Despacito

"Despacito" (also known as "Slowly" in English) is a song by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi featuring Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee from the former's 9th studio album Vida. On January 12, 2017, Universal Music Latin released "Despacito" and its music video, which shows both artists performing the song in La Perla neighbourhood of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico and the local bar La Factoría.

The song's music video is the first video to reach over three billion views on YouTube. It was written by Luis Fonsi, Erika Ender and Daddy Yankee, and was produced by Andrés Torres and Mauricio Rengifo.

History
After two years without releasing new music, Luis Fonsi wanted to create "a fun track that had that Latin feel with a melody that I feel very comfortable singing and that will make people just dance." The lyrics were born in late 2015 in Fonsi's house after he expressed his desire to record a "swinging song" for his new album. Brazilian-Panamanian singer and songwriter Erika Ender, a Latin Grammy Award-winner, went to Luis Fonsi's house in Miami, who said to her that he woke up mulling about "writing a song called 'Despacito'." Fonsi sang the lines "Vamos a hacerlo en una playa en Puerto Rico", Ender replied "Hasta que las olas griten 'Ay Bendito'" and then they began to build the song. The Puerto Rico line was moved to the end of the song in order to not sound "so regional" and they started writing a story. Fonsi co-wrote the song on a Gibson Emmylou Harris guitar.

Fonsi originally composed "Despacito" as a cumbia and pop song with lyrics written as a ballad, but began to consider giving it an "urban injection" and contacted reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee through WhatsApp, who agreed to collaborate on the song after Fonsi played him the demo. Prior to collaborating on "Despacito", Fonsi and Daddy Yankee had worked together on "Una Oportunidad", released digitally in 2010. Daddy Yankee improvised his verse while thinking about his father playing bongos at his house, citing that as "percussion attacks," and wrote the post-chorus or hook. They recorded the song at Noisematch Studios in Miami, United States in 2016. It was produced by Mauricio Rengifo and Andrés Torres; the former is known as a member of Colombian pop duo Cali & El Dandee and the latter is known for previously working with David Bisbal, Thalía, and Ricky Martin, among various Latin acts. It was mixed by American engineer Jaycen Joshua at Larrabee Sound Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, United States.

Originally, Luis Fonsi focused on other songs of his album after making the demo of "Despacito". Andrés Torres said that the track "kept getting postponed" because "there was always some issue with [it]." After showing the demo to his producers, they and Fonsi decided to focus on "Despacito" and leave the other works aside. Sometime in October or November 2016, Fonsi called Miami-based Noisematch Studios' CEO Alex Campos in order to record the track there, where he had worked his 2012 song "Nunca Digas Siempre" with Spanish singer Merche. Campos stated that the first recording session consisted on "working mostly the music," including the Puerto Rican cuatro. Daddy Yankee's vocals were recorded on the second day of work. He asked for a Shure SM58 and recorded his verse and the post-chorus in a corner of the studio's control room.

Luis Fonsi stated that both Daddy Yankee and he were surprised after hearing the final song because it sounded "powerful, fresh and different." Luis Fonsi said that he does not consider it a reggaeton song but feels that "it does have a reggaeton energy and an subtle urban beat." He also affirmed that Daddy Yankee's work was a plus to the song because "it needed that explosion that only he can bring to the table." Mauricio Rengifo expressed that the song "really took 100 percent shape the day Yankee recorded." Ender stated that the track "went through several arrangements" until Fonsi got "exactly the arrangement he wanted."

Fonsi stated that he made "Despacito" a danceable song because "Latinos are known for being happy people" and that he feels the need of happy music. He added that the "urban feel" in the song's rhythm is the type that "Latinos breathe in and out" and that it is "a synonym of party." According to him, "Despacito" is a very melodic song that can adapt well to many other music genres. In an interview with Billboard magazine in April 2017, Erika Ender stated that the track "made a special connection" and that the collaboration with Daddy Yankee was "a great idea." She also said that because of the sensual nature of the song, they "needed to be responsible with a good lyric" and that her approach to writing for Fonsi was "to take care of how to say things with a good taste." During the 2017 Billboard Latin Music Conference, 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 Fénix.

Three months after the release of the original version, Canadian singer Justin Bieber wanted to record a remix after seeing how people reacted to the song in a Colombian nightclub during a tour in South America. The following day, Luis Fonsi received a phone call from Universal Latin about the remix and authorized the label to send the track to Bieber. On April 11, 2017, Bieber's manager Scooter Braun contacted his vocal producer Josh Gudwin, who was preparing to go on a short holiday to the Caribbean until April 17, to work on the song. He flew from Los Angeles to Bogota and recorded Justin Bieber's vocals in Estudios Audiovisión after American songwriter Jason Boyd sent his lyrics and melody outlines.

Justin Bieber sang in Spanish for the first time in his career with the help of Colombian musician and Latin Grammy Award-nominee Juan Felipe Samper. After recording the beginning of the song, Bieber approached Samper in order to receive coaching with his Spanish pronunciation, which he wanted to be perfect. He stated that what cost Justin Bieber the most was the 'ere' sound in words like "laberinto" (labyrinth), "paredes" (walls) and "manuscrito" (manuscript). Samper wrote the lyrics of the song phonetically to ease Bieber's pronunciation, which was "perfectly" achieved in two hours.

