Marseille edit
Unless you are self-sufficient in the depths of a cave, you have certainly already heard about it. What? "Despacito", of course! Luis Fonsi's song and Daddy Yankee multiplies views on YouTube and is sold like hot cakes. It became thus urgent to analyze the phenomenon’s springs.
Vertiginous records
Figures give the sturdy. Thus judge:
o "Despacito" is the best song of the History with more than 4.6 billion distributions in July 2017.
o The video is the most seen on YouTube with 3,060, 881,939 views when these lines are written. It exceeds the clip of "See you again", the ballad of Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth also soundtrack of the blockbuster pimped (and thun) Fast and Furious 7. The passage of witness took place on August 4th, 2017. Psy's "Gangnam style ", the first video to have exceeded a billion (in December, 2012) and two billion views (in January, 2014), was ranked at the third place.
o The video has affected a billion views for only 97 days. It is the fastest to have turned this corner after Adele's "Hello".
o It has made 2 billion views for 154 days; no one has made as well as it.
o It is also the most liked by YouTube with about 17,700,000 likes.
In France, this is the song most streamed and the most frequently bought. In the United States, it has been n°1 charts for twelve weeks, not far from exceeding "Shape of you" of the British singer Ed Sheeran (in spite of his cameo in an episode of the series Game of Thrones) for the year 2017. The South American tube left to beat the record of the title stayed longer number one in the United States’ history in spite of “Closer" competition of The Chainsmokers and the above-mentioned "See you again".
This success would be nothing without that, initial, that the title known in Latin America, Spain and Italy and from the beginning of the year (the song was released on January 12th).
A viral contents
The legend would like to be Justin Bieber who transformed the regional hit into world success further to its remix spread on April 17th. The Canadian singer has certainly acted as bridgehead, but all the merits he has attributed would be false.
First of all, Luis Fonsi, aged 39, and Daddy Yankee, aged 40, are far from being novices. As stars in Latin America, they contributed to immortalize the image of the South American crooner for the one (who, in the passage, has already sung for the Pope and Obama) and to popularize the kind of the reggaeton for the other. Secondly, the success of a South American artist in the global has nothing original, shows that of Ricky Martin, Shakira and other Enrique Iglesias. What is the difference? These glorious predecessors did not benefit from the multiplication of the digital distribution channels which boosted the vitality potential of Fonsi and Yankee.
In fact, this has benefited from the power of the social networks. Hence, the song and the clip raise all the strength of the ideal viral contents about which dream about the marks: simple, sunny, catchy, exotic and universal. Luis Fonsi wonders:
"I only wanted to create an entertaining song with the South American "flavor" and which would make people dance"
For this, we can add a small touch of rudeness with Daddy Yankee’s presence, the representative of the reggaeton, the musical kind for a long time marginally in Caribbean pond to become mainstream with the success of "Despacito".
Then, the Internet users have regained control the title to become the ambassadors. Therefore, thousands of memes (mass declension of a contents on Web) produced sometimes generates dozens million views. It is for all the tastes, ironic, reference, moved or funny. You should not forget these thousands of musicians and from those who have taken back the song, individually or in a group, a cappella or with instruments, faithful to the original or in more audacious versions (classic, metal).
The distribution of the title seems to have no limit in the point of worrying about the politics. Being forbidden in Malaysia for the contents considered contrary to common decency, he was recovered by the Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro to defend his project of constituent assembly what did not miss to cause the ire of both artists on Twitter and Instagram.
At the moment, nothing seems to stop "Despacito", the song which chains the records at a vertiginous speed. The last straw for a title means "slowly".
Article written by Thierry Randretsa.