Despacito Lyrics
Latrisha Adan
Repetition of these lyrics will help your mouth and your tongue learn the intricacies of the language, so that they become used to making the sounds and the words become effortless.
This means that when one word ends with the same sound as the beginning of the next word, they seem to blend together and sound like one word. This can be frustrating to Spanish learners since it makes it harder to pick out the words they know when listening to the language.
It is a reggaeton and Latin pop song composed in common time with lyrics about desiring a sexual relationship, performed in a smooth and romantic way. "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.
The song topped the charts of 47 countries and reached the top 10 of six others. In the United States, it became the first song primarily in Spanish to top the Billboard Hot 100 since Los del Ro's "Macarena" in 1996, subsequently tying the longest-reigning number one on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time with 16 weeks, as well as becoming the longest-running number-one on the Hot Latin Songs chart with 56 weeks. It also became the first Latin song to receive a diamond certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. The music video shows both artists performing the song in La Perla neighborhood of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico and local bar La Factora. It was the most-viewed YouTube video of all time from August 2017 to November 2020 and became the first video on the site to reach the milestones of three, four, five, six, seven, and eight billion views. It is now the second most-viewed video on the site, with "Baby Shark" by Pinkfong being the most-viewed.
The lyrics of "Despacito" were written in late 2015 in Luis Fonsi's house in Miami because he wanted to record a "swinging song" for his new album after two years without releasing new music.[3][4] He woke up mulling about "a song called 'Despacito'" and invited Brazilian-Panamanian singer and songwriter Erika Ender to a songwriting session.[5] Fonsi co-wrote the song on a Gibson Emmylou Harris guitar.[6] He originally composed it as a cumbia and pop song with lyrics written as a ballad but decided to give it an "urban injection" and sent a demo to reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee.[4] They recorded the song at Noisematch Studios in Miami in late 2016.[7][8] Daddy Yankee improvised his verse in a corner of the studio's control room while thinking about his father playing bongos and wrote the post-chorus.[8][9] It was produced by Mauricio Rengifo and Andrs Torres; the former is known as a member of Colombian pop duo Cali y El Dandee and the latter is known for previously working with David Bisbal, Thala, and Ricky Martin.[10][11] It was mixed by American engineer Jaycen Joshua at Larrabee Sound Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles.[12]
Luis Fonsi does not consider it a reggaeton song but feels that "it does have a reggaeton energy and an subtle urban beat".[4] Ender stated that the track "went through several arrangements" until Fonsi got "exactly the arrangement he wanted".[5] Fonsi described "Despacito" as a very melodic song that can adapt well to many other music genres.[13] Due to the sensual nature of the song, they "needed to be responsible with a good lyric" and Ender's approach to writing for Fonsi was "to take care of how to say things with a good taste".[3] In April 2017, American singer and songwriter Nicky Jam revealed that the original version of "Despacito" featured him instead of Daddy Yankee, but had to decline due to the song's release interfering with the launch of his album Fnix.[14]
Three months after the release of "Despacito", Canadian singer Justin Bieber wanted to record a remix version after hearing the song in a Colombian nightclub during a tour in South America.[15] The following day, Luis Fonsi received a phone call from Universal Latin about the intentions for remix and authorized the label to send the track to Bieber.[16] Bieber's manager Scooter Braun contacted his vocal producer Josh Gudwin to work on the song, who flew to Bogot and recorded Justin Bieber's vocals at Estudios Audiovisin.[17]
Justin Bieber sang in Spanish for the first time in his career with the help of Colombian musician Juan Felipe Samper.[18][19] What was most difficult for Justin Bieber was the 'ere' (ɾ) sound in words like "laberinto" (labyrinth), "paredes" (walls) and "manuscrito" (manuscript).[19] Samper wrote the Spanish-language lyrics phonetically to ease Bieber's pronunciation, which was "perfectly" achieved in two hours.[19] After a four-hour recording session, Gudwin sent Bieber's vocal tracks to Australian sound engineer Chris O'Ryan for vocal tuning.[17] Gudwin concluded the remix's production in Parrot Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands with the mixing of Luis Fonsi's English-language vocals, whose lyrics were written by American songwriter Marty James.[17] The entire process until the release date took six days.[17] In June 2017, English musician Ed Sheeran revealed that he wanted to record a remix version of the song but lost out to Justin Bieber.[20]
