Despacito” is about a sexual but romantic relationship between two people. The Spanish word “despacito” translates to “slowly”—which indicates the romance in the relationship.
It is a remix of the popular Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee track “Despacito,” which topped the charts in seventeen countries. The lyrics of the original and the remix are identical, except for Justin Bieber’s intro and the third verse.
Justin shows his versatile talent by singing in Spanish on the track.
It is currently the most viewed song on Genius.
“Despacito” se trata de una relación sexual y romántica entre dos personas. La palabra “despacito,” o lentamente, indica como es el romance en la relación.
Es un remix de la popular canción de Luis Fonsi y Daddy Yankee, “Despacito;” la cual encabezó las listas de diecisiete países. Las letras del tema original y el remix son idénticas, excepto por la introducción de Justin Bieber y el tercer verso.
Justin muestra su versatilidad al cantar en español en la pista.
Esta es la canción con más visitas en Genius.
Q. Did Luis have a specific lady in mind when he wrote this?
LUIS FONSI :
When you write songs, you have to put a face to the lyric a little bit, but it was such a sexy song that there wasn’t really a person. It was a scenario more than a person. I went there. I went to that place, and that place was in a club somewhere, when you get to a club and you just start making that eye contact with this beautiful girl. And that’s kind of how the song starts. It’s really a story. In the beginning of the lyric it says, “Hey, I notice that you’re looking at me. I’m looking at you. Let’s connect.” It kinda goes little by little until it gets to the chorus, where it goes, “All right. We’re here, but now, let’s enjoy the moment. "That’s kind of what this song is all about, enjoying the moment, not rushing through it. Myself and my co-writer, we were both there sort of in mind in this scenario of this real sexy place, but there really wasn’t a face to it.
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Q. What inspired this song?
LUIS FONSI :
I wish I had a better story, but honestly, I woke up one morning with “Despacito” in my head. It was just that simple and that obvious to me. For some reason, that melodic sequence right there and that word “despacito” just popped into my head. And then the first thing that came together was with that little last chorus about Puerto Rico. It was the rhyme between despacito, Puerto Rico, and “Ay! Bendito,” which is an expression that we say a lot in Puerto Rico. That was like the nucleus of it all.
Later on that afternoon I had a writing session with a great friend of mine, a songwriter named Erika Ender. I recorded all these little ideas on my phone, and I was like, “Hey, look. I have this idea to do this fun, uptempo song. Let’s write this real sexy lyric around ‘despacito,’ which means slowly. All the things that we’re gonna do slowly. And let’s do like this lyric where it’s kinda borderline, maybe even double meaning, but just being really respectful.” And I think we found that happy medium, but everything just revolved around that one word, “despacito.”
Q. How did Luis get the idea to feature Daddy Yankee on the track?
LUIS FONSI :
Once we finished the track, once I did my final vocal, we heard it from top to bottom, and we all looked at each other like, “Man, that second verse. We need to take that out, and we need somebody to come in and keep making this track go forward and just give it that energy thing. We need an urban guy to go there and just kill it.”
We start to throw names and obviously that Yankee was top of the list. First of all, he’s a dear friend, and he’s somebody who could I just reach. I didn’t have to go through the whole record label, manager thing. Second of all, he’s one of the best in the game, if not the best in the game. So right then and there, phone call, “Hey, what’s up. It’s Fonsi, yo. I gotta send you something. I gotta send you an MP3. Check it out. Before you say anything, check it out. It’s different from what I’ve done in the past, but it’s special. And if it wasn’t special, I wouldn’t call you.” So a few hours later, he’s like, “Let’s go.” What do I gotta do and what do I gotta record? Two weeks later, he flew to Miami, we got into the studio and he just killed it. In an eight-hour session we were done, we were ready to go. We send it to mix and it just came to life.
Q. How does Luis explain the track's unique sound?
LUIS FONSI :
I recorded the demo with my guitar and I played it almost like a cumbia. It was like a mix between cumbia and reggae. It was just the only way I could have played it on my guitar at that point in time. So I didn’t know really where it was gonna go production-wise. I just knew that it needed this movement throughout the whole song. Then I got together with my producers, Andreas and Mauricio, two great, amazing songwriters and producers, from Colombia. They got it right away that we need this urban beat underneath it, but this very musical thing on top of it.
We put the cuatro guitar, which is a really special small guitar from Puerto Rico normally used for very traditional music. But we made it fit, somehow, just to add that ethnic Puerto Rican thing to it. It has sort of a pop melody on top, so it mixes a little bit of different styles.
Q. How did Justin Bieber wind up on this song?
LUIS FONSI :
The song becomes a hit in Latin America and in Europe, and I was talking to my label. I was like, “It would be great to have an American singer.” We were thinking actually more in the lines of in the hip-hop world. Somebody to come in and do something different with it. So we started throwing names, trying to reach out to people, but it stayed sort of in that idea more. We never actually got in contact with anybody. I was out in Europe doing promos, I was actually in Italy, and it was three o'clock in the morning, trying to get some sleep.
I get a call from somebody on my label. Like, “Hey, we need to talk to you. We just got a call from Bieber’s camp, and he heard the song while he was on tour in Colombia. He saw how people reacted, he loved the song, he wants to do the remix.” I was like, “What? It’s three o'clock in the morning, man. I’m trying to get some sleep. Stop messing around.” He’s like, “Can we send them the session?” I’m like, “Why are you asking me? Of course. Send the man the session. Come on.” We had lyrics, the whole thing. We sent him all the parts.
I wasn’t there physically, but he had his whole team with him. And literally the next day, I get the first cut. It’s Bieber singing a new verse at the beginning and singing the chorus in Spanish. I was like, “This is crazy, the fact that he took the time to do this hook in Spanish.” First of all, it’s tough for me to sing, and I’m Puerto Rican. I’m fluent. Because it’s got so much lyrics. It’s so fast and it’s kind of tongue-twisty, the lyrics of the chorus. He nailed it. He nailed it and he did a great job, and I love what he did with it in the beginning. It just kind of fell in our laps and pretty awesome that he wanted to be a part of it.
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It was moderately successful before the Bieber remix, reaching #44 on the Hot 100 and topping the Hot Latin Songs chart. However, the week after Bieber’s remix dropped, the song exploded to #9 on the Hot 100, becoming the first top ten of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee and the twelvth of Bieber. The song climbed on to #1 spot on chart dated 05.27.15.
By reaching the top 10, it became the first mostly-Spanish language song to do so since “Macarena”, which was number 1 for 14 weeks in 1996 and was last in the top 10 in early 1997.
“Despacito” became Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s first #1 and Justin Bieber’s fifth Hot 100 #1 single. He’s the only artist to replace himself at #1 with two sets of songs within 2 years.
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