Promise (Romeo Santos song)
Encyclopedia
"Promise" is a Latin pop
song by American recording artist Romeo Santos from his debut album Formula, Vol. 1 (2011). The track was co-written and produced by Rico Love
and features vocals by American performer Usher
. It was released as the album's second single in Latin America and the United States.
The song combines elements of bachata and R&B
and peaked atop the Billboard
s Latin Songs
chart, becoming the second consecutive number-one song in the chart for Santos and the first for Usher. The music video for "Promise" was directed by Anthony Mandler
, who previously worked with Rihanna
, Jay-Z
and Kanye West
.
and recorded his debut solo album, Formula, Vol. 1, which includes most of the tracks in bachata rhythm and bilingual
songs such as the lead single "You", which peaked at number-one in the Billboard Latin Songs
, and "Promise", with vocals by American singer-songwriter Usher
. The collaboration came through because Santos' manager Johnny Marines introduced Usher to Santos. Usher was impressed by Santos ability to perform after seeing him on YouTube, saying: "This is the thing that people will remember." "Promise" was co-written and produced by Rico Love
and features Usher singing on bachata rhythm for the first time. According to Carlos Quintana of About.com
the song and the rest of the tracks included on Formula, Vol. 1 may be classified as Latin urban contemporary
with R&B
and Hip-Hop influences. The track was named "fluttering" by Mikael Wood of Entertainment Weekly
on his review of the parent album.
who worked previously with Jay-Z
, Kanye West
and Rihanna
. Usher and Santos spent 24 hours on set, with a highly specialized a scenic setting, full lights, cameras and special effects. The video shows both performers singing to their love partners about the love they feel for them and asked them to promise to never leave them without their love. Upon release the video has had a heavy rotation on MTV
reaching the top of the most-played list, even with Santos performing in Spanish language, something noted by Ruben Leyva, Sony U.S. Latin president, commenting that Santos has been "able to do what other artists have been able to do-reach a dominant-English-speaking audience-only by singing in Spanish."
on November 11, 2011 in Las Vegas.
and digital download
on September 2, 2011. The song was the highest debut at the Billboard Latin Songs
chart on the week of September 24, 2011 at number 24, climbing to the top ten the following week. The song reached the top of the chart the week of October 29, 2011 replacing Ricardo Arjona
's "El Amor
". "Promise" became the second number-one single for Santos in the chart, following the seven week reign of his previous single "You
". The song is also the first number-one in the chart for Usher
surpassing his highest placement in the chart with "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love
" which peaked at 16 in 2010. According to Nielsen SoundScan
the track has sold 49,000 digital downloads in the United States.
Latin pop
Latin pop generally refers to pop music that has what may be perceived a Latin American influence...
song by American recording artist Romeo Santos from his debut album Formula, Vol. 1 (2011). The track was co-written and produced by Rico Love
Rico Love
Richard Preston Butler, Jr. , better known by his stage name Rico Love, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. Love wrote and produced hit records such as Usher’s "There Goes My Baby" and "Hey Daddy ”, Nelly's "Just a Dream" and "Gone", Beyoncé Knowles' "Sweet Dreams"...
and features vocals by American performer Usher
Usher (entertainer)
Usher Terry Raymond IV , who performs under the mononym Usher, is an American singer-songwriter, and actor. He is considered around the world to be the reigning King of R&B. Usher rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way, which spawned his first Billboard Hot 100...
. It was released as the album's second single in Latin America and the United States.
The song combines elements of bachata and R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and peaked atop the Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
s Latin Songs
Hot Latin Songs
Hot Latin Songs is a record chart published by Billboard magazine. It is often recognized as the most important music chart for Spanish language Latin music in the American music market. It was established by the magazine on September 6, 1986 with La Guirnalda by Rocío Dúrcal being the first song...
chart, becoming the second consecutive number-one song in the chart for Santos and the first for Usher. The music video for "Promise" was directed by Anthony Mandler
Anthony Mandler
Anthony Mandler is a commercial and music video director, who has written and directed music videos for several artists. His most notable and frequent collaborator is Rihanna...
, who previously worked with Rihanna
Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty , better known as simply Rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers...
, Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
and Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
.
Background
After the temporary separation of the band Aventura, Romeo Santos signed a record deal with Sony Music EntertainmentSony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
and recorded his debut solo album, Formula, Vol. 1, which includes most of the tracks in bachata rhythm and bilingual
Multilingualism
Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
songs such as the lead single "You", which peaked at number-one in the Billboard Latin Songs
Hot Latin Songs
Hot Latin Songs is a record chart published by Billboard magazine. It is often recognized as the most important music chart for Spanish language Latin music in the American music market. It was established by the magazine on September 6, 1986 with La Guirnalda by Rocío Dúrcal being the first song...
