Luis Fonsi

Fonsi grew up in the Orlando that produced 'NSync and Backstreet Boys, but that's not where he says his ear came from. 'I was really influenced by Brian McKnight, Stevie Wonder, Boyz II Men and all these other amazing R&B singers,' he told Rolling Stone in 2019 — naming McKnight first, twice, in the same interview. McKnight's ballads, patient verses that erupt into a key change on the bridge, gave a shy transplant from San Juan a blueprint for turning restraint into a payoff, one he'd later sing entirely in Spanish.

listen: upstream & heresource: Rolling Stone — Luis Fonsi ↗share

1999

Back at OneBrian McKnight

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2008

No Me Doy por VencidoLuis Fonsi

listen forCue Brian McKnight's 'Back at One,' a slow-count ballad that saves its title hook until the very last line of each verse, then set beside Fonsi's 'No Me Doy por Vencido.' Both hold the melody low and conversational through the verses, then lift the whole arrangement — strings, backing vocals, key change — for one climbing final chorus where the singer stops holding back. Listen for how each man treats the hook itself like a promise, repeating the title phrase until it sounds less like a lyric than a vow he's making in real time.

By the time Fonsi reached Dr. Phillips High School, his real curriculum was American R&B — Brian McKnight, Stevie Wonder, and the Philadelphia harmony group Boyz II Men chief among it. 'You know how R&B and hip-hop are intertwined?' he asked Rolling Stone in 2019. 'I think it's the same with me and urbano. I speak their language.' Boyz II Men's stacked, gospel-rooted harmonies — four voices doing the emotional work a single lead voice can't — became the vocal grammar Fonsi carried into his own Spanish-language ballads.

listen: upstream & heresource: Rolling Stone — Luis Fonsi ↗share

1992

End of the RoadBoyz II Men

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2000

Imagíname Sin TiLuis Fonsi

listen forPlay Boyz II Men's 'End of the Road' against Fonsi's breakout 'Imagíname Sin Ti' and listen to how both open almost spoken — a lead vocal barely above a whisper over a spare piano-and-bass pulse — before the backing voices stack in underneath, thickening each chorus into close harmony. Boyz II Men's quartet blend and Fonsi's own layered backing vocals do the same job: neither lead singer has to raise his voice to sell the ache, because the harmony stacked behind him does that work instead.

Fonsi calls Luis Miguel an idol he'd admired for years before ever seeing him live — that finally happened at a 2024 Miami concert, an encounter he described to the Mexican host Yordi Rosado: 'la primera vez que yo mismo no podía controlar mis expresiones, sentí lo que es ser fan de verdad' ('the first time I couldn't control my own reactions — I felt what it means to really be a fan'). The song that nearly broke him in the crowd was 'Hasta que me olvides' — the very song a young Fonsi had sung to win his first record deal.

listen: upstream & heresource: Excélsior — "No llores" ↗share

1993

Hasta que me olvidesLuis Miguel

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1998

PerdónameLuis Fonsi

listen forBoth are slow-building romantic boleros that ask a single sustained high note to carry the emotional payoff — the same request, in miniature, that a record executive was making of Fonsi the day he stood in an office and sang 'Hasta que me olvides' for his shot at a contract. Luis Miguel takes the long way there, easing out of a hushed verse into a full orchestral swell; 'Perdóname,' from the very album Fonsi built out of that audition, compresses the same climb into a tighter pop-ballad frame.