El quince de abril/April 15th

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Photo from rollingstone.com, September 2107, in post
about Fonsi's performance of Despacito with The Roots
on The Tonight Show. Click HERE. 
¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Luis Fonsi (Luis Alfonso Rodríguez López-Cepero! (1978-     )

If you haven't yet heard of Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi, you almost definitely have heard his 2017 hit song with Daddy Yankee (remix featuring Justin Bieber), Despacito. The Despacito video on YouTube broke records with more than 5 billion views (and also made history when it was hacked in April 2018). Despacito has also spawned interesting discussions about the aspects of race in reggaeton music and the fact that this song was so successful (see interview in The Atlantic with Wellesley college professor Pietra Rivera-Rideau, author of Remixing Reggaeton: The Cultural Politics of Race in Puerto Rico. As Rivera-Rideau says, "It's an interesting moment to think about how this genre has moved from being so maligned, marginalized, and censored to now being the No. 1 song on the English language pop charts.") Similarly popular is Fonsi's collaboration with Demi Lovato, Échame la culpa, which was published on YouTube in November of 2017 and already has over a billion views. Fonsi, who grew up in Puerto Rico and moved to Orlando, Florida with his family when he was ten years old, always loved singing and performing. He imitated the popular boy band Menudo for years before joining his own band, Big Guys, while in high school. Another member of Big Guys was future member of NSync Joey Fatone. Fonsi went on to major in Vocal Performace at Florida State University (on a full scholarship). He was only 20 in 1998 when he recorded his debut album, Comenzaré, which made it to No. 11 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart. He has recorded eight more albums since then, with his last album, the appropriately named 8, out in 2014 (read more, in Spanish, HERE). Fonsi has won multiple awards for his work, including four Latin Grammys. In 2009, he participated in the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, honoring recipient President Barack Obama. After Hurricane Maria decimated Puerto Rico in the fall of 2017, Fonsi was active in raising funds for the island (read more HERE). He and wife Águeda López, a Spanish model, have two children together, Mikaela (Dec. 2011) and Rocco (Dec. 2016). Fonsi was previously married to Puerto Rican actress Adamari López (from 2006 to 2010).

For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.


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