This is a beautiful ballad Madonna sings with the latin star Ricky Martín, from Puerto Rico. The song is in English, but the chorus has a few lines is Spanish. This song was supposed to be one of the singles from Ricky Martin's first album in english, called 'Ricky Martin'. But as Madonna was filming The Next Best Thing, and Beautiful Stranger was already being promoted as a single in those days, the single wasn't released.
Madonna knew Ricky Martin from a long time, but she was the one to give Ricky his first Grammy as the best latin singer of the year. It was then when they decided to collaborate with each other. There is no doubt that this duet interested more to Ricky, that was entering the english-spoken music market, and he entered with the queen of pop herself.
But this song is not latin at all. We can clearly hear William Orbit's touch on it, with the electric sounds that were heard in the Ray Of Light album. Ricky Martin said that he wanted to make something completely different to anything he has ever made, and wanted Madonna to do the same. But it is clear that Be Careful could have perfectly been another track from the Ray Of Light album.

Ricky Martin was born on December 24th, 1971, in San Juan de Puerto Rico. Ricky was part of the third generation of a boy band called Menudo (a great success in latin-america), and he was part of it until 1989. He acted in a soap opera called Por Siempre Amigos (Forever Friends) in Argentina, in 1986. He moved then to New York, to start a music career, and entered in a model studio to pay his singing and acting lessons. After that period of learning he moved to Mexico, where he appeared in the theatre plays Las Zapatillas Rojas (the red shoes) and Mi Mamá ama el Rock (my mum loves rock). Then he appeared in the tv show Alcanzar una Estrella (reach a star), that became a huge hit. An album of that programme was recorded, and Ricky thought seriously about recording his first album.
In 1991 he recorded his first album, Ricky Martin. In summer of 1993 he completed the recording of his second album: Me Amaras. His next big step was the U.S. television, where he appeared as Miguel in ABC's General Hospital, in 1994. In April, 1995 he worked in Jesus, passion and death. And then, in October 1995, he released his third album: A Medio Vivir, with his greatest single, Maria. That was one of the hits of the 1996 summer, and opened Ricky the doors to Spain and France, along many other countries.
Ricky went back to theatre and starred in Broadway's Les Miserables, as Marius. Then two more albums came: Vuelve (including The Cup Of Life, the song from the World Cup'98), and his first album for the English market, called as his first album: Ricky Martin. Then, Sound Loaded would confirm his great position in the music industry, the most successful latin singer in the English spoken market.

1. Album Version (4:04)