The 39-year-old singer has drawn the world's attention to Latin music with his single 'Despacito', which has dominated radio stations and streaming platforms around the world for weeks.
- August 14, 2017
AceShowbiz -
To Latin music fans, Luis Fonsi has been a megastar since a long time ago, famous for his romantic, yearning ballads. However, the Puerto Rican singer kicked his career into high gear when he decided to push the tempo on his music late last year by creating reggaeton single called "Despacito" with Daddy Yankee.
Following its release in January, the song quickly blasted to No. 1 on every Latin music airplay chart. The music video for the track reached more than 2 billion views in five months. In April, Luis tapped Justin Bieber for the English remix of the song, which stayed steady atop Billboard Hot 100 for more than ten weeks. In August, "Despacito" became the most-watched video of all time on YouTube with more than three billion views.
The summery track is the first Spanish song to reign on the Hot 100 since Los del Rio's "Macarena" in 1996. While it might take Justin Bieber's verse to make the song a worldwide phenomenon, "Despacito" has undoubtedly opened doors for other Latin songs to be acknowledged internationally.
"Thanks to 'Despacito', all eyes are not only on me, but Latin music in general," Luis previously said. "I hope that it's a door that will stay open for a long time. I think it's bigger than just this summer. I think it was [over]due for Latin music to get this attention and I love the fact that we're all collaborating in different languages. It's not about where you're from or what language you're singing in, it's about bringing cultures together and different styles, and it's good for music in general."
