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Bachata "Batman and Robin": The Surprise Album That Unites King Romeo Santos and Prince Royce

Bachata, Music, Notas rítmicasNelson Santana1 Comment

By Nelson Santana and Emmanuel Espinal
November 28, 2025

Lea en español: Bachata «Batman y Robin»:el álbum sorpresa que une al Rey Romeo Santos y al Príncipe Prince Royce

Romeo Santos and Prince Royce launched Better Late Than Never, a joint 13-track album premiering on November 28, 2025. The project was secretly gestated over approximately seven years, recorded in villas, private homes and studios, using code names: "Batman" and "Robin." Billboard Español had the worldwide exclusive in a cover story written by Sigal Ratner-Arias, revealing details of the mystery strategy. The album mixes classic and modern bachata with R&B, Afrobeat, pop and palo dominicano, and includes a collaboration with Dalvin La Melodía. The Bronx, Dominican Republic and the Dominican community abroad celebrate a collaboration that consolidates the legacy of the "King" and "Prince" of bachata and opens a new chapter for the genre.

The least anyone expected was a collaboration between them, since Royce launched the album Eterno earlier in the year.

In the midst of Latin music's global boom, two sons of The Bronx with Dominican roots decided to do the unthinkable in the era of leaks and TikTok previews: work for years, in silence, on a joint album without a single note being leaked. Romeo Santos and Prince Royce premiered Better Late Than Never on November 28, a 13-song project already shaping up to be the bachata event of 2025.

In that exclusive interview with Billboard, not only is the album announced, but the secret strategy behind the project is revealed: recordings during vacations, meetings in private homes in New York and the Caribbean, and ironclad discipline not to share digital files or demos by email.

A Well-Kept Secret from The Bronx to the World

Both Romeo Santos and Prince Royce were born in The Bronx, in Dominican family homes (in Romeo's case, with a Puerto Rican mother), and grew up at that intersection between the Dominican colmado, the New York bodega, and the bachata sounds that traveled on cassettes from the island. From there they reconstructed the genre: Romeo with Aventura first and then as a solo artist, Royce with his versions of soul and Motown classics adapted to the requinto rhythm.

For years, some fans dreamed of a collaboration between them. But what came were rumors, scattered photos on social media, some joint appearances, three attempted songs that never saw the light... until now. Better Late Than Never plays precisely with that expectation: "better late than never" for a collective dream of an entire generation that fell in love, suffered and healed to the rhythm of their voices.

According to the Billboard interview, the project began to take serious shape around 2017, when the duo recorded a first track for Romeo's Golden album that was ultimately discarded. They repeated the process at least two more times. Neither the King nor the Prince were satisfied. Instead of settling for a quick "crossover," they decided to demand more of themselves, redoing choruses, melodies and arrangements until finding a fusion where both felt comfortable and organic, without sounding like a forced or obligatory collaboration.

"Batman and Robin" at the Service of Bachata

One of the most revealing elements of the story m is the use of code names: "Batman" and "Robin." To avoid leaks, Santos and Royce handled the project almost like a secret operation. In emails, production notes and music video coordination, Romeo was "Batman" and Royce "Robin." Even the director of the double video, accompanying the launch with songs "Estocolmo" and "Dardos," worked under this coded logic, without knowing all the details initially.

Privacy was so strict that not even their families really knew what they were plotting. Many session musicians thought they were recording for one or the other's album, but never saw the two artists together in the studio. Demos did not circulate by email; Romeo preferred—as he has done on other occasions with Billboard—to get the journalist in a van, play the complete album and listen to it with her, song by song, watching her reaction in real time.

On the marketing level, they also bet on drama and surprise. Dressed as Ace Ventura on Halloween, Romeo announced on Instagram "new album November 28" and a listening party at Madison Square Garden on November 27, without mentioning it was a duet project with Royce. Thousands of fans assumed it was another solo album from the King of Bachata.

The Sound: Classic Bachata, Palo Dominicano and Global Future

Better Late Than Never is not just a meeting of egos; it is, above all, a broad musical proposal that looks at Villa Juana and The Bronx simultaneously. The album includes classic romantic and heartbreaking bachatas, with guitars recalling both Aventura and early Royce; modern explorations with R&B and Afrobeat influences, as in "Dardos" and "Jezebel"; a palo dominicano titled "Ay San Miguel," directly connecting with popular spirituality and traditional festivities; and the collaboration "Menor" with Dalvin La Melodía, representing the bridge to the new urban-bachata generation.

Four tracks—"Better Late Than Never," "Mi plan," "Jezabel" and "Loquita por mí"—were jointly composed by both artists; the rest bear Romeo's main pen, with frank comments and production adjustments from Royce. The idea, as they explain, was that no song should feel like "filler" or a recycled demo: each track had to justify the seven-year wait.

For the Dominican community, this range of styles is a clear declaration: bachata is no longer just the music of the bar and jukebox, but a global language capable of dialoguing with pop, R&B, Afrobeat and new digital trends without losing its original amargue. Romeo and Royce function here as curators of a living museum of the genre, but also as architects of its future.

Click on image to see the itineraries

The Bronx, Dominican Republic and the Dominican Community Abroad: A Single Heartbeat

The symbolic impact of this album goes beyond popularity charts. In terms of Dominican identity, Better Late Than Never is the crystallization of a story that began decades ago, when bachata was marginalized as music only heard in seedy places including bars and "bayús” in the Dominican Republic itself, while in New York it became the music of migration, of sleepless nights on trains, of remittances and heartbreak on two shores.

Today, those boys from The Bronx who listened to Antony Santos, Raulín and Luis Vargas in one-bedroom apartments are global superstars filling stadiums, topping charts and signing with major labels. That the King and Prince join forces sends a powerful message to the Dominican community: our rhythms not only survived the journey; they conquered the map.

It is no coincidence that the album premieres with a private listening at Madison Square Garden, symbolic temple of the Dominican community in New York, where historic concerts by Juan Luis Guerra, Antony Santos, Aventura and other icons have been held. On that night, tricolor flags and Yankees caps mixed with tears, cell phone recordings and voices singing each new chorus in unison.

What's Coming: World Tour and New Era for Bachata?

Santos and Royce have made clear they do contemplate a joint world tour, designed as an integrated experience: it will be "first Royce's show then Romeo's," but a continuous journey through both repertoires, mixing classics with new album songs.

At a moment when artists from other genres—from Rosalía to Karol G—approach bachata, Better Late Than Never functions as a reminder of who has carried the genre on their shoulders for the last 15 years, and simultaneously as an invitation for new Dominican, Caribbean and Latin American voices to dare innovate without fear.

For Dominican fans, both on the island and in New York, Madrid, Santiago de Chile or Upper Manhattan, the message is clear: bachata is alive, evolving and looking forward. And this time, the hero does not arrive alone: he comes in duo format, with black cape and purple cape, like Batman and Robin, defending Dominican Republic's place on the world's musical map with requinto and bongo beats.