El Perdón Explained

El Perdón" / "Forgiveness
Cover:El Perdon by Nicky Jam y Enrique Iglesias.jpg
Border:yes
Type:single
Artist:Nicky Jam and Enrique Iglesias
Album:Fénix and Final (Vol. 1)
Recorded:2014–2015
Length:3:27
Producer:Saga Whiteblack
Chronology:Nicky Jam
Prev Title:Travesuras
Prev Year:2014
Next Title:Como lo Hacía Yo
Next Year:2015

"El Perdón" (English: "Forgiveness") is a song by American singer Nicky Jam and Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias released as the first single to Nicky Jam's third studio album Fénix (2017). An English-language version of the song, titled "Forgiveness", was released on July 10, 2015.[1] The single was later included on Enrique Iglesias' eleventh studio album Final (2021).

Background

"El Perdón" was initially a solo track by Nicky Jam. After talking with Jam, Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias decided to collaborate with him to release a single. Iglesias told Billboard that even though he usually writes or co-writes the songs he sings on, he didn't provide songwriting on the track. The song quickly rose to the top of the charts and became a huge success. The music video was recorded in Medellin, Colombia.

Reception

Critical

Billboard ranked "El Perdón" at number 12 on its year-end list: "So much has been said about records set by "El Perdón," the second longest-running number-one song on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. But too little has been said about the mix of sweet and sad on the danceable tune. Not to mention those plaintive lyrics of lost love that can make girls (and guys) cry. "When I wrote the beginning of the song—'Did he take you to the moon, and I couldn't do that'—that part hit me really hard," Nicky Jam told Billboard. Trust us, Nicky, we get it, too."[2]

"El Perdón" won a Latin Grammy Award, for it hit number-one in over 40 countries around the world, achieving over four million sales and 300 million streams worldwide.[3]

Commercial

"El Perdón" became an international hit. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs within five weeks, and spent 30 weeks at the top spot, bypassing Shakira's "La Tortura" (25 weeks), and behind Iglesias' own song "Bailando" (41 weeks).[4] The song reached the summit on multiple Billboard Latin charts, including Latin Airplay, Latin Digital Sales, Latin Streaming Songs, and Latin Pop Songs. Nicky Jam and Iglesias released an English version of the track titled "Forgiveness". The release, with strong first week digital sales, brought the single to reach number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The single had staying power, logging 30 weeks on the Hot 100, becoming the longest-charting song not to make the top 50. "El Perdón" ranked number 96 on the Billboard year-end top 100, becoming the lowest-peaking song to make the year-end chart (a record which would later be broken by "Talk You Out of It" by Florida Georgia Line which peaked at 57 in 2019). The English version, "Forgiveness", made an impact on Mainstream Top 40 and Rhythmic Top 40 stations in the US, peaking at number 29 in total audience for Mainstream Top 40 according to Mediabase. On September 1, 2015, the video for "Forgiveness", directed by Jessy Terrero, debuted on Jam's channel on YouTube, and has more than 45 million views. The Spanish version of the "El Perdón" music video has over 1.3 billion views, and the lyric video counts over 450 million views. The single also peaked at number one in Spain, France, Italy and Netherlands and charted in the top five in Switzerland and Belgium. In the Netherlands, Iglesias scored his first number-one hit with "El Perdón", after having previously scored four top two hits ("Could I Have This Kiss Forever", "Hero", "Do You Know" and "Can You Hear Me") in that country. The song spent six weeks at number one in France and was certified diamond in the nation and Poland for sales of 500,000 and 100,000 respectively.

