A viral dance trend built on a 12-year-old song has revived the career of Puerto Rican urban artist Xavi, who traveled to Brazil to meet the couple behind it. The pair, from Brazil, filmed themselves dancing in stiff, robotic steps to "Mi nena," a track he released as a young artist. In a phone interview with Primera Hora from Cali, Colombia, Xavi said the song drew more than two million TikTok posts in about a month and still gets a million weekly streams on Spotify.
The trend took him to Fortaleza, where he met the couple and local influencers. He said he is "two left feet" when dancing and laughs at himself in his own videos. He also recalled performing in Chile at the Teatro Caupolicán, which holds more than 8,000 people, and hearing the crowd sing the song.
Xavi, whose full name is Xavier R. Soto Rivera, is releasing his album "Forever Young" today, his first as an adult, with 12 tracks on OneRPM; its promotional single is "Signos." He started in music at age 6 and was previously known as Xavi "The Destroyer."