‘Despacito’: The World-Dominating Latin Music Classic
The massive hit single spearheaded a global Latin music movement.
“Despacito,” a romantic Latin pop song with a reggaeton beat and a mildly suggestive, repeatable chorus was the inescapable song of the summer in 2017. But it took a while for the song to go from a local hit to a global phenomenon.
Luis Fonsi wrote “Despacito” with his frequent writing partner, Erika Ender. (He later revealed to Billboard that 90% of the track was “done at my house in under two hours.”) It was Daddy Yankee that brought some extra gasolina to the song at a time when reggaeton was at its peak. Universal Music Latino released the track just after the new year; three weeks later it was no. 1 on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart, where it would remain for 35 weeks.
Enter Justin Bieber. An unexpected remix with vocals by Justin Bieber joining Fonsi and Yankee then took “Despacito” where no Latin song had gone before: to the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for a record-breaking 16 weeks, and, ubiquitously, to radio stations around the world. Music industry execs and journalists celebrated the collaboration as inaugurating an unprecedented entry for Latin music into the mainstream. In July 2017, the original version and the remix, with a combined 4.6 billion listens across platforms, set a then-record for the most-streamed song globally. In August, the video of the original song, without Bieber, became YouTube’s most-viewed clip ever up until that date.
“It’s even playing in grocery stores,” noted an NPR reporter that month. And an article in The New York Times later declared: “From Memorial Day to Labor Day, only one pop song really mattered.” “Despacito.”
The track would even snare Fonsi seven Guinness World Records titles. For the singer, the accolades transcended his own career boost from Latin lover to international superstar, and even went beyond having created an unprecedented success for a Latin song. “The timing is quite perfect, you know, in this environment we live in,” he told NPR. “…It’s a great song to make us feel good. But in the times that we live, where some people want to divide and want to build walls – we’re going through a lot of change, so it’s quite lovely that a Spanish song is No. 1 right now.”
Some saw the fact that “Despacito,” although nominated for three Grammys, including song of the year and record of the year, won none, as a racially motivated snub. But by then the “Despacito Effect” had already left its indelible mark. “It spearheaded a global Latin movement,” Fonsi said. “I don’t mean to take credit and to say it was all me or the song; it was the sum of many songs and many artists. But this song definitely kicked the door open.” History has gone on to prove him right.
