‘Despacito’ Was Written By A Latina Who Thinks Women Should Have Sex Anyway They Like It
Just months ago, “Despacito” climbed to the top of YouTube’s most-viewed songs with little signs of slowing down. Now, two months later the summer hit has shattered another YouTube record — it now holds the title of first YouTube video to hit 4 billion views. Ever. The Spanish-language pop hit has popular faces: Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, even Justin Bieber. Still, there’s a hero behind the music’s beat putting proof to the saying “behind every successful man is a woman.”
In an interview with The Huffington Post, the behind the scenes star of “Despacito,” Panamanian-born Erika Ender, talked about creating music that respects women and being a record breaking Latina artist.
Erika Ender is the co-artist behind YouTube’s most watched video of all time.
Well before “Despacito” hit shelves and became a song loved by everyone and their mother, Erika Ender worked alongside Fonsi to flesh out the song’s beat and lyrics back in 2015. Ender had collaborated with Fonsi throughout the span of her 25 year career on popular songs like “Tentacion.” This time though, Ender and Fonsi’s latest hit has brought a different kind of success. One for all women to be proud of.
When “Despacito” hit the No.1 Billboard spot, Ender broke a record for women as well.
The song’s spot on Billboard 100 catapulted Ender to an entirely new success as a female artist. Overnight she became the first female Spanish-language songwriter to reach the No. 1 spot. In her interview with The HuffPost Ender said that as a woman, “I’m so happy because we are like 20 men to 1 woman in the entertainment industry… The fact that you can ― with hard work, with values, with talent ― get to that top 100 is amazing and it’s a responsibility.”
Ender put her all into ensuring the message of “Despacito” would remind men to respect women.
Misogyny and machismo are still very real problems in the music industry and there’s a long running history of them occurring in even the most popular of hits. Sexism and the objectification of women is alive and rampant in songs like “Cherry Pie,” “Hotline Bling” and “Blurred Lines.” For Ender, it was important to her from the get-go to create a song that would respect women. “I told him, ‘This has to be sensual but let’s do it in a classy way, “Ender said. “So that women have their spot as the human art that we are.’”
Yes, the lyrics are very sexual, but Ender was very intentional about making sure the messaging wasn’t one sided and only in favor of men.
Ender’s effort to create a song that wouldn’t demean women with its lyrics came through in the song’s message to pursue a woman with the respect of going at her pace — despacito — or in English, slowly. While the lyrics of “Despacito” are about sex and sensuality, Ender ensures that they aren’t about making either of the two taboo. Rather, she says the song is meant to convey the pleasure of sex should be about both participants and ensuring both receive what they want form sex. “We live in this rush all the time with technology and everything, sex goes really fast too,” Ender says. “You have to treat women the way they want to be treated and I would like to be loved ‘despacito’ as a woman.”
For Ender, this song is “Not about the genre, it’s about the message.”
From her point of view, Ender and Fonso have created a song about seduction that encourages respecting women. “It’s not about the genre, it’s about the message,” she says in her interview. “We have a responsibility as artists and as composers because we are impacting the new generation. Whatever we write and whatever we sing is building up a new generation, it’s making the soundtrack of everyone else’s life.”
H/T: The Woman Behind “Despacito” Breaks Down The Message In Its Lyrics
Keep the Latina power motivation strong! Share the Ender’s success with your friends!
Notice any corrections needed? Please email us at corrections@wearemitu.com
