"Llegar a Ti" () is a song by American singer

Jaci Velasquez Jacquelyn "Jaci" Davette Velasquez (Spanish ''Jaci Velásquez'', born October 15, 1979) is an American actress and contemporary Christian and Latin pop singer and songwriter, performing in both English and Spanish. Velasquez has sold almost ...

for her third studio album of the same name (1999). The song was written by Abel Talamántez, Didier Hernández, and Tomás Torres with

Rudy Pérez Rudy Amado Pérez (born May 14, 1958) is a Cuban-born American musician, songwriter, composer, producer, arranger, sound engineer, musical director and singer, as well as entertainment entrepreneur, and philanthropist. His area of specialty is b ...

, Mark Heimermann, and Phil Nash handling its productions. A pop

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

, the song, as with the other tracks from the album, explores themes of faith. One

music journalist Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

noted that the song could be interpreted into love of a person or

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

. An English-language version titled "Love Will Find You" was also recorded with additional lyrics by Phil Galdston and D. Peter Hernandez. "Llegar a Ti" was met with positive reactions from music critics, who found the track to be beautiful. The song led to Velasquez receiving several accolades, including a

Latin Grammy The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...

nomination for

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The awar ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. Commercially, it topped the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Hot Latin Songs The ''Billboard'' Hot Latin Songs (formerly Hot Latin Tracks and Hot Latin 50) is a record chart in the United States for Latin songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Since October 2012, chart rankings are based on digital sales, rad ...

and

Latin Pop Airplay Latin Pop Airplay (also referred to as Latin Pop Songs) is a record chart published on ''Billboard'' magazine and a subchart of the Latin Airplay chart. The chart focuses on Latin pop music, namely Spanish-language pop music. It was established b ...

charts in the United States, making her the first Christian artist to do so. "Love Will Find You" peaked at number 24 on the ''Billboard''

Dance Club Songs Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

chart. An accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

features Velasquez performing in a well-lit blue room.

Background and composition

Since signing on to

Myrrh Records __NOTOC__ Myrrh Records (also known as Myrrh Worship) was an American Christian music record label. According to ''Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music'', the label was instrumental in developing a popular following for contemporary Christian ...

in 1995, Velasquez had achieved two

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

certifications with her

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

-themed albums ''

Heavenly Place ''Heavenly Place'' is Jaci Velasquez' debut major label album, released on May 13, 1996 on Myrrh Records. Critical reception Rodney Batdorf wrote in his AllMusic review that "''Heavenly Place'' is an impressive debut album from the 16-year ol ...

'' (1996) and her 1998 self-titled record and won the Dove Award for New Artist of the Year in 1997. Following the latter album's release, she expressed an interest in recording a Spanish-language record. According to Velasquez: "It has been a dream of mine to do a record in the language that defines who I am and where I come from, I wanted to do songs that reflect who I am. I love Spanish. I think it's a more passionate language than English. In English there's only one word for something, but in Spanish there are 20 words you can choose from to say one thing." To prepare for the Spanish-language record, she signed a five-disc deal with

Sony Discos Sony Music Entertainment US Latin LLC (often referred to as Sony Music Latin) is a record label owned by Sony Music. The label focuses on artists of Latin music. History In 1979, CBS Records (now Columbia Records) ended its partnership with ...

, with her label debut album being produced by

. Mark Heimermann and Phil Nash also handled its productions, the former having produced Velasquez's previous albums. The album, ''Llegar a Ti'', was eventually released on August 31, 1999, and consists of six Spanish-language versions of her earlier songs as well as five original compositions including the title track. "Llegar a Ti" was composed by

Tommy Torres Tomas Torres Carrasquillo (; born November 25, 1971), known professionally as Tommy Torres (), is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and record producer.(4 April 2008)Latin songwriter/producer releases solo disc ''Reuters'' Named "#1 Hot Latin Tr ...

and MDO members Didier Hernández and Abel Talamántez. The band also performs the background vocals in the track. A pop

, the song (along with the other tracks from the album) "explore themes of faith". Enrique Fernandez of the ''

Sun-Sentinel The ''Sun Sentinel'' (also known as the ''South Florida Sun Sentinel'', known until 2008 as the ''Sun-Sentinel'', and stylized on its masthead as ''SunSentinel'') is the main daily newspaper of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as well as surrounding Br ...

'' noted that the track "can be read two ways: love of a human or of a higher entity". An English-language version of the song, "Love Will Find You", was recorded for the soundtrack of ''

Music of the Heart ''Music of the Heart'' is a 1999 American biographical film, biographical musical film, musical drama (film and television), drama film directed by Wes Craven and written by Pamela Gray, based on the 1995 documentary ''Small Wonders''. The film i ...

'' (1999) with additional writing by Phil Galdston and D. Peter Hernandez.

Promotion and reception

"Llegar a Ti" was released as the album's lead single in 1999 by

. Its

features Velasquez singing in a well-lit blue room with MDO appearing on a TV screen as background vocalists. ''

''s John Lannert called "Llegar a Ti" a "beautiful" single,. while ''

The Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ''Galvesto ...

'' critic Berta Delgado found it to be a "gorgeous ballad". The song has also been described as "tender" by ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'' editor Kevin L. Carter and "uplifting" by J.D. Considine of ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...

''. The ''Sun-Sentinel''s Fernandez praised the track as a "generous slice of the tender yet passionate pop" song. At the inaugural Latin Grammy Awards in 2000, "Llegar a Ti" was also nominated in the category of the

, which went to "

Ojos Así "Ojos Así" is a song by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira from her fourth studio album, ''Dónde Están los Ladrones?'' (1998). An Arabic pop song, the lyrics tell of the singer traveling the world and having not seen eyes like her lover's. I ...

" by

Shakira Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll ( , ; born 2 February 1977), professionally known by the mononym Shakira, is a Colombian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Barranquilla, she has been referred to as the " Queen of Latin Music" and is ...

. "Llegar a Ti" was nominated Pop Song of the Year at the 13th Annual Lo Nuestro Awards but ultimately lost to "

A Puro Dolor "A Puro Dolor" is a song recorded by Puerto Rican band Son by Four. It was written by Omar Alfanno and released as the first single of the second studio album of the band in 1999. Two versions of the track were produced by Oscar Llord for the a ...

" by

Son by Four Son by Four is a latin music group from Puerto Rico, well known for their English U.S. pop hit " The Purest of Pain (A Puro Dolor)". The group is now independent, as they founded their own label SB4 Music Group in 2003. Son by Four was created b ...

. It was recognized as one of the best-performing songs of the year at the

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

Latin Awards under the pop/ballad category in 2000. Commercially, "Llegar a Ti" topped the ''Billboard''

and

charts in the US, making her the first Christian artist to reach number one on the Latin charts. The English-language version peaked at number 24 on the ''Billboard''

chart.

Formats and track listings

Promotional single #Llegar a Ti4:28 Mexican promotional single # Llegar a Ti (album version)4:34 # Llegar a Ti (Spanish radio)4:34 # Love Will Find You (English)4:15 # Love Will Find You (Higher Love Mix Radio)4:38

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Jaci Velasquez 1999 singles 1999 songs 1990s ballads Jaci Velasquez songs Pop ballads Spanish-language songs Songs written by Tommy Torres Song recordings produced by Rudy Pérez Sony Discos singles