Josh Gudwin used a Neumann U47 microphone, a Neve 1081 microphone preamplifier and a Tube-Tech CL1B compressor for the four-hour recording session, and sent Bieber's vocal tracks to Australian sound engineer Chris "Tek" O'Ryan for vocal tuning. Gudwin completed re-arranging the song and started to mix it while waiting during a five-hour lay-over at Miami International Airport. He concluded the production of the remix version 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. The entire process until the release date took six days. Mauricio Rengifo stated that Justin Bieber "approached reggaeton in a very different way" and that "the melody he does at the beginning is not reggaeton at all but it fits beautifully."

In June 2017, English musician Ed Sheeran revealed that he wanted to record a remix version of the song but Justin Bieber "advantaged him." He also stated that he likes reggaeton music, saying that it has a "good rhythm" and that "everyone enjoys it."

Following the song's worldwide success, "Despacito" was featured on various types of media, including television shows, films and YouTube videos. A Spanglish parody titled "El Patito" (The Rubber Duckie) by American children's television show Sesame Street was published on August 21, 2017. The song was featured on a TV commercial by Spotify and Chilean retail multinational Falabella starring Ciro Priello, Fabio Balsamo, and Gianluca Fru, three Italian comedians who gained notoriety through a viral parody video about "Despacito" on YouTube. It was also included on Ubisoft's dance video game Just Dance 2018. Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee had a brief appearance in the video YouTube Rewind: The Shape of 2017, which celebrates "the videos, people, music and memes that made 2017." In 2018, the song became the basis of several viral memes, including one about Amazon's Alexa playing the song to help someone cure their depression, and another about a sequel being released titled "Despacito 2". In that same year, the YouTube user FlyingKitty made a parody video titled "Despacito 2", which skyrocketed in popularity.

During the 2018 Winter Olympics, the song was used by three separate teams (China's Xinyu Liu and Shiyue Wang, South Korea's Alexander Gamelin and Yura Min, and Poland's Maksym Spodyriev and Natalia Kaliszek) as the soundtrack for their ice dance performances. It was also featured in the Netflix film Ibiza (2018).

Lyrics
Ay Fonsi DY Oh Oh no, oh no Oh yeah Diridiri, dirididi Daddy Go

Sí, sabes que ya llevo un rato mirándote Tengo que bailar contigo hoy (DY) Vi que tu mirada ya estaba llamándome Muéstrame el camino que yo voy (Oh)

Tú, tú eres el imán y yo soy el metal Me voy acercando y voy armando el plan Solo con pensarlo se acelera el pulso (Oh yeah)

Ya, ya me está gustando más de lo normal Todos mis sentidos van pidiendo más Esto hay que tomarlo sin ningún apuro

Despacito Quiero respirar tu cuello despacito Deja que te diga cosas al oído Para que te acuerdes si no estás conmigo

Despacito Quiero desnudarte a besos despacito Firmo en las paredes de tu laberinto Y hacer de tu cuerpo todo un manuscrito (sube, sube, sube) (Sube, sube)

Quiero ver bailar tu pelo Quiero ser tu ritmo Que le enseñes a mi boca Tus lugares favoritos (favoritos, favoritos baby)

Déjame sobrepasar tus zonas de peligro Hasta provocar tus gritos Y que olvides tu apellido (Diridiri, dirididi Daddy)

Si te pido un beso ven dámelo Yo sé que estás pensándolo Llevo tiempo intentándolo Mami, esto es dando y dándolo Sabes que tu corazón conmigo te hace bom, bom Sabes que esa beba está buscando de mi bom, bom Ven prueba de mi boca para ver cómo te sabe Quiero, quiero, quiero ver cuánto amor a ti te cabe Yo no tengo prisa, yo me quiero dar el viaje Empecemos lento, después salvaje

Pasito a pasito, suave suavecito Nos vamos pegando poquito a poquito Cuando tú me besas con esa destreza Veo que eres malicia con delicadeza

Pasito a pasito, suave suavecito Nos vamos pegando, poquito a poquito Y es que esa belleza es un rompecabezas Pero pa montarlo aquí tengo la pieza

Despacito Quiero respirar tu cuello despacito Deja que te diga cosas al oído Para que te acuerdes si no estás conmigo

Despacito Quiero desnudarte a besos despacito Firmo en las paredes de tu laberinto Y hacer de tu cuerpo todo un manuscrito (sube, sube, sube) (Sube, sube)

Quiero ver bailar tu pelo Quiero ser tu ritmo Que le enseñes a mi boca Tus lugares favoritos (favoritos, favoritos baby)

Déjame sobrepasar tus zonas de peligro Hasta provocar tus gritos Y que olvides tu apellido

Despacito Vamos a hacerlo en una playa en Puerto Rico Hasta que las olas griten "¡ay, bendito!" Para que mi sello se quede contigo

Pasito a pasito, suave suavecito Nos vamos pegando, poquito a poquito Que le enseñes a mi boca Tus lugares favoritos (favoritos, favoritos baby)

Pasito a pasito, suave suavecito Nos vamos pegando, poquito a poquito Hasta provocar tus gritos Y que olvides tu apellido (DY) Despacito