Luis Fonsi Biography

news-detailsBorn Luis Alfonso Rodriguez on April 15, 1978 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Luis Fonsi was nicknamed Fonsi since the day he was born. He showed interest in music at a very young age, spending his childhood singing in the Children's Choir of San Juan and studying music theory. When Luis was 10 years old, his family moved to Orlando, Florida.

He entered Dr. Philip's High School in 1991. There, he met three friends, Joel Herman, Eric Garbus and Joey Fatone (later joined NSYNC), with whom he formed an a capella group called The Big Guys. The quartet performed at some small events, such as school parties and local festivities.

In 1995, Luis got a full scholarship to study in the Florida State University in Tallahassee, majoring in Vocal Performance. He joined the university's choir while starting to record music demos in Spanish. A demo caught a music executive's attention, and Luis scored a record deal with Universal Music Latin for his debut album "Comenzare". It arrived in 1998 and reached No. 11 on Billboard's Top Latin Albums.

Luis' second album "Eterno" was even more successful than "Comenzare". The effort featured 2 English songs. In less than a month since its release, "Eterno" sold more than 100,000 copies. Around this time, Luis recorded a duet with Christina Aguilera for her 2000 Spanish album "Mi Reflejo". In 2001, he performed along with other artists at the White House in honor of the victims of the September 11 attacks.

Luis released his long-awaited third album "Amor Secreto" on March 12, 2002. In a matter of days, he received Gold Record for the 100,000 copies sold in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. In the same year, Luis served as the opening act for Britney Spears' "Dream Within a Dream Tour" in the U.S. and Mexico. His first English album "Fight the Feeling" was released on July 2, 2002.

Luis made his acting debut in 2004 when he starred on Mexican telenovela titled "Corazones al limite". While he was in the middle of recording process of his sixth album, Luis assisted Spice Girls' Emma Bunton for her 2004 album "Free Me". He then released "Paso A Paso" in the following year. The album blasted to No. 2 on Billboard Latin chart and was nominated for Male Latin Pop Album of the Year at 2006 Billboard Latin Music Awards.

Luis married actress Adamari Lopez in 2006, a few months after the actress was diagnosed with cancer. After nearly four years of marriage, the two officially divorced in 2010. Luis then dated Spanish model Agueda Lopez and had their first child together in the following year. They were married in 2014 after three years of living together. The couple welcomed their second child in 2016.

In January 2017, his song "Despacito" featuring Daddy Yankee was released, quickly becoming No. 1 song on every Latin music chart. The music video for the track reached more than 2 billion views in five months. In April, Luis tapped Justin Bieber for the English remix of the song. The remix stayed steady atop Billboard Hot 100 for more than ten weeks. In August, "Despacito" became the most-watched video of all time on YouTube with more than three billion views.