Format Digital download Length 3:27 Writer(s) Nick Rivera Caminero | Genre Latin pop
reggaeton Label Sony Latin
RCA | |
Released 6 February 2015 (2015-02-06) | ||
"El Perdón" (English: "Forgiveness") is a song by American singer Nicky Jam and Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias. An English-language version of the song, titled "Forgiveness", was released on 10 July 2015.
Contents
Background
"El Perdón" was initially a solo track by Nicky Jam. After talking with Jam, Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias decided to collaborate with him to release a single. Iglesias told Billboard that even though he usually writes or co-writes the songs he sings on, this song he didn't mind just re-recording with Nicky Jam. The track quickly rose to the top of the charts and became a huge success. The music video was recorded in Medellin, Colombia.
Critical
Billboard ranked "El Perdón" at number 12 on its year-end list: "So much has been said about records set by "El Perdón," the second longest-running number-one song on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. But too little has been said about the mix of sweet and sad on the danceable tune. Not to mention those plaintive lyrics of lost love that can make girls (and guys) cry. "When I wrote the beginning of the song—'Did he take you to the moon, and I couldn't do that'—that part hit me really hard," Nicky Jam told Billboard. Trust us, Nicky, we get it, too."
the Latin Grammy Award winning track "El Perdón," which hit number-one in over 40 countries around the world, achieving over four million sales and 300 million streams worldwide.
Commercial
"El Perdón" became an international hit. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs within five weeks, and spent 26 weeks at the top spot, passing Shakira's "La Tortura", and behind Iglesias' own "Bailando" (42 weeks). The song reached the summit on multiple Billboard Latin charts, including Latin Airplay, Latin Digital Sales, Latin Streaming Songs, and Latin Pop Songs. More recently, Nicky and Enrique released an English version of the track titled "Forgiveness". The release, with strong first week digital sales, brought the single to reach number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The single had staying power, logging 30 weeks on the Hot 100, becoming the longest-charting song not to make the top 50. "El Perdón" ranked number 96 on the Billboard year-end top 100, becoming the lowest-peaking song to make the year-end chart, previously ScHoolboy Q's "Studio", which peaked number 38 on the Hot 100. The English version, "Forgiveness", has made an impact on Mainstream Top 40 and Rhythmic Top 40 stations in the US, peaking at number 29 in total audience for Mainstream Top 40 according to Mediabase. On 1 September 2015, the video for "Forgiveness", directed by Jessy Terrero, debuted on NickyJamTV channel on YouTube, and has more than 35 million views. The Spanish version of the "El Perdón" music video has over 810 million views, and the lyric video over 440 million views. The single also peaked at number one in Spain, France, Italy and Netherlands and charted in the top five in Switzerland and Belgium. In Netherlands, Enrique scored his first number-one hit with "El Perdón", after having previously scored four top two hits ("Could I Have This Kiss Forever", "Hero", "Do You Know" and "Can You Hear Me") in that country. The song spent six weeks at number one in France and was certified diamond for sales of 500,000 and was either certified diamond in Poland for 100,000.