"Promise" is a song by

Romeo Santos Anthony "Romeo" Santos (born July 21, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and actor who is best known as the frontman and lead vocalist of the bachata group Aventura. In 2002, the song " Obsesión" reached number one in It ...

, featuring Usher, from Santos' debut studio album '' Fórmula, Vol. 1'' (2011). The track was co-written and produced by

Rico Love Richard Preston Butler Jr. (born December 3, 1982), better known by his stage name Rico Love, is an American record producer, songwriter, singer, and rapper. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, but split his childhood between Milwaukee, Wiscon ...

. 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 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 ...

chart, becoming the second consecutive number-one song in the chart for Santos and the first for Usher. It is recognized as one of Romeo Santos's signature songs. The music video for "Promise" was directed by Anthony Mandler, who previously worked with

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...

, Jay Z and

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

Background

After the temporary separation of the band, Aventura, Romeo Santos signed a record deal with

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

and recorded his debut studio 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 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

and features Usher singing on bachata rhythm for the first time. According to Carlos Quintana of

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, ...

the song and the rest of the tracks included on ''Formula, Vol. 1'' may be classified as Latin

urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban conte ...

with R&B and hip hop influences. The track was named "fluttering" by Mikael Wood of ''

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'' on his review of the parent album.

Music video

Anand Bhatt Usher and Romeo Santos Arrive on Red Carpet

The music video for "Promise" was directed by Anthony Mandler who worked previously with Jay Z,

and

. 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 MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

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".

Live performances

The song was performed by Santos and Usher for the first time in the

Latin Grammy Awards of 2011 The 12th Annual Latin Grammy Awards was held on Thursday, November 10, 2011, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and was hosted by Lucero and Cristián de la Fuente. The eligibility period for recordings to be nominated is July 1, 20 ...

on November 11, 2011 in Las Vegas, and received a standing ovation.

Chart performance

"Promise" was released as the second single from ''Fórmula, Vol. 1'' to

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

and digital download on September 2, 2011. The song was the highest debut at the ''Billboard'' Latin Songs chart on the week of September 24, 2011 at number 24, climbing to the top ten the following week. The song reached the top of the chart the week of October 29, 2011 replacing

Ricardo Arjona Edgar Ricardo Arjona Algadeoro (born 19 January 1964), known as Ricardo Arjona (), is a Guatemalan singer-songwriter. Arjona is one of the most successful and best-selling Latin American artists of all time, with more than 80 million records so ...

's " El Amor". "Promise" became the second number-one single for Santos in the chart, following the seven-week reign of his previous single "

You In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from the Proto- ...

". The song is also the first number-one in the chart for Usher surpassing his highest-placement in the chart with "

DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" is a song by American singer Usher, featuring guest vocals from American rapper Pitbull, who co-wrote the song with the producers Shellback and Max Martin, with additional writing from Savan Kotecha. It was release ...

" which peaked at number 16 in 2010. According to Nielsen SoundScan the track has sold 49,000 digital downloads in the United States.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Track listing and Digital Download Formats

*Original Version #"Promise" – 4:13 *English Version #"Promise (English Version)" – 4:13

References

{{Usher singles 2011 singles Romeo Santos songs Usher (musician) songs Macaronic songs Spanglish songs Music videos directed by Anthony Mandler Songs written by Pierre Medor Songs written by Rico Love Songs written by Romeo Santos Song recordings produced by Rico Love Sony Music Latin singles Contemporary R&B ballads