Prince Royce

With a sweet, crooning style as warm as the Caribbean waters that birthed his chosen bachata genre, New York-born singer Prince Royce offers a bracing urban take on the genre. He broke into the Latin pop mainstream in 2010 with an eponymously titled album that delivered a pair of hit singles: a bachata cover (in Spanish) of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me,” and “Corazón Sin Cara.” In the following years, Royce became a fixture on both the Top Latin Albums and Top 200 charts: 2013′s Soy el Mismo spent a whopping 129 weeks on the chart, while 2017′s Five spent another 57. In 2017, after Bad Bunny and J Balvin collaborated on his Top Ten Latin hit “Sensualidad,” Royce offered up seven pre-release singles in advance of 2020′s Alter Ego. It topped the Latin and Tropical streaming albums charts thanks to singles like “Morir Solo” and “Carita de Inocente.” Over the next two years he continued to release charting singles like 2021′s “Lao’ a Lao” and 2022′s “Te Espero” with María Becerra.
In association with producer Andrés Hidalgo and 2Strong Entertainment, Royce made his full-length album debut, Prince Royce, in 2010. Released on Top Stop Music, the label of New York salsa legend Sergio George, it was well-received by bachata fans, and the 20-year-old singer was compared favorably to Aventura, Xtreme, Bachata Heightz, and other urban-oriented acts from New York. A bilingual version of the Ben E. King standard “Stand by Me” was released as the lead single and became a smash hit, breaking into the Top Ten of the Billboard Latin Songs chart. “Corazón Sin Cara” was also released as a single.
Royce returned in 2012 with his sophomore effort, Phase II, which included the singles “Las Cosas Pequeñas,” “Incondicional,” and “Te Me Vas.” The album reached platinum status, peaking at number 16 on the Billboard 200 with over 100,000 copies sold. In 2013, Royce released his third full-length, Soy el Mismo, featuring the singles “Darte un Beso” and Te Robaré.” Also showcased on the album was the track “Already Missing You” with guest vocalist Selena Gomez. In 2014, Royce released “Stuck on a Feeling” featuring Snoop Dogg, which would appear on Double Vision, his first album sung primarily in English. It landed a year later with Jennifer Lopez, Tyga, and Kid Ink on the guest list. A tour with Ariana Grande and a role in the live musical The Passion followed. He returned with his fifth studio LP, the aptly titled FIVE, a Latin pop exercise in 2017. It hit number 25 on the U.S. Top 200 and topped the Latin charts. The album’s last single, “Déjà Vu” with Shakira, became its most successful commercially and was certified nine-times platinum. In 2018 and 2019, Royce teamed several artists on a slew of singles. They included “Bubalú,” with producers DJ Luian and Mambo Kingz, rapper Anuel AA, and American singer Becky G. Issued at the tail-end of 2018, it became a Top 30 hit at Hot Latin Songs in the U.S. In December, he wed actress and model Emeraude Toubia after a years-long courtship.
Royce spent most of 2019 hard at work on his sixth record. Issued in February 2020, Alter Ego was the first double studio album by a Latin artist in a decade. Split in two subtitled halves (Genesis and Enigma), it was Royce’s most diverse outing, crisscrossing romantic and street bachata to R&B, Latin pop, hip-hop, trap, and even electro. Featuring ten charting singles including “Trabada” with Zion & Lennox and “Adicto” with Marc Anthony, Royce collaborated on other tracks with Maluma, Dani Leigh, and Wisin & Yandel. He began a world tour just after its release date. The set topped the Latin and Tropical albums charts, and also went to number one at streaming. He issued two charting singles in 2021: “Antes Que Salga el Sol,” a collaboration with Natti Natasha, and “Lao’ a Lao’.” He also collaborated with Mau y Ricky on their Top Ten hit “Doctor.” More tracks followed in 2022, including the hits “Te Espero” with María Becerra and “Si Te Preguntan…” with Nicky Jam and Jay Wheeler. The solo cut, “Otra Vez,” closed out the year. ~ Jason Birchmeier