In six months, the song exploded on all counts, totaling 2 billion views on YouTube, something never seen before. In October, it doubled that figure. In 2019, she became the first to cross the 6 billion views mark, also entering the Guinness Book of Records for having broken seven!
Five years later, it has more than 8.5 billion views and even if it is well ahead of “Baby Shark” and its 15 billion views, its meteoric rise remains a benchmark.
Luis Fonsi, the man with six billion views on YouTube: “I am blessed by the gods”
In the documentary The Story of Latin Music, the first of two episodes of which is offered this Thursday, October 10 at 10 p.m., LN24 invites you to discover how Latin American music became this global phenomenon. By switching on the time machine, you will discover the cradle where it all began: Miami. Remember Gloria Estefan and her Miami Sound Machine who to this day have always sold more albums than Shakira. In the 80s, his hits, like “Conga”, “Suave” (soundtrack for the film Cobra) and “Hot Summer Nights” (soundtrack for Top Gun) had already conquered the world. The fashion was launched, J. Balvin, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin and other Rosalias rushed in.
Why summer hits are on their way out
It is also impossible to ignore the other phenomenon of the genre: the “Macarena”. With its very hot choreography, the hit worn by Los del Rio made the summers of 95 and 96 hotter than ever. In the United States, we had to wait for “Despacito” to once again see a single sung in Spanish rise to first place on the Billboard Hot 100, the benchmark ranking for singles!
The Macarena. Worldwide success! An obvious look. We say to ourselves: “It could only work!”
How did these titles become classics? How did the music industry make it one of its golden gooses? How, since Julio Iglesias, have we managed to see Latin American music rise to the top all over the world and become a spearhead in terms of streaming? And how did women manage to establish themselves in what was originally a very masculine environment? The answers in The Story of Latin Music…
