Hit songs tend to linger in our cultural conversations and Luis Fonsi’s and Daddy Yankee’s Despacito is no exception. This week a remix was dropped featuring Justin Bieber and it has taken over all the latin music news. I tried my best to avoid writing about it, yet here we are.
The song has had incredible success, having the biggest YouTube debut of the year so far and being the first latin song in 18 years to reach the top 5 in the U.S. iTunes chart. Many fans have expressed their immense support for the track, namely Bieber fans who seem to have been deprived as he hasn’t released an album since 2015. Others have commended him for singing in Spanish instead of throwing around a few words.
Still, the reception hasn’t been completely positive.
“if a god exists now we know that they hate us”
“I don’t love you but if it’s what you wanna hear that’s what Imma tell you – Anuel AA” answering to “PUERTO RICO LOVES YOU JUSTIN BIEBER”
Some have even poked fun at the Bieber fans coming out of the woodwork to recognize an already incredibly popular song:
I’m not a fan of the remix myself. It’s fine until the trainwreck of the chorus. Still, there’s something bigger to be discussed here. This white boy is achieving massive success by piggybacking off two Puerto Rican artists’ work. He’s receiving praise and being fawned over for singing in mediocre Spanish when everyday people are harassed for their broken English.
I don’t know if this hit is indicative of what’s to come not only for urban latin music but latin music in general. If this success will prompt artists to incorporate more English and English-speaking artists into their tracks to achieve U.S. Success. Because that seems to be the benchmark, success all around the world is meaningless if you don’t make it in America.
Listen to the track below and share your thoughts.
Con Dembow 
I agree with you on this topic. I think it would have been way different if Justin Bieber had taken part in the writing and producing and promotion of the track from the beginning. That way, he could’ve been helping to promote the Puerto Rican artists, rather than slapping his name on an insanely successful song after the fact. Something about that just looks really bad… the song was great before Justin Bieber decided to try and be relevant again through work that wasn’t his.
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