Mauricio Rengifo and Andrs Torres produced "Despacito" using Pro Tools and the final mix consisted of 47 tracks.[28] The song begins with a Puerto Rican cuatro played by Christian Nieves, which is accompanied by an acoustic guitar played by Torres when Luis Fonsi starts performing.[28] Rengifo stated that the guitar "was actually played, but then [they] chopped it and made it really digital."[28] The producers decided to record a cuatro because they wanted "to feel very Puerto Rican and ethnic" and that it "gives the song a really unique character."[28] Nieves played salsa-influenced melodies during the chorus and the hook, which contains "old school pop" effects based on American producer Dr. Luke.[28] Percussion instruments guache and gira were synchronized with a hi hat in order to highlight the track's cumbia influences.[28]
The song uses the side-chaining production technique in order to make the chorus "more prominent," silencing the music as the kick drum hits.[29] It also makes heavy use of text painting when the music is slowed down as the word "despacito" (slowly) is performed at the beginning of every chorus.[29] Its percussion consists of guache, cowbell, timbales, gira, and sequenced drum patterns.[28] The remix featuring Justin Bieber maintained the original rhythms and Luis Fonsi translated some lines to English, singing a verse in Spanglish, while Daddy Yankee's verses were kept from the original version.[18]
"Despacito" was made available for digital download on January 13, 2017, by Universal Music Latin. Some music publications believed the single's success was influenced by a trend of combining Latin pop and urban music.[30] Fonsi referred to it as "the new pop" and Ender said that "everyone is making this type of fusions."[3] Luis Fonsi also stated that two weeks after the release of the song and its music video he started receiving calls from "people who normally don't call, people who only call when something different is going on." He got calls from Ricky Martin, Juan Luis Guerra, Marc Anthony and other artists telling him that the track was a "home run."[31]
Sebastian Wernke-Schmiesing of Dance-Charts journal stated that "a simple 4/4 time, Spanish guitar sounds, a crisp bass, and the excellent vocals by Luis Fonsi and [Daddy Yankee] were enough to get a hit single from the start."[32] Leila Cobo of Billboard praised its "undeniable immediate catchiness" and wrote that the song "is a clever blend of romantic Latin pop with a reggaeton beat and subtly naughty lyrics."[33][34] Robert Joffred of Medium's culture blog That Good You Need highlighted the use of a steel-string guitar to play flamenco-style melodies instead of a nylon-string guitar, as well as the presence of "swung rhythms" when the word "Despacito" is sung at the beginning of the chorus[29] He referred to the text painting as "pretty genius."[29] Raisa Bruner of Time magazine described the single as "an infectious Latin melody amped up with reggaeton grooves and an irresistible dance tune."[35]
Spanish record producer Nahm Garca stated that "the way the rhythm breaks before the chorus is genius" and that this "trick" in particular is not common in pop music.[36] Joshua Barrie of Irish Mirror gave a negative opinion about the lyrics, referring to them as "quite rude and a bit creepy" and stating that "some people might find them offensive."[37] On the other hand, an editor of Spanish music website Jenesaispop stated that "the melody is very good, the lyrics are sexy without being vulgar and above all its structure is interesting."[38] Felix Contreras of National Public Radio praised the writing, arrangement and performances.[39]
The remix version featuring Justin Bieber was released on April 17, 2017, by Universal Music Latin, Republic Records, Def Jam Recordings, RBMG and Schoolboy Records.[40] Its official audio video garnered 20 million views on YouTube on its first 24 hours, making it the third-highest debut for a music-related video in 2017 as of September.[41] Caroline Soriano of Ernstars magazine stated that Bieber's voice "sounds appealing with the song," whose remix version make it sound "a little bit better."[42] Mike Senior of Sound on Sound gave a negative review of the remix's mixing by criticizing its polarity inversion regarding the original version and Justin Bieber's louder vocal track than Daddy Yankee's.[43] As to the original version, Senior referred to the first appearance of the "Despacito" hook line as a "masterstroke".[43]
59fb9ae87f