Llegar a Ti (song)

Since signing on to Myrrh Records in 1995,[2] Velasquez had achieved two gold certifications with her Christian-themed albums Heavenly Place (1996) and her 1998 self-titled record and won the Dove Award for New Artist of the Year in 1997.[3] Following the latter album's release, she expressed an interest in recording a Spanish-language record. According to Velasquez: "It has been a dream of mine to do a record in the language that defines who I am and where I come from, I wanted to do songs that reflect who I am. I love Spanish. I think it's a more passionate language than English. In English there's only one word for something, but in Spanish there are 20 words you can choose from to say one thing."[3] To prepare for the Spanish-language record, she signed a five-disc deal with Sony Discos, with her label debut album being produced by Rudy Pérez.[4] Mark Heimermann and Phil Nash also handled its productions,[5] the former having produced Velasquez's previous albums.[6]

The album, Llegar a Ti, was eventually released on August 31, 1999,[7] and consists of six Spanish-language versions of her earlier songs as well as five original compositions including the title track.[8] "Llegar a Ti" was composed by Tommy Torres and MDO members Didier Hernández and Abel Talamántez.[9] The band also performs the background vocals in the track.[10] A pop ballad,[1][11] the song (along with the other tracks from the album) "explore themes of faith".[12] Enrique Fernandez of the Sun-Sentinel noted that the track "can be read two ways: love of a human or of a higher entity".[1] An English-language version of the song, "Love Will Find You", was recorded for the soundtrack of Music of the Heart (1999) with additional writing by Phil Galdston and D. Peter Hernandez.[13][14]

"Llegar a Ti" was released as the album's lead single in 1999 by Sony Discos.[10] Its music video features Velasquez singing in a well-lit blue room with MDO appearing on a TV screen as background vocalists.[15] Billboard's John Lannert called "Llegar a Ti" a "beautiful" single,[5]. while The Dallas Morning News critic Berta Delgado found it to be a "gorgeous ballad".[11] The song has also been described as "tender" by The Philadelphia Inquirer editor Kevin L. Carter and "uplifting" by J.D. Considine of The Baltimore Sun.[16][17] The Sun-Sentinel's Fernandez praised the track as a "generous slice of the tender yet passionate pop" song.[1] At the inaugural Latin Grammy Awards in 2000, "Llegar a Ti" was also nominated in the category of the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, which went to "Ojos Así" by Shakira.[18][19] "Llegar a Ti" was nominated Pop Song of the Year at the 13th Annual Lo Nuestro Awards but ultimately lost to "A Puro Dolor" by Son by Four.[20][21] It was recognized as one of the best-performing songs of the year at the ASCAP Latin Awards under the pop/ballad category in 2000.[22] Commercially, "Llegar a Ti" topped the Billboard Hot Latin Songs and Latin Pop Airplay charts in the US, making her the first Christian artist to reach number one on the Latin charts.[13][23][24] The English-language version peaked at number 24 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.[25]

• List of number-one Billboard Hot Latin Tracks of 1999
• List of Billboard Latin Pop Airplay number ones of 1999