Prince Royce is making history…
The 31-year-old Dominican American singer-songwriter’s “Carita de Inocente” maintains its stranglehold of the top spot on Billboard‘s Tropical Airplay chart dated August 8 for a record 20th week at No. 1, extending its mark for the most weeks atop the survey, which began in 1994.
The song broke free of a tie with Aventura‘s “Inmortal” and Don Omar and Lucenzo‘s “Danza Kuduro,” each of which led for 18 weeks, in 2019 and 2010-11, respectively.
“Carita de Inocente,” Prince Royce’s 18th Tropical Airplay No. 1 (the third-most, after Marc Anthony‘s 32 and Victor Manuelle‘s 28), was written by Royce, D’Lesly Lora and Yonathan Then and produced by Royce and Lora.
“Establishing this new record on the Billboard Tropical Airplay chart and being part of tropical music history with this bachata is a true honor,” Prince Royce tells Billboard. “I am so thankful for the support fans, radio and media have given me from the beginning of my career.”
What’s behind the endurance of the track? “The song has basically a perfect formula,” Candy Cintron, program director of WLZL Washington, D.C., tells Billboard (from her home studio in D.C.). “It repeats the chorus several times. It’s the same formula that The Beatles used, that Elvis Presley and Michael Jacksonused. You make a part of the song stand out and then you repeat it, so the song becomes very familiar very quickly.”
“Also, to Prince Royce’s credit, he’s extremely active promoting his work,” Cintron continued. “He puts his heart and soul into it. He does the interviews, the follow-up, the Instagram posts; he has over 12 million people following him. That and the marketing behind the song: His team stuck with it for a while instead of moving to the next one really quickly.”
As for the song’s sound, Citron notes, “While we are getting bombarded with reggaetón, this is a sweet, very appealing bachata song that snuck in and it’s a breath of fresh air. It has great lyrics, good production and the winning formula.”
Originally released in February, the song was assisted by a remix with Myke Towers, released June 3.
The single, which leads the latest Tropical Airplay chart with 9.4 million audience impressions in the week ending August 2, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data, is the opening track on Royce’s album Alter Ego, which debuted as his fifth No. 1 on the Top Latin Albums chart in February.
The song also topped the Latin Airplay chart dated July 25.
“‘Carita de Inocente’ is a song that Prince Royce has nailed with his original essence,” Orlando Rosa, pd of WBZY Atlanta, tells Billboard. “This one has that tone and rhythm of the original Royce. He went commercial and his music changed a lot, but this single really takes you back to his original substance. When he came out with the remix with Myke Towers, that just kind of put the icing on the cake. It’s a great collaboration, bringing a trap urban artist into a remix of a bachata song which was already doing well. It was part of the success; good strategy on their end.”
“In a world of reggaetón, to listen to a good bachata is actually refreshing,” Johnny Caride, pd of Miami’s WXDJ muses (from his home studio in Miami). “We are here in Miami, the capital of ‘la bachata.’ Bachata now is the new pop-ballad-rhythmic sound, so when you have a song like ‘Carita de Inocente’ with good lyrics, good production and a great artist, you have that kind of chemistry and success.”