Prince Royce

Prince Royce
Royce in May 2012
Background information
Birth name	Geoffrey Royce Rojas
Born	(1989-05-11) May 11, 1989 The Bronx, New York, U.S.
Genres	bachata, Latin pop, R&B
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, record producer, musician
Years active	2009–present
Labels	Top Stop (2010-2012) Sony (2013)
Associated acts	Sergio George
Website	www.princeroyce.com

Geoffrey Royce Rojas (born May 11, 1989), known by his stage name Prince Royce, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer from The Bronx. At an early age, Royce took an interest in music and into his teenage years, began experimenting with music and writing poetry. By age nineteen, Royce met Andrés Hidalgo, who became his manager. Hidalgo later introduced Royce to Sergio George, who immediately signed him to his label after hearing three of his demos.

In March 2010, he released his eponymous debut studio album, which generated two commercially successful singles, "Stand by Me" and "Corazón Sin Cara". Both songs reached number-one on the Billboard Tropical Songs chart while "Corazón Sin Cara" reached number-one on the US Hot Latin Songs chart. The album itself reached number-one on the US Billboard Latin Albums and Tropical Albums charts. He also received three awards at the Billboard Latin Music Awards in 2011, which included Tropical Album of the Year for Prince Royce. Prince Royce was listed as one of the 50 Most Beautiful on the magazine People en Español in 2011. On April 10, 2012, Royce released his second studio album, Phase II. In November 2012, Royce released a compilation album entitled "#1's", a collection of his hits thus far.

Life and career

1989–2009: Early life and career beginnings

Royce on Aceso Total.

Geoffrey Royce Rojas was born on May 11, 1989 and raised in The Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York.^[1] He is the second oldest out of four children, born to a Dominican father, who was a taxi-cab driver, and a Dominican mother, who worked at a beauty salon.^[2] When he was young, he participated in choir in elementary school, competed in talent shows and, at the age of thirteen, began writing poetry which turned into songwriting. Recalling his first time performing before a crowd, he said, "Elementary school, I was singing a Christmas song. I felt really comfortable on stage."^[3] At age fifteen, Royce had began making music with a partner named Jose Chusan better known as "jino". The duo was also known as Jino and Royce, El Duo Real (www.myspace.com/jinoandroyce). At the age of sixteen, Royce started making music with long time friend and producer Donzell Rodriguez, and Vincent Outerbridge known as "L Snipe & Vinny" Ceo of Snipeproductions. The duo eventually had a meeting with Atlantic record in early 2007. With the decline of the reggaeton music Royce made the ultimate decision to focus more on the bachata industry. At age nineteen, Royce met Andrés Hidalgo, who after hearing his previous demo instantly became his manager.^[3][4] Hidalgo began helping Royce work hands-on with bachata music. That was the turning point which helped Royce decided that pursuing a musical career is what he wanted to do.^[3] Hidalgo later introduced Royce to Sergio George, who immediately signed the former to his label, Top Stop Music, after listening to three of his demos.^[2]

2010–11: Prince Royce and breakthrough

Royce released his eponymous debut studio album on March 2, 2010.^[5] The album was produced primarily by Hidalgo and Sergio George, with co-production duties by Royce.^[6] Carlos Quintana, of About.com, described the album's musical production as "Bachata with R&B and Pop sounds", while AllMusic's Jason Birchmeier credited Hidalgo for the "crisp production job, which is often spare but adds touches of urban beats here and there."^[7][8] Shortly after its release, it debuted on the Billboard Latin Albums chart at number fifteen.^[9] The lead single from the album, "Stand by Me", a remake of Ben E. King's 1961 song, peaked at number one on the US Billboard Tropical Songs chart, and also reached number eight on the Hot Latin Songs chart.^[10][11] The album's second single, "Corazón Sin Cara", was released in mid-February 2010 and peaked at number one on both the US Hot Latin Songs and Tropical Songs charts.^[12] The album itself had eventually reached number one on the US Billboard Latin Albums chart and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).^[9] In December 2010, Royce recorded a song with Sergio George called "El Campo de Sueños", which is used as the theme song for Domingo de Grandes Ligas on ESPN.^[13]

