Xantos — Américo Céspedes Santos, born in Hato Mayor del Rey on 7 February 1989 — is a Dominican singer and songwriter working in reggaetón and rap. He made Báilame Despacio, which is among the most watched records any Dominican artist has released.

Out of Hato Mayor

Hato Mayor del Rey is a cattle town in the east, not a place that exports pop singers. He came out of it into a genre whose centre of gravity is San Juan and Medellín, and he ended up working from Puerto Rico.

Báilame Despacio

The record, cut with Dynell, is the one everything else sits beside. It travelled far past the Caribbean, and the remix brought in the Colombian group Piso 21, which is the move that takes a Caribbean hit into the South American market.

It also arrived at a specific moment: the mid-2010s, when reggaetón was turning romantic and slow and the market was suddenly enormous. A Dominican singer landing a record of that size in that window is a rare thing.

Spain and after

He signed with JN Music Group, the Dominican label, and by February 2017 he was being introduced to Spanish audiences as an artist already breaking through. The catalogue since has stayed in reggaetón and Latin pop.