Bueno released his version of the song with Gente de Zona, and Iglesias eventually heard it. How Enrique Iglesias' 'Bailando' Became a Hit. They put their mojo into the track, including the bridge: “Yo quiero estar contigo, bailar contigo.” The pair even sent it out to other acts, and it languished until the singer-songwriter, who lived in Miami, went to his native Cuba and connected with Gente de Zona - at the time the most popular group on the island. Bueno brought him the track, which he had begun to pen in 2009, and the two finessed it and added to it - but Iglesias wasn’t fully convinced. Iglesias wrote “Bailando” with Bueno, his frequent collaborator, in one of many writing sessions the two had in Iglesias’ house. At a time when Cuban-based artists had long been absent from the Billboard charts, “Bailando” brought them back, with a vengeance in 2014 Gente de Zona became the first Cuban-based act to ever top Billboard’s airplay charts after they were featured on “Bailando,” which they co-wrote.ĭespite the results, “Bailando” coming together as it did was a musical accident that nearly never happened. If “Despacito” broke ground with its mix of Latin reggaeton and pop, rapping and singing, “Bailando” opened the door to that possibility, marrying Iglesias’ up-tempo melodic fare with Descemer Bueno’s singer/songwriter vibe and, the coup de grace, the urban beats and gritty vocals of Cuban duo Gente de Zona. “And I remember thinking, ‘F–k, this is the reason I started to do this, and this is the reason I’ve been at it for a bunch of years.’ It’s weird to describe. It excited me,” Enrique tells Billboard today. “I remember ‘Bailando’ making me feel exactly like I felt when I released my first album.