Anthony "Romeo" Santos (born July 21, 1981) is an American singer, featured composer and former lead singer of the Bachata group Aventura. As a member of Aventura, Santos has been a key figure in popularizing Bachata, with hits reaching near the top of the Billboard Latin charts and the top of charts in Europe. In 2002, the band's song "Obsesión" was number one in Italy for sixteen consecutive weeks.
Santos was born in The Bronx, New York, United States to a Dominican father and a Puerto-Rican mother. At twelve years of age, he became a member of the church choir. While the group performs in both English and Spanish, their work was widely ignored by the English-language media during the early part of their career. On May 9, 2011, Santos released his first single, "You", from his upcoming solo debut album, Formula. The song became a number-one debut on the Hot Latin Songs and Tropical Songs chart. The second single revealed from his album was "Promise" which features a duet with Usher. The single has peaked at number #1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart and number one on the Tropical Songs chart.
"Promise" is a Latin pop song by Dominican-Puerto Rican recording artist Romeo Santos from his debut album Formula, Vol. 1 (2011). The track was co-written and produced by Rico Love and features vocals by American performer Usher. It was released as the album's second single in Latin America and the United States.
The song combines elements of bachata and R&B and peaked atop the Billboard's Latin Songs chart, becoming the second consecutive number-one song in the chart for Santos and the first for Usher. The music video for "Promise" was directed by Anthony Mandler, who previously worked with Rihanna, Jay-Z and Kanye West.
Background
After the temporary separation of the band Aventura, Romeo Santos signed a record deal with Sony Music Entertainment and recorded his debut solo album, Formula, Vol. 1, which includes most of the tracks in bachata rhythm and bilingual songs such as the lead single "You", which peaked at number-one in the Billboard Latin Songs, and "Promise", with vocals by American singer-songwriter Usher. The collaboration came through because Santos' manager Johnny Marines introduced Usher to Santos. Usher was impressed by Santos ability to perform after seeing him on YouTube, saying: "This is the thing that people will remember." "Promise" was co-written and produced by Rico Love and features Usher singing on bachata rhythm for the first time. According to Carlos Quintana of About.com the song and the rest of the tracks included on Formula, Vol. 1 may be classified as Latin urban contemporary with R&B and Hip-Hop influences. The track was named "fluttering" by Mikael Wood of Entertainment Weekly on his review of the parent album.
Music video
The music video for "Promise" was directed by Anthony Mandler who worked previously with Jay-Z, Kanye West and Rihanna. Usher and Santos spent 24 hours on set, with a highly specialized a scenic setting, full lights, cameras and special effects. The video shows both performers singing to their love partners about the love they feel for them and asked them to promise to never leave them without their love. Upon release the video has had a heavy rotation on MTV reaching the top of the most-played list, even with Santos performing in Spanish language, something noted by Ruben Leyva, Sony U.S. Latin president, commenting that Santos has been "able to do what other artists have been able to do-reach a dominant-English-speaking audience-only by singing in Spanish."
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