Promise

Album: Formula (2011)
Charted: 83
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • As the singer and chief songwriter for New York based group Aventura, Anthony "Romeo" Santos was a key figure in popularizing Bachata, a guitar based music that originated in the Dominican Republic. After seventeen years together, the quartet publicly confirmed it was breaking up for good in July 2011. This bilingual tune is the second single from Santos' solo debut album, Formula. The song is a duet with R&B singer Usher and was released to radio on September 2, 2011.
  • Longtime Usher collaborator Anthony Mandler directed the song's music video. The visual was a long shoot, taking 26 hours in total, but Santos learned a lot from the director. "He takes your story to another level visually," he said of Mandler to MTV News.
  • Formula debuted at #9 on the Billboard 200 in its debut week. Its 62,000 launch marked the biggest sales week of any Latin album for over four years. On the chart dated June 23, 2007, Daddy Yankee's El Cartel: the Big Boss, sold 82,000 in its first week.
  • The song was co-written and produced by Rico Love, who is responsible for penning such hits as Beyoncé's "Sweet Dreams," Kelly Rowland's "Motivation," as well as Usher's own "There Goes My Baby." However, this marked Love's first foray into bachata music. He told The Boombox: "I had just educated myself on what it was being that I live in Miami and the group Aventura is so big and the Spanish market is big in Miami. It's my first experience like that. I had worked with Shakira but, you know, we did a few ideas and nothing really surfaced. This is my first actual pairing and for the record to go #1 (in the Latin chart) is amazing."
  • Love told the story of the song to The Boombox: "I wrote the concept of the record and produced the record along with Romeo. I wrote the concept and the melody and then he translated what he was saying into Spanish. He wrote his part. He had his musicians come in and play it. It took us 15 hours to track it. That was recorded this summer."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Steve Morse of Deep Purple

Steve Morse of Deep PurpleSongwriter Interviews

Deep Purple's guitarist since 1994, Steve talks about writing songs with the band and how he puts his own spin on "Smoke On The Water."

Angelo Moore of Fishbone

Angelo Moore of FishboneSongwriter Interviews

Fishbone has always enjoyed much more acclaim than popularity - Angelo might know why.

Modern A Cappella with Peder Karlsson of The Real Group

Modern A Cappella with Peder Karlsson of The Real GroupSong Writing

The leader of the Modern A Cappella movement talks about the genre.

Sub Pop Founder Bruce Pavitt On How To Create A Music Scene

Sub Pop Founder Bruce Pavitt On How To Create A Music SceneSong Writing

With $50 and a glue stick, Bruce Pavitt created Sub Pop, a fanzine-turned-label that gave the world Nirvana and grunge. He explains how motivated individuals can shift culture.

Songs Discussed in Movies

Songs Discussed in MoviesSong Writing

Bridesmaids, Reservoir Dogs, Willy Wonka - just a few of the flicks where characters discuss specific songs, sometimes as a prelude to murder.

Christmas Songs

Christmas SongsFact or Fiction

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