“Despacito” – Single by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee from the album Vida
Released January 13, 2017
Label Universal Latin
Songwriters Luis Fonsi, Erika Ender, Daddy Yankee
Producers Mauricio Rengifo, Andrés Torres
Charted no. 1 in US, UK, Spain, Sweden, Scotland, Russia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands.
The music video was directed by Carlos Perez. It was shot in December 2016 in La Perla neighborhood and the La Factoría bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The clip shows Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee performing while participating on different parties on the island and also features Miss Universe 2006 model Zuleyka Rivera.
The song is about having a sexual relationship but is sung in a smooth and romantic way rather than using erotic language. The Spanish title translates into English as “Slowly.”
“Despacito” received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who praised the fusion between Latin and urban rhythms, its catchiness, and its text painting. It has received Latin Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Urban Fusion/Performance, and Best Short Form Music Video at the 18th Latin Grammy Awards. “Despacito” has been also ranked among the best Latin songs of all time and the best songs of 2017 by various publications, which referred to it as one of the most successful Spanish-language tracks in pop-music history.
Despacito” was the best-selling and most-streamed single of 2017 in the United States, with 2,692,000 downloads sold and 1,322,799,000 streams.[80][81] It was also the sixth most-played song of 2017, with 608,000 spins across US radio stations and an audience of 3,076,935,000. It ranked at number two on the Hot 100 year-end chart and was the best-performing single on Hot Latin Songs for two years in a row in 2017 and 2018. In the United States, the single sold 2,983,000 downloads as of June 20, 2019 and received a 13× platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on January 6, 2020, for units of over 13 million sales plus track-equivalent streams, making it the 14th highest-certified single of all time in the United States. It became the first Latin and 18th overall single to receive a diamond certification by the RIAA. It was the ninth best-performing single of the 2010s decade on the Hot 100 and was ranked at number one on the Hot Latin Songs chart. It is the best-performing track of all-time on Hot Latin Songs and the 33rd best-performing on the Hot 100.
