Toby Love was born and raised in the Bronx, New York to Puerto Rican parents.[1] He says he fell in love with the genre of bachata, after being exposed to it as a child, explaining that is mother always listened to it.[1] His mother remarried a Dominican and Love was raised around both cultures.[1] He stated that he is a big fan of R&B and found it easy to incorporate it in his music.[1]
After spending six years with the Bachata group Aventura, first appearing on the album Generation Next at the age of 16, Love embarked on his solo career.[2][3] He met with Aventura while he was still in his merengue group as teenager.[2] Living in the same neighborhood as the group, he became close friends with the member "Mikey", who later asked Love to join.[2]
Composition
His influential musicians include Michael Jackson and Lauryn Hill (both pictured) which helped combined the mixture of R&B and bachata found on "Tengo Un Amor".
"Tengo Un Amor" was written by Love with additional composition by Edwin Perez who also handled production for the song.[4] The song was written with Spanglish lyrics combining crunkhip hop with bachata.[5] In his review of the parent album, David Jefferies called the song "an incredibly smooth, lush, and glittery ballad", selecting the song as an "Allmusic Pick".[6] Love later called "Tengo Un Amor" the "door-opener" for all of his future success.[7]
His musical influences include Michael Jackson, Lauryn Hill, Juan Luis Guerra and Héctor Lavoe, which helped produce the mixture of R&B and bachata found on "Tengo Un Amor".[8] According to Billboard the original version of the song is a "straightforward bachata song" while the remix with R.K.M & Ken-Y, known then as Rakim & Ken-Y provides "urban street cred".[9] The remix also features a verse by R.K.M where he raps to a rhythm of bachata infused with reggaetón, or bachaton.[10]
Commercial performance
"Tengo Un Amor" was released digitally on November 6, 2006 by Sony BMG Norte.[11] After reaching number three on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100, the song debuted and peaked at #100 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of November 18, 2006.[12][13] On the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart, the song debuted for the issue week of August 5, 2006 and peaked at number two for the week of November 11, 2006.[14][15] This gave R.K.M & Ken-Y their third Top 10 single following "Down" and "Me Matas".[16] On the Billboard Latin Tropical Airplay chart, the song debuted for the week of August 19, 2006 and peaked at number three for the week of November 11, 2006.[17][18] On the Billboard Latin Pop Airplay chart, the song debuted for the week of October 7, 2006 and peaked at #25 for the week of October 28, 2006.[19][20] In Los Angeles, the song became one of the top five most requested tracks on the Rhythmic Top 40 KXOL (96.3), the Senior Vice President of which called the song a "smash" while citing its success as an acceptance of Hispanic audiences and urban tastes.[21]
"Tengo Un Amor" received three nominations at the 2007 Latin Billboard Music Awards for Best Vocal Duet or Collaboration and Tropical Airplay Song of the Year, Duo or Group for the remix version while winning the award for Tropical Airplay Song of the Year, New Artist category.[16] He was also awarded Best Rap/Hip-Hop Album for Toby Love.[16][22] The song was award an ASCAP award for Urban Song of the Year from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.[23] According to Jon Caramanica of New York Times, "Tengo Un Amor" is Love's "biggest hit".[24]
