The Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi, on tour in Spain, talks to EFE about all kinds of topics, like his relationship with colleagues like the Spaniards Antonio Orozco and David Bisbal or the 5 years that have passed since the release of “Despacito”. , “a before and an after” in his almost 25-year career.
“I don’t think about the song that much, but I get reminded of it every day in interviews,” he explains. I still don’t fully understand why this happened, nor do I want to understand it. I’m not one to look at numbers, count prices… It’s important to me that only good things have come into my life and that through my music I got to know a side of the world that I didn’t know before.”
Celebrate this success”even if it was the most important“, comes after 19 years of career: “This helped me not to lose my balance and become unbearable. I already understood what success and failure are, how hard you have to work, so it didn’t change my course, with the same insecurities, virtues and flaws.
Would you change all that because you wrote another anthological song in the history of universal music? “The first thing that comes to mind is the Beatles, a ‘Hey Jude’ or ‘Imagine.’ But no, I wouldn’t change anything. Things happen for something at the time they need to happen“, he assures in an interview with EFE.
The heyday of “Despacito” pioneered the “Latin boom” in the world that continues to this day. “Above all, I appreciate the talent very much, the artists who make good music,” he reflects and also attaches importance to “streaming”, which gave the audience freedom of choice over “radios and record companies”.
“And finally to the boom of the urban genre. I’m grateful to all the artists I’ve worked with and as a pop artist too to have been able to blend my style with those rhythms creating a subgenre that helped me a lot,” he says.
His music has been enriched in recent years by high-profile collaborations, such as the one that recently reunited him in a studio with his “brother” Antonio Orozco for the song “My Hero” for the album the Spaniard is about to release.
“Years ago we did the song ‘You Know’ together, which I chose. This time he offered me this song and I accepted before he had finished speaking. I knew the song, I lived that moment of his life with him, so I know there’s a lot of honesty in it,” he explains.
“I want to think that I’m a good friend.”
He also recently recorded with another colleague from the TV show “La Voz”, David Bisbal, for whom he found a few kind words in the middle of the show, publicly admitting that “there are many friends, but friends, friends (like him), few”.
“I like having friends and I like to think that I’m a good friend, one of those people who call for no reason to ask how the family is,” Fonsi clarifies before recalling it , that the beginning of his friendship with Bisbal is long gone.
About him he adds: “He was one of the first people to form a very genuine friendship through the same profession. We’re very similar personally, with the same values,” he says.
Is friendship more difficult in this job? “Two things happen: a) you’re never in the same place for long; and b) you don’t know if someone wants to be your friend by heart or by circumstance. Fame forces you to choose more about who you open the door to in your home. Maybe that’s the difference to my situation, a protective aspect,” he emphasizes.
His current visit to Spain has to do with “several television projects”, with a short recording session in the studio and above all with a tour of unusual cities on the program of a world star such as El Puerto de Santa María (Southwest), where they will be on August 18th makes a stop as part of the cabaret festival.
“That’s what it was about, after several tours, to visit and get to know other cities in Spain,” he explains; and will return to the main cities “towards the end of the year” to continue presenting his album “La ley de lagravida” (2022) and the achievements of his entire career.
The tour, which kicked off in America titled Perfect Night, marks his return to concerts after the pandemic’s toughest moments. “Every stage has its magic, but if I had to keep one, I would choose to be on stage. There you can feel the audience, that’s the goal of everything,” he says.