The album had earned Royce a nomination for Best Contemporary Tropical Album at the 2010 Latin Grammy Awards.^[14] Later that night, Royce performed the song "Stand by Me" alongside Ben E. King.^[15] At the 2011 Premio Lo Nuestro Awards, Royce won three awards in the Tropical genre, including Male Artist of the Year, New Soloist or Group of the Year and Song of the Year for "Stand by Me".^[16] Royce was also nominated for 6 awards at the 2011 Billboard Latin Music Awards. Ultimately, he had won three of them, which were Tropical Airplay Solo Artist of the Year, Tropical Album of the Year for Prince Royce, and Tropicals Albums Solo Artist of the Year.^[17][18] With the help of Los De La Nazza & Frankie "El Jefe", Royce had collaborated with Daddy Yankee on a song entitled, "Ven Conmigo", which will be included on the latter's album, Prestige.^[19] In May 2011, Royce signed on with Atlantic Records to released English-language albums. It is a joint partnership between Sergio George's Top Stop label and Atlantic. Royce is currently working on his second studio album, in which Mike Caren, Executive Vice President of A&R for Atlantic, said will be mostly in English with Latin music influences.^[20] It was announced by Enrique Iglesias that he will be touring with Royce and Pitbull as special guests during a leg which began in mid-September 2011.^[21] He was also featured in the 2011 issue of People en Español Magazine as one of the 50 Most beautiful.

2012: Phase II

Royce on Acceso Total in 2012.

On April 10, 2012, Prince Royce released his second studio album titled Phase II.^[22] The 13-track album incorporates a variety of music styles from Bachata to Mariachi.^[23] The album contains songs in both English and Spanish, as well as melodies atypical to traditional Bachata music.^[24] Driven by the popularity of its lead single Las Cosas Pequeñas, Phase II became the number one selling Latin album on iTunes. Las Cosas Pequeñas debuted at #1 on Billboard's Tropical chart, and eventually reached the #1 position on Billboard's Latin Songs chart.^[25]

The week of Phase II's release, Prince Royce attended four autograph signing events in the United States. His appearance at a Chicago, Illinois location of F.Y.E. broke an attendance record for most visitors to an in-store music event.also.^[25] Later in 2012, he was in the People en Español Magazene "Sexy Edition" naming him as one of the sexiest men in 2012. His Sophomore album "Phase II" was then certified platinum in the US and Puerto Rico 6 months after its release. Soon after going platinum Prince Royce's "Phase II" got nominated for a Latin Grammy for best Tropical Fusion Album, Making him a three time nominated artist.

In November 2012, his label decided to release a collection of Prince Royce's hits thus far. Entitled #1's, released on November 19, 2012, it debuted at #3 on the Hot Latin Albums chart. Included are his hits "Stand By Me", "Corazon Sin Cara", "Las Cosas Pequeñas", "Incondicional", and "Te Me Vas". In 2013 He was honored with the BMI Latin Songwriter of the Year.

2013–present: Sony Music Entertainment, La Voz Kids, third and fourth studio albums

In April 2013, it was announced that Royce had signed a record deal with Sony Music Entertainment to release his third Spanish-language studio album under Sony Music Latin and debut English recording under RCA Records. This came after the fizzled relationship between Royce and Top Stop which ended in two lawsuits in which Royce was sued by that label for breach of contract.^[26] In a statement, Peter Edge, CEO of RCA Records said "We are thrilled about the opportunity to work with such a dynamic Latin artist on his first English album. Prince Royce’s early successes have paved the way for the next generation of Latin music and we are eager to join forces with our partners Sony Music Latin to fully maximize his music and career."^[26] Prince Royce is also one of the three coaches on Telemundo's La Voz Kids, a singing competition featuring kids aged 7–15 with a $50,000 cash prize for their education. He became the winning coach for the first season with his team member Paola Guanche. In addition, he also released his new single called "Darte un Beso".

On August 29, 2013, Prince Royce announced his new album Soy el Mismo, which features his single "Darte un Beso." The album was released on October 8, 2013.^[27]

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Featured singles

Music videos

Non album songs

Guest appearances

• El Campo de Sueños, with Sergio George : composed by Leonte Landino (Venezuela), arranged by Guianko Gómez, title song of "Domingo de Grandes Ligas de ESPN". (Spanish version of "Sunday Night Baseball")

Awards and Nominations

References

External links

• Official Website
• Prince Royce on Twitter
• "Prince Royce Is Generation Next" — The Village Voice