Despacito writer Luis Fonsi’s 19-year journey to musical immortality

If at any point in the past six months you have heard the lone strum of a distant Spanish guitar, the proceeding three minutes and 42 seconds were more than likely spent under the spell of Despacito. It’s the all-conquering, duo-lingual, mid-tempo pop behemoth that has been blaring from car stereos, shop sound systems, barbecue bluetooth speakers and, despite lyrics that dwell on the slow-and-steady road to screaming orgasm, end-of-term school discos.

Its title may translate as “slowly”, but there’s been nothing sluggish about the success of Luis Fonsi’s omni­present global smash. Released to limited fanfare in January, by July the mesmerising collaboration with Puerto Rican reggaeton star Daddy Yankee was the most streamed song to date; it has now been streamed more than 4.6 billion times. If you’re tempted to credit that to the remix featuring Justin Bieber, think again: this month the Bieberless version became the first video in YouTube’s decade-plus history to achieve three billion views.

Crossing the line from exquisitely structured pop single to all-out cultural phenomenon, Despacito is also the first non-English No 1 in the United States in more than two decades; in Britain, it has become the longest-running foreign-language No 1 in history.

The man at the eye of its storm has seen international success come via a circuitous route. The 39-year-old, Puerto Rico-born singer has already released eight albums in a career that has spanned 19 years, during which he has performed for one pope and two US presidents, supported Britney Spears on tour and gone platinum six times. We meet backstage at a modest open-air concert two hours west of Barcelona, and Fonsi’s amiable disposition is encapsulated by an entourage of just a few people, and in the way he (unlike 99 per cent of his pop star peers) removes his sunglasses for an interview.

An endearingly straightforward chap who seems genuinely humbled by his second flush of fame, Fonsi begins by attempting to explain the Despacito pheno­menon. “If the song is good enough, it will work in any language,” he says, and lists the varied genres traversed by the song – urban, salsa, reggaeton, pop, tropical, dancehall – before conceding defeat and acknowledging that while the song is all those things, it’s somehow greater than the sum of its parts. “It just makes it hard not to move,” he eventually says. “Whether you like to dance or not, you somehow just start ... moving.”

It’s been nearly two decades since Fonsi first found fame, but now that the popularity of Despacito has propelled him to No 1 in 45 countries, he’s relishing this opportunity to prove himself again to new audiences. “You have to say, ‘How do I win these people over?’” he says, motioning towards the stage. “How do I make sure this first concert here tonight isn’t my last concert here?” One solution is to perform Despacito twice – he plans to drop it in the middle of the set, then again as a reprise. “But it makes it exciting, to see that initial reaction again,” he grins. “To see people thinking, ‘Hmm, what is this guy all about?’”