Prince Royce Talks Life After Divorce

“I get way more scared and embarrassed having to talk about my personal life in interviews than saying it in a song,” Prince Royce admits throughout an interview in Los Angeles for his new album, “Llamada Perdida,” which dropped Friday. With a decade-plus profession that has typically been freed from controversy, the Dominican American bachata artist and pop star is carrying his coronary heart on his sleeve in his first LP since a really public divorce. Prince Royce says he has discovered therapeutic via music whereas re-prioritizing himself and pushing the bachata style to new locations.

“Right now, I feel like I’m in a good place,” he tells POPSUGAR. “Everybody has problems. It’s just how you deal with them, and I think it’s all part of growth. That’s how I took in this experience in my personal life that happened in the last two years.”

Royce is referring to his break up with ex-wife and Mexican Lebanese actress Emeraude Toubia. After their fairy-tale-like marriage ceremony in 2018, the 2 introduced their divorce in 2022 after 12 years collectively. For Prince Royce, it was the primary time {that a} troublesome second in his personal life had gone very public.

“Some of these things in my personal life had been going on for a while. You’re kind of battling this thing in private until it actually explodes to the people.”

“A lot of people thought when they saw it on Instagram, that’s when it actually happened,” he recollects. “Some of these things in my personal life had been going on for a while. You’re kind of battling this thing in private until it actually explodes to the people. Fans want to know what happened, and what if I don’t want the fans to know? I tried to stay away from social media for some time.”

Prince Royce’s huge catalog of hits consists of love songs alongside bachata tracks about heartbreak. There’s classics like 2014’s “El Amor Que Perdimos,” and “Culpa al Corazón,” which was launched a number of years later. He admits that whereas he did not expertise any breakups whereas writing these songs, they struck a unique chord when he revisited them after his divorce.

“I started listening to songs of the past, and I started to believe I was living what I wrote,” he says. “I was living my past songs in the present. It was actually mad weird and scary. I cried to one of my old songs, and I felt like I was vibing with a Prince Royce that saw Prince Royce’s future.”

Prince Royce’s divorce, compounded with the COVID-19 pandemic, left him with lots to mirror on. He quickly stepped away from the highlight and surrounded himself with family members. During his temporary hiatus from music, the bachatero reevaluated how he wished to maneuver on together with his life and his profession.

“I started listening to these podcasts about manifestation,” he says. “When problems come, I just try to be positive. I’m genuinely trying to be a better person, make better decisions, and take care of my health. I want to try to put out the best music that I can do. I want to feel good about it. I want to do new things.”

For Prince Royce, creating “Llamada Perdida” was a cathartic expertise. On the 23-track LP, there are a number of bachata songs about heartbreak: he sings about affected by heartache in “Sufro” and later desirous to numb the ache with morphine within the R&B-infused “Morfina,” that includes Paloma Mami. But he maintains that “not every song has to be real.”

“Some songs are fictional. Some songs are just inspired by [something]. Some songs are not 100 percent. I like to hide myself behind the artistry of what if it is or what if it isn’t,” he explains.

Throughout his profession, Prince Royce has proudly represented bachata music from the Dominican Republic. While recording the album, he rediscovered his pleasure for making music and innovating the age-old style in his personal means. One of probably the most poignant collaborations is “Boogie Chata,” that includes A Boogie Wit da Hoodie. The music seamlessly blends bachata with components of hip-hop.

“[A Boogie Wit da Hoodie] is such a talented dude,” Prince Royce says. “He’s from the Bronx. I wanted to do something that was like Bronx representation. That’s another one of my favorites. It was a great fusion. We did it just kind of doing our thing and having fun.”

Prince Royce additionally faucets into the música Mexicana explosion with the music “Cosas de la Peda.” Rising Mexican singer Gabito Ballesteros is featured within the heartbreaking music, which is a freshly distinctive mixture of bachata with corridos tumbados. In the music video, Prince Royce additionally embraces a Mexican vaquero type as he sings with Ballesteros in a cantina.

“I did ‘Incondicional’ that had mariachi, and I recorded before with [Mexican singers] Roberto Tapia and Gerardo Ortiz,” he says. “I wanted to push the envelope even more and have a bachata song with a deeper regional Mexican influence. I got to do that on this album. I just felt more free. I wanted to represent bachata and where I’m from with this type of album and still give a little bit of everything.”

Prince Royce was additionally excited to discover extra Dominican genres — like dembow in “Le Doy 20 Mil” and merengue típico within the fiery “Frío en el Infierno.” One of the songs that imply probably the most to him is the empowering “La Vida Te Hace Fuerte,” the place he sings in regards to the exhausting knocks of life making him stronger.

“We all go through very difficult things in our lives very differently,” he says. “We all go through problems, but how do we solve them together? This is an album about overcoming obstacles. I want to just be here, do my thing, do things that make me happy, and try to keep touching people’s hearts.”