Prince Royce adjusts to life in the midst of a pandemic
Prince Royce was supposed to be in the midst of his longest tour to date. A local show at Smart Financial Centre at Sugar Land was set for April, right around the tour’s midpoint.
But the coronavirus changed all that.
A March 12 concert in Los Angeles was Royce’s last before his Alter Ego Tour was postponed. Stay-at-home orders and social distancing have halted live performances around the world for the foreseeable future, a move that has rattled even the biggest stars.
“Just keeping it 110 percent with you, I was very genuinely bummed out,” Royce says. “The original feeling for the first two weeks was, ‘I just spent so much time and money on this tour, on trying to step it up to a nice level, and this album, too.’ This definitely slowed down the momentum that I worked so hard to build.”
He visited several cities, including Houston, earlier this year to promote the “Alter Ego” double album and tour. Hundreds of fans lined up in dreary weather to meet the bachata and pop singer in February at Cactus Music. Some traveled from out of state.
When the tour was halted, Royce self-quarantined at home in Miami for two weeks out of caution. He then traveled to Brownsville, where he’s currently staying with his wife, actress Emeraude Toubia. She grew
up in the southern city on the border with Mexico. Royce donned a hazmat suit and mask for the trip to protect himself and others.
After the initial stress and disappointment, Royce has tried to stay upbeat and motivate himself by connecting with fans on social media, namely Instagram, where he has almost 13 million followers. He’s been sharing workout routines and posting “hella Tik-Toks,” including one documenting his trip to Brownsville in the hazmat suit. He also livestreamed himself playing on Xbox.
“As an entertainer, I guess
I’m just trying to continue to entertain,” he says. “I have not played Xbox in years, and I love to do it. I’m connecting with cousins that I haven’t played with in a while. It sounds really stupid, but that for real has been one of the dopest things so far.”
And despite the setbacks, the “Alter Ego” double album is very much alive. The single “Cara de Inocente” just became his 18th No. 1 on Billboard’s Tropical Airplay chart and his third from this album. “Alter Ego” is his fifth chart-topper on the Latin Albums chart. He plans to release videos for every song.
The album’s 23 tracks span multiple genres, from bachata to R&B. There are English-language songs and collaborations with Maluma, Marc Anthony and DaniLeigh.
“I don’t want to lose what got me famous, the bachata, but there’s two sides of me. I think everyone has different personalities, whether you’re at work, with your girlfriend, at school, with your parents. It ties to that but also just the bicultural way that I grew up, listening to a lot of Spanish music but also hiphop and R&B,” he says.
Royce was born in the Bronx to Dominican parents, and balancing two cultures has always been part of his world. It’s reflected in the makeup of his audience and is a big reason Latin music continues to see surges of growth year after year.
For now, he’s focused on staying healthy and keeping those around him safe, too. And letting his hair grow out.
“I got my beard looking so thick already. I think this is a time when we can let out bodies relax and cleanse out from all
“As an entertainer, I guess I’m just trying to continue to entertain.” Prince Royce
this (expletive) that we always put into it because we gotta go to work,” he says. “I’m just trying to stay positive. Everyone’s taking an ‘L,’ taking a loss, like we say. It’s something that I can’t control. But I can control how I use my time.”