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (2015–17)Peak
position
Bulgaria (IFPI)[5] 2
scope=rowColombia (National-Report)[6] 3
Euro Digital Songs (Billboard)[7] 7
Lebanon (Lebanese Top 20)[8] 4
Mexico Pop (Monitor Latino)[9] 1
Portugal (Billboard)[10] 1
scope="row"
Slovenia (SloTop50)[11] 18
scope=rowVenezuela (Record Report)[12] 4

Year-end charts

Chart (2015)Position
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[13] 36
Belgium (Ultratop Flanders)[14] 25
Belgium (Ultratop Wallonia)[15] 16
France (SNEP)[16] 11
Germany (Official German Charts)[17] 41
Italy (FIMI)[18] 2
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[19] 12
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[20] 11
Poland (ZPAV)[21] 15
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[22] 1
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[23] 26
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[24] 4
US Billboard Hot 100[25] 96
US Latin Songs (Billboard)[26] 1
US Latin Pop Songs (Billboard)[27] 1
US Latin Airplay (Billboard)[28] 1
US Tropical Songs (Billboard)[29] 8
Chart (2016)Position
Argentina (Monitor Latino)[30] 91
France (SNEP)[31] 113
Italy (FIMI)[32] 88
Slovenia (SloTop50)[33] 25
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[34] 68
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[35] 61
US Latin Songs (Billboard)10
US Latin Pop Songs (Billboard)[36] 29

All-time charts

Awards and nominations

YearCeremonyAwardResult
2015Premios Juventud[39] La Combinación Perfecta (The Perfect Combo)
La Más Pegajosa (Catchiest Tune)
Premios Tu Mundo[40] Party-Starting Song
Latin American Music Awards[41] Song of the Year
Favorite Collaboration
Favorite Streaming Song
Latin Grammy Awards[42] Best Urban Performance
NRJ Music AwardsInternational Group/Duo of the Year
2016Lo Nuestro Awards[43] Collaboration of the Year
Urban Song of the Year
Billboard Music AwardsTop Latin Song

