Santana Return to commercial success
Santana's record sales in the 1990s had been very low, and towards the end of the decade he was without a contract. However Arista Records' Clive Davis, who had worked with Santana at Columbia (which is now co-owned with Arista under Sony BMG), signed him and encouraged him to record a star-studded album with mostly younger artists. The result in 1999 was Supernatural, which included collaborations with Bobby Martin, Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty, Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Cee-Lo, Man?, Dave Matthews, K. C. Porter, and others.
The first single was Smooth, a dynamic cha-cha stop-start number co-written and sung by Rob Thomas, and laced throughout with Santana's guitar fills and runs. The track's energy was immediately apparent on radio, and it was played on a wide variety of station formats. It spent twelve weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming in the process the last #1 single of the 1990s; a music video set on a hot barrio street was also very popular. Supernatural sold large numbers of records and soon reached triple platinum status. The album also reached number one on the US album charts. The follow-up single, Maria Maria, arranged by Bobby Martin and featuring the R&B duo The Product G&B, also reached number one and spent ten weeks there in the summer of 2000. Supernatural eventually sold over 15 million copies in the United States alone, making it Santana's biggest sales success by far.
Supernatural and the different tracks on it then won nine Grammy Awards (eight for Santana personally), including Album of the Year, Record of the Year for Smooth, and Song of the Year for Thomas and Itaal Shur. Santana's acceptance speeches described his feelings about music's place in one's spiritual existence.
In 2001, Santana was featured in Michael Jackson's song Whatever Happens, from the album Invincible, playing guitar.
In 2002, Santana released Shaman, revisiting the Supernatural format of guest artists including P.O.D., Seal, and others. Although the album was not the runaway success its predecessor had been, it still produced two radio-friendly hits: the infectious The Game of Love featuring Michelle Branch which reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent many weeks at the top of the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart; and Why Don't You & I written by and featuring Chad Kroeger from the group Nickelback (the original and a remix with Alex Band from the group The Calling were combined towards chart performance) which reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. The Game of Love went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
In August 2003, Santana was named fifteenth on Rolling Stone magazine's List of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. In 2004, the magazine ranked him #90 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
In 2005, Herbie Hancock approached Santana to play on, as well as to help in gathering other artists to record, an album similar to Supernatural. The resulting album, titled Possibilities, was released on August 30, 2005, featuring Carlos Santana and Ang?lique Kidjo on Safiatou.
Santana's album All That I Am (2005) followed the format of Supernatural and Shaman, consisting primarily of collaborations with other artists; the first single, the peppy I'm Feeling You, was again with Michelle Branch and The Wreckers. The song Just Feel Better featured Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. Another song on the album, Trinity, featured Santana collaborating with Kirk Hammett of Metallica and Robert Randolph of Robert Randolph & the Family Band. Cry Baby Cry features hip-hop/reggae icon Sean Paul, as well as R&B singer, Joss Stone.
In April and May 2006 he started a tour in Europe where he promoted the band of his son Salvador Santana as his opening act.
In 2007, Santana appeared, along with Sheila E. and Jose Feliciano, on Gloria Estefan's new album 90 Millas, on the single No Llores.
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