ViralWorld

Despacito

Latest viral13 of 24

2017·The platform era·impressive

A Spanish-language song from Puerto Rico became the most-watched thing on YouTube, and stayed there for years.

At a glanceThe facts

Spread in
2017
Began as
A commercial release
Where it started
commercial-release
Format
Sound
Era
The platform era
Performed by
Luis Fonsi, featuring Daddy Yankee
Recorded
The video was filmed in December 2016 in La Perla, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Record
Most-viewed video on YouTube from 4 August 2017 to 2 November 2020
Origin
Not an upload originally
Available
Playable from the source

What this wasThe story

A reggaeton-pop single by Luis Fonsi with Daddy Yankee, released in January 2017 with a video shot in La Perla, San Juan. It was not sung in English. A remix with Justin Bieber followed in April, but the original video is the one that kept climbing.

It reshaped how labels treat Latin music worldwide and made streaming totals rather than radio the accepted measure of a global hit. Its record stood until 2020. In Puerto Rico it also drew a complicated local argument about the filming location, a neighbourhood with a long history of being represented badly by outsiders.

Why it matteredWhat changed

A song in Spanish was the most-watched thing on YouTube for more than three years and the first video anywhere to be played three, four, five and six billion times. It ended the idea that a record of that kind had to be in English.

TimelineIn order

  1. Posted

    The video is uploaded to Luis Fonsi’s channel. The single is released the next day.1

  2. Remixed

    A remix with Justin Bieber is released.1

  3. Mainstream

    It reaches number one in the United States, where it stays for sixteen weeks, equalling the record.1

  4. Record

    It becomes the most-viewed video on YouTube and, the same day, the first to three billion views.1

  5. Record

    It is the first video to reach five billion views.1

  6. Later

    Baby Shark overtakes it as the most-viewed video on YouTube.1

What people misrememberSet straight

Commonly remembered asA Justin Bieber song.

ActuallyBieber joined a remix three months after the original was released. On that remix it is Fonsi, not Bieber, who sings the English-language verse.1

Commonly remembered asA reggaeton song.

ActuallyIt is filed as one, and Fonsi says he does not consider it reggaeton.1

LegacyWhat it left behind

More from hereIn this collection

RelatedMore like this

Records this one is explicitly related to — a copy, a remake, a parody, the same meme or the same maker.

Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast

This was released commercially before the internet carried it. Originally published on commercial-release. The version shown here is an official copy on YouTube, published by a rights holder.

Where it came fromWhat we know

There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. What it began as is recorded here, and what is shown is a later copy.

View the official copy on YouTube

Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This was released commercially before the internet carried it. Originally published on commercial-release.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

ConnectedFollow it further

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Despacito

Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things

Keep browsingElsewhere on ViralWorld