a proposition at a ball. And yet, he still does not seem to love her. Why, then, must he continue to take such a vested interest in her love life?
Hold up—as Penelope cries, she fails to see the sweaty man that has chased down her carriage. Why, it’s Colin Bridgerton! She rejects him, at first, basically saying, “Dude, what the hell is up with you?” And then, after pleading with her to notice him and to listen, Colin brings forth the truth: He can’t stop thinking about her. Madly, deeply, he wants her. They kiss—we celebrate! And then an orchestral version of “Give Me Everything” by Pitbull plays in the background—we celebrate again, but now, like there’s no tomorrow!
Every bone in my body is simply swooning while watching this scene. The enclosed space? Hot. The lead actors devouring each other? Life-changing. The delectable Pitbull song reminding me that 2011 existed? Nostalgic. It’s as brilliant as it is bizarre, as social media reactions have echoed, and I plan on watching it several dozen more times. Expect that Pitbull cover to be on my Spotify wrapped list, too.
I should clarify something here, because all the credit doesn’t belong to Pitbull. The moment is actually scored by Archer Marsh, a musician who covered Pitbull’s original song in 2022. And let’s not forget: Afrojack and Ne-Yo were featured on “Give Me Everything,” too. We should also be applauding Bridgerton’s expert music director, Justin Kamp, who found the perfect place for this lovely rendition in the story.
“I think everyone was a little bit shocked that they were so in love with this Pitbull song cover for this sequence, of all things,” Kamps said in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum. “But the song is amazing, and it has this great build to it, and that’s what the scene really needed. It needed this anticipation and then an explosion into the main chorus of the song as we see what’s happening on-screen.”
It may be a little bit of wishful thinking to hope for a second Pitbull cover in the second batch of Bridgerton Season 3 episodes—which debut on June 13—but I’ve started a dream playlist. “Feel This Moment” could be fun, but I also see the appeal of “Dance Again” or even “Timber.” There are also five more seasons of Bridgerton to come, most likely, leaving the dancefloor open for some of Mr. Worldwide’s greatest hits.
I’ll stay dreaming with every drop of new episodes. Because, as a wise man once said, “Reach for the stars, and if you don’t grab ’em, at least you’re on top of the world.”
