In the case of his and Bieber’s ‘remix’ of Despacito the process embodied the epitome of 21st century album-making - Gudwin edited and mixed it on a laptop, with just an expansion chassis and headphones while flying across the world, sending files back and forth via the Internet. HIGH FLYING IDEASĪccording to Gudwin, all Bieber’s collaborations manifested in a different way. It’s worked, because Bieber’s name hasn’t left the top of the singles charts.
Gudwin calls these collaborations “strategic planning,” that help keep Bieber in the public eye. Josh Gudwin was the main engineer, mixer and album producer on Purpose, and was at Bieber’s side to record and produce the singer’s vocals in each guest appearance. Since then Bieber’s involvement helped propel Major Lazer’s Cold Water, DJ Snake’s Let Me Love You, DJ Khaled’s I’m The One, and most recently, David Guetta’s 2U to the top of the charts. It’s been so extraordinarily successful that it has reportedly increased tourism to Puerto Rico this year by a staggering 45%!īieber’s astonishing high-profile run as a featured guest singer started in 2016, after the success of his fourth album, Purpose. Already last July, Despacito was declared the most-streamed song in history, and just recently broke a record for the most weeks at number one on the Billboard streaming chart, sticking there for 15 weeks. In Australia it spent 14 weeks at number one on the ARIA singles chart, and 15 weeks at the top of the US Billboard singles charts. It’s been at number one in over 40 countries, and at the time of writing still holds its place there weeks and months later. Then when the part-English language version received the Midas touch from Justin Bieber, it turned into a record breaker.
It was already a massive Spanish language success when two Puerto Ricans, singer Luis Fonsi and rapper Daddy Yankee (who both co-wrote the song with Panamanian singer/songwriter Erika Ender), released it in January. Whether you’re singing it in Spanish or English, Despacito is a huge hit. I’ve got a new line to add to the biggest hit of the Summer: Despacito es un gran éxito.