Suavemente (English: Smoothly) is the debut studio album by American merenguero recording artist Elvis Crespo.

With romantic ballads and uptempo songs, Suavemente received favorable reviews from music critics who found the recording to contain energetic and catchy tracks.

[1] They enlisted Alfred Cotto, Reynaldo Santiago, and Elvis Crespo to tour and record two-step merengue music, popularizing the genre to a younger audience.

[4] Crespo originally intended for "Suavemente" and "Tu Sonrisa", the singles which brought him international recognition, to be recorded with Grupo Manía.

[5] Suavemente and American merengue singer Manny Manuel's album, Es Mi Tiempo, increased U.S. tropical-music sales by 27 percent over the previous year.

[9] On February 20, 1999, Sony Discos president Oscar Llord expressed an interest in promoting Suavemente in Latin America and Europe since he believed that the album would sell over one million copies.

[10] As of October 2017[update] Suavemente has sold over 879,000 copies in the United States, making it the 11th bestselling Latin album in the country according to Nielsen SoundScan.

[12][13] Crespo performed at the 23rd New York Salsa Festival at Madison Square Garden on September 5, 1998, with El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, and Latin jazz recording artist Eddie Palmieri.

[14] He was part of the Hot Latin Nights show at Walt Disney World's Pleasure Island on September 19, which was broadcast as a two-part Telemundo special on December 14 and 31.

[15] On October 11 Crespo (performing with other Latin acts) sang "Suavemente" on the seven-hour Puerto Rico Se Levanta, a benefit concert broadcast live on Telemundo which raised $13 million for victims of Hurricane Georges on Hispaniola.

[17] He appeared at El Concierto Del Amor, an annual tropical-music festival held at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on February 14, 1999, with fellow salsa singers Jerry Rivera, Frankie Negron, Tito Nieves, and Michael Stuart.

[18] To promote Suavemente Crespo toured Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Peru in the first quarter of the year,[7] and he performed at Billboard's 10th annual Latin Music conference on April 20, 1999.

[19] In Billboard, Latin music contributor John Lannert called the album a "merengue-bomba disc"[21] and Crespo a "midtempo pop/merengue" artist.

[26] Spanish-language magazine Vistazo called Crespo the new sensation of merengue music,[27] and his album a favorite of listeners who enjoy pachanga.

[27] Sony Music International Latin America president Frank Welzer called Crespo a "genius" who wrote "catchy fan-pleasing" songs.

[7] Terry Jenkins of AllMusic praised the album's "seductive Latin ballads" and found the focal mode of the recording to be sentimental, strong, lively, and swinging.

[37] Suavemente sold 6,000 copies for the week ending June 13, rising to number two on the Top Latin Albums chart behind Ricky Martin's Vuelve.

[14] After three weeks of declining sales, Suavemente was number three when it sold 5,000 copies as "Tu Sonrisa" (its second single) topped the Hot Latin Songs chart.

Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart for the week ending April 25, 1998, the magazine's John Lannert predicted that Crespo could "easily win a new artist award" in 1999.

[52] Billboard music analyst Karl Ross called the album's title song "a sultry [track] about the power of a kiss".

[6] Crespo became the first merengue recording artist with a number-one single on the Hot Latin Songs chart since Dominican singer Juan Luis Guerra's "El Costo De la Vida" six years earlier.

[43] Sony Discos president Oscar Llord told Billboard about the "carefulness" of crossing over into the English-language market, calling the lead single a process done "naturally" as a result of two U.S. radio stations (in Miami and New) York requesting a Spanglish version.

[58] After the success of "Suavemente"'s bilingual version, Sony Music distributed a club mix of "Tu Sonrisa" to radio stations in February 1999.

[60] "Luna Llena", Suavemente's third single, debuted and peaked at number 29 on the Hot Latin Tracks chart for the week ending December 12, 1998.

[7] Sony Discos president Oscar Llord called Suavemente the "most successful debut album of a Tropical artist in history.

[43] Suavemente has been named one of the most essential Latin albums of the past 50 years by Billboard,[64] and its title song became a staple in Latin-music nightclubs.

According to contributor Gio Santiago, "Suavemente" catapulted merengue into the mainstream, introducing it to a wider audience, and ending the genre's waning popularity.