Don’t get stuck on Prince Royce’s new sound; just enjoy the music…
The 25-year-old Dominican American singer-songwriter has released a brand new English-language song, “Stuck on a Feeling,” that doesn’t sound anything like his previous work.
“My friends say it doesn’t sound like me,” Royce tells Billboard. “It’s a whole new vibe, a whole new swag, a whole new animal. But when I hear myself, I think it sounds like me; it’s just not a me that they’ve heard before.”
The “new” Royce sings rhythmic, urban pop in English, with a brand-new album due out next year on RCA Records and on this first track from that album, featuring Snoop Dogg, available for sale on November 24.
The sexy track, produced by Jason Evigan, takes Royce to places he’d never been before. While Royce has long been romantic, he’s never been as forwardly sexy as he is here. And while his urban bachata has been decidedly acoustic, in “Stuck,” he goes more for production and layered tracks.
“It’s a side of me that’s always been here, only people never got to hear it,” says Royce. “I think people never really got to hear my R&B vibe.”
Born and raised in the Bronx, Royce has both Latin and urban roots.
And while he started his career singing his contemporary take on bachata — the traditional music of the Dominican Republic — in his crossover bid to English, he’s taking a very different path.
“As soon as I heard the track, it took me back to New York and the Bronx and the urban vibe,” he says. “And from the beginning, I could hear Snoop doing it. So we reached out and it was amazing how fast he jumped on the track, and when I heard the verse it was exactly how I pictured it. We shot the music video in Los Angeles with director Colin Tilley [of ‘Anaconda‘ fame], and it was insane. It’s so much fun.”
The video shows Royce riding on an elevator that gets stuck. The lights flicker, and suddenly “it’s a whole new world. We don’t know if I’m dreaming or not,” says Royce. “In the last floor I meet up with Snoop Dogg. There’s choreography, there’s dancing. It’s a beautiful video. It’s definitely a big-budget video. It’s exciting.”
More exciting is the prospect of successfully crossing over from Spanish to English, something that hasn’t happened in a while. Royce, who was initially signed to indie Top Stop Music, signed a recording contract in 2013 with Sony Music Entertainment for the release of Spanish-language albums through Sony Music Latin and English-language albums via RCA Records.
The first of those English albums will be released sometime next year. Although Royce wouldn’t give more detail, he says there are collaborations aplenty with both Latin and mainstream acts.
More immediately, Royce is up for four Latin Grammys this week, more than he’s ever competed in, including record and song of the year for his hit single “Darte un Beso.”
“I’m excited for those nominations and for hopefully winning my first Latin Grammy. The fact that it’s bachata music makes it special. It’s a genre that just keeps growing and just being nominated is not so common.”
