'Despacito' breaks YouTube record

PARIS: The mega-hit “Despacito” by the Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi has become the most watched video ever on YouTube with more than six billion views, the Google-owned service said Tuesday.

The video, first released in January 2017 by Fonsi and Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee, already holds the record for the fastest two billion, three billion and four billion views (272 days).

Fonsi’s Spanish-language hit, whose English title is “Slowly”, has had nearly two billion views more than its nearest challenger, “Shape of You”, by the British singer Ed Sheeran.

The South Korean singer Psy was the first to cross the two-billion-views barrier on the platform with his “Gangnam Style” in 2012, which also set off a dance craze.

Psy is now fifth in the YouTube charts with 3.3 billion views.