no doubt piqued by the song’s promise that “this is how we do it down in Puerto Rico.” Interest in travelling to the island increased forty-five per cent after the song debuted, according to Un Nuevo Día newspaper. Tour operators now include some of the places featured in the video, such as Club La Factoría in Old San Juan and the La Perla neighbourhood. For Latino artistes, it is the major breakthrough into the North American and European markets they have long hoped for. “‘Despacito’ proves that when music moves you and makes you feel something, it’s universal, no matter in what language the lyrics are written,” said Mexican-American singer and actress Becky G to USA Today. “As a Latina American singer-songwriter, I couldn’t be prouder to be working in this industry at this point in time.” And Colombian singer J Balvin, whose single “Mi Gente” is being hailed as the next “Despacito”, agreed the song is a “historic” achievement for Latino artists. “I have the biggest love and respect for Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee for opening even more doors for all of us,” he said. Fonsi is a classically trained Latin artist who has been making a name for himself on the Latin pop scene for nearly two decades. Two years ago, he woke up with the “Despacito” melody playing in his head. That same day, at a studio session with Panamanian songwriter Erika Ender, the two began putting together the nuts and bolts of the mega-hit. “It just came together the right way: the right song, the right timing, the right lyric,” recalls Fonsi. The writing experience was “very magical.” Fonsi then brought in Daddy Yankee to feature on the song. Together they rearranged the track, adding in Yankee’s urban rap style. After its debut in January, “Despacito” shot up the Latin charts. Then Justin Bieber heard the song at a club in Colombia while on tour, and saw the effect it had on the crowd. Bieber immediately got in touch with Fonsi. He told him he loved the song and wanted to release a remix. Fonsi sent a translated version of the lyrics to Bieber in Colombia, and just days later received a remix that was still mostly Spanish. “Streaming was the difference maker in ‘Despacito’ becoming historic, rather than just another song of the summer,” says Matt Medved, a Billboard director. “The number of streaming-music subscribers has nearly doubled in the last year. In Latin American countries alone, subscribers increased over fifty per cent; overall, streams are up over thirty per cent globally. The audience for Stills from the record-breaking “Despacito” video music available digitally is bigger than ever and, consequently, plays a more significant role in the charting calculus.” The lusty ode to a mamacita has unleashed a tidal wave of columns and editorials about cultural fusion, and the unrelenting rise of the Latin sound. Its success led Daddy Yankee, who has seventeen million followers on Instagram, to become the most listened artist worldwide on the streaming service Spotify in June <strong>—</strong> the first Latin artist to break that record. Among the countless cultural explosions ignited by the song was Bieber’s faux pas at a concert when he massacred the Spanish lyrics, replacing some of the words with “burrito” and “Dorito.” Leila Cobo, Billboard’s executive director of content and programming for Latin music, said this has no way affected the song, which was always bigger than Bieber. “[‘Despacito’] was doing very well without Justin Bieber, that’s really important to say,” Cobo explains. “He definitely helped it get to number one on the Hot 100, which is a domestic US chart . . . [But] it was number one on Spotify and number one on YouTube at a global scale. So it was a global hit.” Just how much of the wealth generated by the song has gone to the creative well from which it first sprang has been another talking point for activists, who say the music industry has exploited the cultural production of communities of colour. Now coasting smoothly in the Latin American mainstream, reggaeton is the go-to rhythm to make a hit. The pioneers, such as the Jamaican sound engineers from the 1980s who created the dancehall styles that formed the backbone of reggaeton, do not get their just dues. “Despacito” is seen by those promoting the rights of artistes as a perfectly packaged product that exploits reggaeton’s now-global appeal for the benefit of a handful of superstars and large media monopolies. As non-Latino and non-<strong>Caribbean</strong> artists claim new fans by tapping into Afro-Latino and other African diasporic musical genres, they appear to be “gentrifying” the culture, while not really paying it forward to the foundation musicians, producers, and sound engineers who have never been credited or paid for their intellectual property. Tellingly, Fonsi credits a legion of crossover artists like Enrique Iglesias and Shakira for helping pave the way for his success. However, over the last three decades, it was artists and musicians of African descent who experimented with various styles and sounds to carve out the groove and build the driving rhythms that Fonsi, Daddy Yankee <strong>—</strong> and now, Justin Bieber <strong>—</strong> can so easily ride. n 60 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
ARRIVE ©istock.com/Boogich 62 Destination On Florida’s “Art Coast” 72 Round Trip Go deep 84 Neighbourhood Woodbrook, Trinidad 86 Offtrack Mahaica dawn Tools of the artist’s trade in Miami’s Wynwood Art District, home to a profusion of colourful outdoor murals