Dominican singer Prince Royce, a baseball fan, hoping to win new fans by playing MLS all-star concert

Latin singer Prince Royce says he’s looking forward to headlining the 2019 Major League Soccer all-star game concert because he loves singing live. But he’s also hoping to win new fans.

The Dominican singer will perform at the free event on July 27 in Orlando at Wall Street Plaza, where Grammy-nominated DJ-producer A-Trak will kick off the concert.

“It’s a great way to continue to gain a bigger audience,” says Royce, who’s become more of a soccer fan in the past couple of years. “It’s a whole different type of crowd. I know that there’s going to be some people that might just be finding out about my music that day.”

The concert will kick off five days of soccer festivities, with the MLS all-star game capping the events on July 31 at Exploria Stadium.

Royce says he likes soccer now but didn’t play the sport growing up: “In New York, as a Dominican, the only two sports you really hear about is baseball and basketball. I grew up in the projects of New York, where we had a basketball court in the back. And then, growing up, I saw a lot of baseball, you know. There are so many Dominican baseball players.”

Royce released his self-titled debut album in 2010, topping the Latin charts with songs including “Corazon Sin Cara,” ”Las Cosas Pequenas” and “Darte un Beso” and getting 13 Latin Grammy nominations.

Now, he has recently released the song “Curame,” featuring Manuel Turizo, and is finishing his next album, “Alter Ego.”

“It’s really a concept album,” Royce says. “It’s so many different rhythms, so many different vibes.”

Royce turned 30 last month and went skydiving to celebrate. He married “Shadowhunters” actress Emeraude Toubia last year.

“I feel very blessed that I’m able to take care of my family and live off of this dream,” he says. “I’m at a place where I feel really good about myself. I’m just motivated to do more and to keep growing.”

Of married life, he says: “I’m happy that not much has changed. That’s really the fear that you go through before marriage and when you think about marriage. You hear these stories of stuff going downhill or things changing. So I’m really happy that things have kept almost pretty much the same.”

AP