Luis Fonsi: owner of the superhit Despacito, more than 8.2 billion views, struggled to regain his position but failed

Luis Fonsi (born 1978) is known as a popular Latin musician and singer. Audiences around the world may have known him only from his superhit "Despacito," but in the Latin music community, Fonsi soon gained widespread popularity.

In 1995, Luis Fonsi studied music at Florida State University. It was here that he became involved in choral performance – from school, Luis Fonsi went on to have the opportunity to perform in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in England.

At the beginning of his career, Luis Fonsi faced many difficulties. Many people believe that Luis Fonsi's music career did not last more than 3 years. No one thought he would become a globally famous music phenomenon. It is known that at one point Luis Fonsi wanted to stop singing in search of a new job.

Overcoming many difficulties, he released his debut album in 1999. Famous among Latin music enthusiasts, it was not until 2017 that Luis Fonsi became known to the music lovers around the world.

"Despacito" is a reggaeton song combined with Latin pop. In addition to Luis Fonsi on lead vocals, the song also features rapper Daddy Yankee from Puerto Rico. All lyrics are written in Spanish.

From a musical perspective, "Despacito" has all the ingredients to be a major Latin hit. The catchy melody, which sounds like the summer sun and the taste of the sea of the Caribbean, combined with Luis Fonsi's smooth vocals has produced an extremely vibrant song.

However, one unexpected factor that helped "Despacito" rise beyond Latin music to become a pop "superhit" around the world was the presence of star Justin Bieber. Thanks to this remix, "Despacito" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and remained at the top for 16 weeks.

It's also unprecedented for a Spanish-language song. Currently, this MV still holds the record when it has sky-high views - more than 8.2 billion views.

The hit won "Song of the Year", "Record of the Year", "Best Urban Song Performance" and "Best Short Music Video" at the Latin Grammy Awards, November 16, 2017 in the United States. The song also received three 2018 Grammy nominations for "Song of the Year", "Record of the Year", "Best Duo or Group Collaboration". The song has been remixed and covered by many international artists.

Before "Despacito", Fonsi had 9 studio albums, including 4 that topped the Billboard Latin charts. He also won the prestigious Latin Grammy Award in the category of Songwriter of the Year.

In 2011, Billboard magazine called Fonsi a "pioneer in the new generation of Latin music." Thereby, it can be seen that without "Despacito", Luis Fonsi's position is also very solid in his empire.

Luis Fonsi has also dueted with "pop princesses" such as Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears or Emma Bunton – member of the Spice Girls.

However, many people judge that the superhit - Despacito will most likely turn out to harm the singer, especially for emerging singers, because it is easy to completely overwhelm the next songs that this person releases.

That singer gradually became "One-Hit Wonder", that is, the name is only known thanks to a single song, the rest is "sinking" in the music market. For summer hits, this is even more likely.

For example, in 2012, Justin Bieber helped the song "Call Me Maybe" by young singer Carly Rae Jepsen become a hit, but her next songs almost no one cared (but her fans).

Korean rapper PSY suffered similarly: famous for "Gangnam Style" with his funny music video, but later songs such as "Gentleman" and "Daddy" could not repeat the previous success, although they clearly imitated "Gangnam Style" as much as possible.

What perhaps few people know is that just a few months after "Despacito", Luis Fonsi released another song, a duet with young singer Demi Lovato called "Échame la Culpa". As expected, this song was not of too much interest.

After "Échame la Culpa", Fonsi did not release new music but instead toured with the "Love and Dance" tour. The sales of this tour were not high, and were only popular mainly with the Latin music lover community.

It seems that the weight of "Despacito" is not enough to keep the audience watching him for a long time, especially when there are still countless easy-listening English singers in the US-UK market competing with him. However, the current state of affairs does not necessarily indicate that Luis Fonsi failed.

Maybe Fonsi has had enough success in Latin music to no longer have the desire to break into the English market. It's also possible that he, at the age of 40, no longer cares much about rankings, or views on YouTube.

After all, the attraction of "Despacito" lies not in the flashy image or famous guests, but in the idyllic, enthusiastic features of the Latin people of the Caribbean. If Fonsi is too avaricious to try to replicate that success, this special trait will no longer be worthwhile!

Luis Fonsi married actress Adamari López on June 3, 2006. They officially divorced after four years together. On September 10, 2014, Luis Fonsi remarried model Águeda López. Luis Fonsi has a daughter Mikaela born in December 2011 and son Rocco born on December 20, 2006.