Rauw Alejandro

Despacito was first released by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi in 2017, and quickly became the top-streamed track within 6 months. In 2017, the song Despacito, a mixture of reggaeton and pop, not only brought new interest to reggaeton but also sparked interest in Latin music. In 2015 there were only two predominantly Spanish-speaking songs in Billboard's Top 100 and in 2016 there were four. At the peak of Despacito's success in 2017, 19 songs mainly in Spanish were in at the very top of 100. This number rose to 41 in 2020. Following Justin Bieber's bilingual remix of Despacito (2017) famous artists began to collaborate with reggaeton musicians, such as Drake along with Bad Bunny on MIA (2018) as well as Madonna with Maluma on Medellin (2019). In 2020, a few Reggaeton artists were complaining about the direction of the genre toward the mainstream. However, a younger generation, such as Rauw Alejandro was determined to continue the evolution. He incorporated electronic dance styles and others into his music.