De Mí Para Ti (Apple Music Up Next Film Edition)

“An artist can have many hits, but there are songs that are immortal hits,” Jay Wheeler tells Apple Music. “Fifteen years from now, I'm going to have the high school kids singing ‘La Curiosidad.’” For the Puerto Rican rising star, the breakout global success of that 2020 single thrust him into a bigger spotlight than ever before, with a multigenerational mix of Latin music’s leading lights eager to jump on its subsequent twin remixes. “I had an incredible time. People that I used to look up to when I was a little kid [were] in my video, on my song, performing their parts with me.”

That experience led to a series of further collaborations with everyone from J Balvin to Eladio Carrión to Juhn. Still, Wheeler resisted the temptation to rush out with a new project immediately, choosing to take his time and also to get out in front of his fans on tour. “I like to put my heart in every single thing that I do, when I do music, when I do videos,” he says. “When I do anything that has to do with my art, I like to give it all.”

Judging by the sound of De Mi Para Ustedes, that shrewd move and his daily work ethic made it worth the wait. “La Curiosidad” reemerges on this EP as part of a selection of recent singles and brand-new tracks that collectively shapes his artistry more clearly than ever before. Being out and about allowed him to see the response to songs like “Dos Tragos” firsthand. “Every time I sing it, everybody starts dancing and having fun,” he says. “It’s amazing.”

Among the project’s revelatory moments are Wheeler’s first proper forays into singing in English. “I didn't want to do English music just because I can,” he says. “It's a whole different vibe and a whole different experience.” To prepare, he took classes for a full year to get the pronunciation down, all the while learning as much as he could to absorb a side of the pop/R&B culture he had long admired from afar. The resulting tracks, the hip-hop-tinged “Can’t Figure U Out” and previously released emo trap ballad “Take My Life,” prove that his hard work paid off without sacrificing his individuality in the least. “If I can stay in that industry, cool,” he says. “But I will never stop doing Spanish songs.”