See also

Notes and References

  1. Nicky Jam & Enrique Iglesias Release 'Forgiveness,' English Version of 'El Perdon': Listen. 10 July 2015. Billboard.
  2. Web site: Billboard 25 Best Songs of 2015: Critics' Picks. Billboard.com.
  3. Web site: Enrique Iglesias Releases "DUELE EL CORAZON" (English Version) Today. July 19, 2016.
  4. Nicky Jam & Enrique Iglesias' 'El Perdon' Earns Historic 26th Week at No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs | Billboard . . 2015-09-01 . 2018-05-05 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180505044105/https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/6685079/nicky-jam-enrique-iglesias-el-perdon-earns-historic-26th-week-at-no-1-on-hot . dead .
  5. Web site: Bulgaria Singles Top 40 September 6, 2015 (week 37/15) . . September 6, 2015 .
  6. Web site: Top 10 Música Nacional Radio . es . March 8, 2015 . April 9, 2015 . . Radio y Música . https://web.archive.org/web/20140213185519/http://colombia.national-report.com/reporteNacional.php . February 13, 2014 . dead .
  7. Enrique Iglesias Chart History: Euro Digital Songs. Billboard.
  8. Web site: The Official Lebanese Top 20 - Nicky Jam . . 25 October 2015 .
  9. Web site: Top 20 México – Pop . es. May 5, 2015. 24 May 2015. Monitor Latino. Radio y Música.
  10. Portugal Digital Songs – August 1, 2015 . . 1 September 2015.
  11. Web site: SloTop50 – Slovenian official singles chart. slotop50.si. 26 August 2018. 27 August 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180827075332/https://www.slotop50.si/Glasbene-lestvice/Tedenske-lestvice/?year=2016&week=1. dead.
  12. Web site: Top 100. es. 2014-04-11. 2015-04-09. Record Report. R.R. Digital C.A.. https://web.archive.org/web/20140123230314/http://www.recordreport.com.ve/publico/?i=top100. 2014-01-23 .
  13. Web site: Jahreshitparade Singles 2015. austriancharts.at. 8 January 2020.
  14. Web site: Annual Reports 2015. Ultratop Flanders. Ultratop & Hung Medien. 18 February 2016.
  15. Web site: Annual Reports 2015. Ultratop. Ultratop & Hung Medien. 18 February 2016.
  16. Web site: Top de l'année Top Singles 2015. SNEP. fr. June 23, 2021.
  17. Web site: Top 100 Single-Jahrescharts. de . . offiziellecharts.de . 6 January 2016.
  18. Web site: CLASSIFICHE "TOP OF THE MUSIC" 2015 FIMI-GfK: LA MUSICA ITALIANA IN VETTA NEGLI ALBUM E NEI SINGOLI DIGITALI. Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. it. January 13, 2016. January 11, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160111221358/http://www.fimi.it/news/classifiche-top-of-the-music-2015-fimi-gfk-la-musica-italiana-in-vetta-negli-album-e-nei-singoli-digitali. dead.
  19. Web site: Top 100-Jaaroverzicht van 2015. Dutch Top 40. November 10, 2019.
  20. Web site: Jaaroverzichten – Single 2015. Hung Medien. November 10, 2019.
  21. Web site: Airplay – podsumowanie 2015 roku. pl. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. December 30, 2015.
  22. Web site: Top 100 Songs Annual 2015. Productores de Música de España. es. May 9, 2022.
  23. Web site: Årslista Singlar – År 2015. Sverigetopplistan. sv. November 10, 2019.
  24. Web site: Schweizer Jahreshitparade 2015 – hitparade.ch. Hung Medien. November 10, 2019.
  25. Hot 100 Songs - Year-End 2015 . Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc .
  26. The Year in Latin 2015 . Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc .
  27. Latin Airplay Songs Year-End 2015 . Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc .
  28. Latin Pop Songs Year-End 2015 . Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc .
  29. Latin Tropical Songs Year-End 2015 . Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc .
  30. Web site: Top 100 Anual 2016. August 21, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170822000556/http://charts.monitorlatino.com/top100/anual/Argentina/General. August 22, 2017. Monitor Latino.
  31. Web site: Top de l'année Top Singles 2016. SNEP. fr. June 23, 2021.
  32. Web site: Classifiche "Top of the Music" 2016 FIMI-GfK: La musica italiana in vetta negli album e nei singoli digitali . it . . February 23, 2017 . Click on Scarica allegato to download the zipped file containing the year-end chart PDF documents . January 9, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170109194427/http://fimi.it/news/top-of-the-music-fimi-gfk-2016-le-uniche-classifiche-annuali-complete . dead .
  33. Web site: SloTop50: Slovenian official year end singles chart. slotop50.si. 31 December 2016. 31 December 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161231075340/http://www.slotop50.si/Glasbene-lestvice/Letne-lestvice/?year=2016. dead.
  34. Web site: Top 100 Songs Annual 2016. Productores de Música de España. es. 9 May 2022.
  35. Web site: Schweizer Jahreshitparade 2016 – hitparade.ch. Hung Medien. 2 January 2017.
  36. Latin Pop Songs Year-End 2015 . Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc .
  37. Decade-End Charts: Hot Latin Songs. Billboard. 29 February 2020.
  38. Greatest Of All Time Hot Latin Songs Chart . Billboard . September 23, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210923052753/https://www.billboard.com/charts/greatest-hot-latin-songs . September 23, 2021 . 2021. subscription.
  39. Web site: Irizarry. Doris. Fans start voting for Premios Juventud 2015 finalists. axs. October 17, 2015. May 8, 2015.
  40. Romero. Angie. Nicky Jam, Daddy Yankee Win Big at Premios Tu Mundo. Billboard. October 17, 2015. August 20, 2015.
  41. Cobo. Leila. Latin AMAs Winners List: Enrique Iglesias & Nicky Jam Win Big at Inaugural Awards Show. Billboard. October 17, 2015. October 8, 2015.
  42. Web site: Roiz. Jessica Lucia. Latin Grammys 2015 Nominations: Ricky Martin, J Balvin, Alejandro Sanz Get Nods, Plus Full List. Latin Times. IBT Media. October 17, 2015. September 23, 2015.
  43. News: Premio Lo Nuestro 2016: Lista completa de nominados. Variety Latino. Penske Business Media. December 1, 2015. December 1, 2015. es. Griselda. Flores.