, and "Promise", with vocals by American singer-songwriter Usher
Usher (entertainer)
Usher Terry Raymond IV , who performs under the mononym Usher, is an American singer-songwriter, and actor. He is considered around the world to be the reigning King of R&B. Usher rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way, which spawned his first Billboard Hot 100...
. The collaboration came through because Santos' manager Johnny Marines introduced Usher to Santos. Usher was impressed by Santos ability to perform after seeing him on YouTube, saying: "This is the thing that people will remember." "Promise" was co-written and produced by Rico Love
Rico Love
Richard Preston Butler, Jr. , better known by his stage name Rico Love, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. Love wrote and produced hit records such as Usher’s "There Goes My Baby" and "Hey Daddy ”, Nelly's "Just a Dream" and "Gone", Beyoncé Knowles' "Sweet Dreams"...
and features Usher singing on bachata rhythm for the first time. According to Carlos Quintana of About.com
About.com
About.com is an online source for original information and advice. It is written in English, and is aimed primarily at North Americans. It is owned by The New York Times Company....
the song and the rest of the tracks included on Formula, Vol. 1 may be classified as Latin urban contemporary
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...
with R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and Hip-Hop influences. The track was named "fluttering" by Mikael Wood of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
on his review of the parent album.
Music video
The music video for "Promise" was directed by Anthony MandlerAnthony Mandler
Anthony Mandler is a commercial and music video director, who has written and directed music videos for several artists. His most notable and frequent collaborator is Rihanna...
who worked previously with Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
, Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
and Rihanna
Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty , better known as simply Rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers...
. Usher and Santos spent 24 hours on set, with a highly specialized a scenic setting, full lights, cameras and special effects. The video shows both performers singing to their love partners about the love they feel for them and asked them to promise to never leave them without their love. Upon release the video has had a heavy rotation on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
reaching the top of the most-played list, even with Santos performing in Spanish language, something noted by Ruben Leyva, Sony U.S. Latin president, commenting that Santos has been "able to do what other artists have been able to do-reach a dominant-English-speaking audience-only by singing in Spanish."
Live performances
The song was performed by Santos and Usher for the first time in the Latin Grammy Awards of 2011Latin Grammy Awards of 2011
The 12th Annual Latin Grammy Awards was held on November 10, 2011 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and was hosted by Lucero and Cristián de la Fuente. The eligibility period for recordings to be nominated is July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011...
on November 11, 2011 in Las Vegas.
Chart performance
"Promise" was released as the second single from Formula, Vol. 1 to airplayAirplay
* Airplay is the amount of time a song is played on the radio.It may also refer to:* AirPlay, an audio & video streaming technology from Apple Inc.* Airplay , Foster & Graydon music project from 1980* Citroën C1, Citroën C1 Airplay...
and digital download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
on September 2, 2011. The song was the highest debut at the Billboard Latin Songs
Hot Latin Songs
Hot Latin Songs is a record chart published by Billboard magazine. It is often recognized as the most important music chart for Spanish language Latin music in the American music market. It was established by the magazine on September 6, 1986 with La Guirnalda by Rocío Dúrcal being the first song...
chart on the week of September 24, 2011 at number 24, climbing to the top ten the following week. The song reached the top of the chart the week of October 29, 2011 replacing Ricardo Arjona
Ricardo Arjona
Edgar Ricardo Arjona Morales, , known as Ricardo Arjona , is a Guatemalan singer...
's "El Amor
El Amor (Ricardo Arjona song)
"El Amor" is a song recorded by Guatemalan latin pop singer-songwriter Ricardo Arjona for his thirteenth studio album, Independiente . It was written and produced by Arjona, with aditional work from Dan Warner, Lee Levin and Tommy Torres...
". "Promise" became the second number-one single for Santos in the chart, following the seven week reign of his previous single "You
You (Romeo Santos song)
"You" is a Latin pop song by American recording artist Romeo Santos from his debut album Formula, Vol. 1 . Produced by Santos, the track was released as the album's first single in Latin America and the United States....
". The song is also the first number-one in the chart for Usher
Usher (entertainer)
Usher Terry Raymond IV , who performs under the mononym Usher, is an American singer-songwriter, and actor. He is considered around the world to be the reigning King of R&B. Usher rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way, which spawned his first Billboard Hot 100...
surpassing his highest placement in the chart with "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love
DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love
"DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" is a song by recording artist Usher and features guest vocals from American rapper Pitbull. It was written by Savan Kotecha, Pitbull, Shellback and Max Martin, with the latter two producing it. It is the first single from Usher's EP, Versus...
" which peaked at 16 in 2010. According to Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan
Nielsen SoundScan is an information and sales tracking system created by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett. Soundscan is the official method of tracking sales of music and music video products throughout the United States and Canada...
the track has sold 49,000 digital downloads in the United States.
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hot 100 |
83 |
| U.S. Latin Songs (Billboard) | 1 |
| U.S. Latin Pop Songs (Billboard) | 1 |
| U.S. Tropical Songs (Billboard) | 1 |