Luis Fonsi

Luis Fonsi, born Luis Alfonso Rodríguez López-Cepero on April 15, 1978, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a singer, songwriter, and actor who became one of the defining voices of modern Latin pop. He began releasing music in the late 1990s, steadily building a following across Latin America and the US Latino market with romantic pop ballads sung primarily in Spanish.

His sound blends radio-friendly pop melodies with Latin rhythmic textures — touches of salsa, bachata, and later reggaeton — depending on the era and collaborators involved. Fonsi's songwriting leans heavily on love and heartbreak themes, delivered through a smooth, emotive tenor that has kept him a consistent presence on Latin pop and adult contemporary charts for over two decades.

His defining global moment came in 2017 with 'Despacito,' co-written with Erika Ender and featuring Daddy Yankee, later boosted by a remix adding Justin Bieber. The song became one of the most streamed and commercially successful singles in history, introducing reggaeton-inflected Latin pop to mainstream Western audiences on an unprecedented scale and cementing Fonsi's legacy well beyond his prior Spanish-language hits.