Pushing the envelope, musically speaking, is what needs to be done to rise to the top.
— Luis Fonsi
I wrote 'Despacito' with my guitar, but where you can tweak a lot is in the production.
Each album always has its own sound.
'Despacito' was a song that, from the time I started writing it, I felt that its hook was really catchy and powerful but at the same time very simple.
I never like to get ahead of myself. I'm not one of those people that do that.
My family is the engine of everything, and on a personal level, I feel peace, stability, and they give me force, which is reflected on my work, my recordings, and every time that I go out on tour. They are my base, my everything.
At no time was I trying to write a crossover record.
It doesn't matter where we're from, we all have to stick together and help each other out as performers and as human beings.
As an artist, you keep learning. You draw out different parts of you.
When I make albums, I do a lot of songwriting but not necessarily a whole album.
That is the most important thing to me, what happens behind the closed doors in the studio and makes me an artist.
I won't lie, I didn't know there was a concert. I've always known about the Nobel Peace Prize and the different prizes given out for science and this and that, but I didn't know there was a concert the day after. When they said, 'You're going to perform in Norway for the Nobel Peace Prize concert,' I was like, 'All right, I'm there.'
I love and respect theatre, so I am truly honored to have the opportunity to take my voice to the Broadway stage.
In my player, I have a Luis Miguel CD as well as a Brian McKnight CD. I'm known for my very romantic ballads as well as the fun, up-tempo pop songs.
You kind of grow up and evolve in everything you do.
It's crazy how the world evolves and the audience gives you an opportunity to really grow and live out your dreams.
I've learned and grown as a songwriter.
The genre I listen to the most is salsa, so people look at me and see this guy who's done mostly romantic ballads, but there's always been this other side.
It's crazy because I was 10 years old when 'Macarena' was all over the place, and I remember looking at it from a different point of view. I remember culturally how important that song was, even though people didn't really know what they were saying. It was more about the dance and the movement of it and the cultural side of it.
I'm still the same guy who gets in front of the mic and just sings.
My daughter is my number one fan. She has always been incredibly supportive, and she tells like it is and how it is.
I block out a good amount of time - could be 6 or 8 months - and I just write. I do a lot of traveling, and I do a lot of co-writing with different writers just to start getting ideas out and kind of get a little bit of direction as far as where I'm going to go with the album.
Just when you think we're living in a little bit of a divided world, music brings us together.
I don't know what happens at radio as far as what is that X factor that makes a song click and have people get connected to it when it's in another language.
When you're singing about love stories, which is most of my songs, it's good to have a lot of information and to have a different point of view.
It's a beautiful thing to be involved with the Special Olympics.
Everybody has their cliques, and I was very shy. I'm still very shy. Music opened up doors. I would get to my choir class, and I was sort of one of the better kids... I could read music. That's when I realized how good El Coro de San Juan was. I felt, for once, like, hey, I can fit in.
It's always morning for me until 4 in the afternoon.
To say I was near our president, performing at the Nobel Peace Prize... I think that's an amazing thing.
Performing on Broadway is an honor and a challenge for any artist.
My style has a lot to do with where I've been brought up. I've lived half my life in Puerto Rico and the other half in Florida, so I listen to music in English as well as Spanish.
Whenever I get a little chance to get to Orlando, I like to take a couple days' break with the family, just hang out, go clubbing around town.
Part of our job as quote-unquote 'celebrities' is that we can gather people around things that are important. I think it should be a requisite - there should be a clause in the contract that you have to give back.
I'm not a social singer. But if one can take a social message via the romantic, that's a strong statement.
I treat every album as a new beginning, so I'm asking myself, 'What is pop music now? What are people consuming?' and I take these things into effect.
As a songwriter, I go into the studio, and I just try to write a great song.
'Despacito' started with a melody hook that I had with my guitar only. The beat for this track came after I wrote the lyrics, which I wrote as if I was writing a ballad.
I am very optimistic, and I always think positive, but within reason and never getting too far ahead of the game.
The beautiful thing about it is that 'Despacito' is not really an English crossover. It was just another song that the world made a crossover. I didn't really push it; it just kinda went there.
I've done songs in other languages. I know how hard it is.
I'm going through a beautiful stage in my life. I've learned about love, about life, about everything.
Everybody lives their lives differently. They have a different perspective. They've been through different things in love. They've cried about different things.
I like to listen to other songs to get a different point of view and to learn.
The transition to the United States was very interesting. I learned the language. I kind of got into the R&B. I'm a huge fan of the '80s, Journey and all that fun stuff. But when I moved to Orlando, it was more like Boyz II Men.
I sang in a group for four years, and you just kind of get used to it. You don't really think about being by yourself.
Cancer is tough. Even saying it, it's a tough word to say.
I definitely try to be myself and not try to imitate other performers. That's why I got my music degree. I wanted to be prepared and not be a 'product.' I want people to know that I'm not only a singer but a musician as well. I studied guitar, piano, and composition. I believe that it's just about being myself on and off stage.
My genre is the pop ballad with a touch of R&B.
Ricky Martin just kind of opened a big door, but it's always been around. Latin artists have always been there, but some of them were never doing it in the U.S.
I've worked my butt off. That keeps my feet on the ground - I'm the same Luis Fonsi onstage and at home cooking an omelette in basketball shorts.
