Do we like Luis Fonsi?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Decent and on the right side, with real relief work and public stands, but we found little from him on LGBTQ+ issues directly.
Luis Fonsi was born in San Juan in 1978 and moved to Orlando with his family at ten. He sang in local boy bands and landed a music scholarship to Florida State. His debut album Comenzaré arrived in 1998, so the "overnight success" of Despacito in 2017 was actually about two decades in the making.
Despacito, with Daddy Yankee, topped the charts in nearly 50 countries and took Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the 2017 Latin Grammys. It also brought a copyright suit alleging it copied an earlier song of the same name. A US judge dismissed it in August 2020, finding the works similar only in unprotectable elements.
On the harm test, the record is clean as far as we could find. He has not been reported saying anything against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, and we found no dodgy co-stars or studios. In 2020 he visited the Pulse memorial in Orlando and told reporters “We have to take care of each other.” He also acted as a surrogate for Joe Biden's campaign.
The recent thing is the loudest. In February he called the actions of US immigration enforcement “vergonzosas” (shameful) in an interview with Europa Press. He said it came from being Latino and American, and added that “No podemos tirar la toalla.”
A few days later he went to the Super Bowl and posted a message to Bad Bunny after the halftime show. In it he said “what you did today for Puerto Rico is unprecedented.” Not every fan loved the show, but he used his platform to back a fellow Puerto Rican.
He has also paid a price for his stands abroad. Venezuelan politician Diosdado Cabello went after him on his TV program after Fonsi played the Venezuela Aid Live fundraiser in 2019, accusing him of backing an invasion. The Voz de América report says Fonsi canceled Venezuelan concerts in late 2022 after Cabello's remarks.