The first joint album by the bachata titans Romeo Santos and Prince Royce, surprise-released last fall, had a cheeky title: “Better Late Than Never.” The two Bronx-born singer-songwriters had been two of the standard-bearers for the Dominican dance music—characterized by crisply fleet guitars, syncopated rhythms, and longing lyrics — for decades, making their first team-up seem both long-awaited and right on time.
Santos and Royce’s show at TD Garden Friday night had the easy, collaborative feel of that album, which they worked on in secret over the course of seven years. “Better Late Than Never” showcases Santos’s lovelorn wail and Royce’s honey-dipped instrument, as well as their eagerness to expand the boundaries of the genre they love on songs like the harmonica-tinged “Celeste” and the sparkling title track.
Friday night’s Boston show did the same, with the two singers giving their joint and solo catalogs a brisk workout while the rapturous crowd sang and sighed along.
Bachata’s romanticism and musicianship make it an appealing genre on its own, but Friday’s concert showed how Santos’s and Royce’s individual and collective charisma make its dancehall stylings arena-ready. Songs like Santos’s 2014 meta-lament “Cancioncitas de Amor” and Royce’s reggae-flecked 2013 cut “Darte Un Beso” were made massive yet retained their heart-to-heart appeal, while “Better Late Than Never” offerings like the brooding “Dardos” and the chiming “Ay! San Miguel” allowed the two singers to play off each other and the crowd.
The show was fast-paced, fitting more than 30 songs into about two hours, but there were still moments — which included Santos leading the musicians in synchronized dance, as well as the two sharing a shot of Dominican rum with a front-row dweller as they toasted bachata and its country of origin — that only added to its intimate feel.
Santos’s recording career began in the 1990s, with the band he joined eventually becoming the blockbuster boy band Aventura. Their fusion of bachata with modern R&B and other genres helped them grow dominant within 21st-century Latin pop. Santos went solo in 2011 — a year after Royce had released his debut full-length.
While part of the show was given over to an Aventura throwback — with Royce talking about how he’d grown up on his tour partner’s music, while a DJ behind a booth set up to look like a hot dog cart spun classic tracks — the two felt on equal footing throughout the show, their cross-generational bond rooted in a love for the Dominican Republic and its signature sound.
ROMEO SANTOS & PRINCE ROYCE
At TD Garden, Friday