"Mi Chico Latino" received mixed reviews from music critics. A spokesman for Alabina's French record label Atal said that they were "anxiously contacting" Halliwell's record label about the songs' similarities. In 1999 Ishtar, the Israeli lead singer of Alabina, said "Mi Chico Latino" was plagiarized from her song "Alabina (De La Noche A La Manana)", released the year before. According to biographer David Sinclair in his book Spice Girls Revisited: How The Spice Girls Reinvented Pop, Halliwell continued to explore the Riviera-pop theme of her former group's song, " Viva Forever", whilst "murmuring sweet nothings in a peculiar brand of estuary Spanish while castanets and timbales clattered alongside a cod- flamenco guitar". During the song, the singer also sings in Italian on its chorus, when everything else is Spanish. The lyrics to the song are centred on a lost love theme, with castanets in the background. At the beginning of the song, Halliwell chants the spoken word line "❽ónde está el hombre con fuego en la sangre?" (which translates to Where is the man with fire in the blood?). "Mi Chico Latino" is a Latin pop song which moves at a moderate tempo of 104 beats per minute. Problems playing this file? See media help. So it was a strange example of synchronicity that I should be ready to go with a Latin track which I had written almost a year before". Ricky Martin had recently had a number one and there were others on the way. The other thing that 'Chico' had going for it was that the music was Latin-based, I had written the song back in 1998 but by the time the summer of 1999 came around Latin-influenced music was ruling the charts.
It was very different from the slightly leftfield style of 'Look at Me'. Both of those groups tend to like pure pop music and I think that's what 'Chico' was. I think my core audience is young teenage girls and gay guys. It was poppy and catchy and perfect for the summer. "First and foremost I thought it was a good record. After "Look at Me" peaked only at number two, her record company wanted her to release " Lift Me Up", while the Absolute team wanted " Bag It Up", but she chose to release "Mi Chico Latino" after receiving good reception from children. Eventually she came out with "❽ónde está el hombre con fuego en la sangre?" ("Where is the man with fire in his blood?" in English), and she liked the way it sounded, and included the line at the beginning of the song. So she asked her look at her library of Spanish language romances, and she read the titles out to Halliwell. Halliwell recalled asking her, "Mum, what do you say to a bloke in Spanish if you fancy him and are being romantic?" Her mother then said she did not remember that. During a day in the studio, they came up with a melody but did not have any words. The singer wanted to make a song with Spanish influences, in order to pay homage for her Spanish mother. "Mi Chico Latino" was written by Halliwell, Andy Watkins and Paul Wilson in the autumn of 1998. In order to promote the single, Halliwell performed the song on Top of the Pops and Party in the Park in 1999. It depicts the singer wearing a black bikini and dancing with semi-nude male dancers on a boat. "Mi Chico Latino"'s accompanying music video was directed by Doug Nichol and filmed on the island of Sardinia. The song also attracted some moderate success worldwide. The song was a commercial success in the United Kingdom, debuting at number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Halliwell's first number-one solo single in the country. "Mi Chico Latino" received mixed reviews from music critics, who noted it was a contribution to the Latin pop phenom at the time, while others criticized Halliwell's Spanish pronunciation.