El Perdón

Album: Fenix (2015)
Charted: 56
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Nicky Jam was born in Boston, Massachusetts to a Puerto Rican father and a Dominican mother. He and his family moved to Barrio Obrero in Puerto Rico when he was six-years-old.

    Nicky Jam started as a reggaetón act in Puerto Rico together with close friend Daddy Yankee in the late 1990s - the duo was also known as Los Cangris. Jam stopped working with Daddy Yankee in 2004 and branched out solo. By the late 2000s Jam's career had suffered a decline, so he decided to move to Medellin, Colombia where he was able to re-craft his sound and re-ignite interest in his music.
  • This single featuring Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias became Nicky Jam's first hit on the Hot 100. It was also a huge hit in the Spanish-speaking world, topping multiple Billboard Latin charts, as well as peaking at #1 in Spain.

    Asked by Billboard magazine why he feels the song has connected with so many people, Jam replied: "Normally, people listen to a reggaeton song and the lyrics have more to do with sex or other reggaeton themes. This is a love song and it's a song about sadness but it transmits happiness at the same time. The melody is joyful, but the lyrics are melancholy."
  • The song title translates in English as "forgiveness."
  • Nicky Jam invited Enrique Iglesias to record the song with him after the star expressed an interest in working together. "I usually write or co-write most of my songs," Iglesias told Billboard magazine. "But when he sent me the song, I called him up and I said, 'I love it. I don't care that I didn't write it.'"
  • Jam and Iglesias also recorded an English-language version of the song titled "Forgiveness."
  • Nicky Jam explained to Billboard how he came up with the song's chorus. "I was working on a totally different song, and came up with the chorus refrain [he sings]: 'Es que yo sin tí, tu sin mi, eso no me gusta.' I told my producer, 'I need you to do a beat like this with this piano to make a romantic song."

    "I didn't know what the song was going to be about," he added. "I don't write like that. I first write melodies that will make people shiver, and then, I add the lyrics."
  • This spent 30 consecutive weeks on the Hot 100 peaking at #56. In doing so the song broke the record for the most weeks on the Hot 100 without breaking into the Top 50. The previous longest that a track had charted without venturing into the Hot 100's upper half was the 29-week run of B.o.B featuring 2 Chainz's "Headband," which made it as far as #53 in 2014.
  • Enrique Iglesias included the song on his 2021 album Final (Vol. 1).

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Kristian Bush of Sugarland

Kristian Bush of SugarlandSongwriter Interviews

Kristian talks songwriting technique, like how the chorus should redefine the story, and how to write a song backwards.

Christmas Songs

Christmas SongsFact or Fiction

Rudolf, Bob Dylan and the Singing Dogs all show up in this Fact or Fiction for seasonal favorites.

Alan Merrill of The Arrows

Alan Merrill of The ArrowsSongwriter Interviews

In her days with The Runaways, Joan Jett saw The Arrows perform "I Love Rock And Roll," which Alan Merrill co-wrote - that story and much more from this glam rock pioneer.

Gary Numan

Gary NumanSongwriter Interviews

An Electronic music pioneer with Asperger's Syndrome. This could be interesting.

The Fratellis

The FratellisSongwriter Interviews

Jon Fratelli talks about the band's third album, and the five-year break leading up to it.

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")

Director Wes Edwards ("Drunk on a Plane")Song Writing

Wes Edwards takes us behind the scenes of videos he shot for Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley and Chase Bryant. The train was real - the airplane was not.