Singer Luis Fonsi's hair is so black it gleams. He has thick brown eyebrows, deep brown eyes, and his skin is tanned a rich caramel. But for all his dark features, his eyes shine so vibrantly that the impression he gives is one of brightness.

And now, his career is brighter than ever.

Fonsi is in need of all the radiance he can muster on a recent weekday amid the chaos of a rehearsal at BankUnited Center in Coral Gables for Univision's hugely popular pop-culture awards show Premios Juventud. Fighting flu, he has hauled himself from bed to get here, and the show's revered producer Cisco Suarez is enthusiastically explaining the indoor waterfall he's arranged for the premiere of Llueve Por Dentro (It's Raining Inside), the third single off Fonsi's blockbuster album Palabras del Silencio.

``You're going to get soaked big time!'' Suarez says. ``Today?'' Fonsi responds, eyes wide. ``But I've got interviews. I'm sick.''

``Today, tomorrow, every day!'' Suarez says gleefully.

After some negotiating, Fonsi won't get drenched that morning, though Suarez still grumbles that the singer should have brought a change of clothes. But with 13 Juventud nominations capping off his biggest year since he started a decade ago, Fonsi (short for Alfonso, his middle name) can push back a little, even with a media titan like Univision.

For years, Fonsi's lightweight pop ballads had earned him moderate success but little artistic recognition. That situation has changed with Palabras, his most musically substantial and commercially successful recording yet, earning him a favorable mention in The New York Times and his first Grammy nomination. The album's lead single, No Me Doy Por Vencido (I'm Not Giving Up), co-written by Fonsi, is a moving anthem of determined hope that struck a chord in a year when there were plenty of reasons to give up and spent 30 weeks at the top of the Latin radio charts.

``You can tell he's feeling every word,'' Suarez says. ``It's what he projects, and you either have it, or you don't. I can slap a camera on him, and he'll always grab the audience.''

HIS HARDSHIPS

But Fonsi, 31, is not one to strut over his triumphs. Although his life seems all star-powered ease these days, he has endured personal trials that have made him see music as more than a vehicle for fun and fame. Five years ago, just as he'd arrived at North Miami's Criteria studios to start recording Palabras' predecessor, Paso a Paso, he got a call from the sister of his fiancee, actress Adamari Lopez, to tell him that Lopez had tested positive for breast cancer.

Fonsi took a cab across town (his car had gotten a flat tire on the way to the studio) to South Beach, where Lopez was filming a show. ``As soon as I showed up she knew,'' he says. ``We cried it out, hugged it out. She's a lot stronger than I am. I did what a fiance is supposed to do -- I stood by her. I threw her parties after every chemo treatment. It was the least I could do. She got through it. I think it made us stronger.''

Fonsi's previous albums had been bubbly or romantic pop, but the couple's struggle with cancer cast a much darker mood over Paso a Paso (Step by Step). ``Though I have faith, pain gnaws me,'' Fonsi sings in the title track, written two days after he got the news. ``And I hide my fear under the pillow.''

Palabras is as much marked by relief to be past that painful time as Paso was etched by it. This is Fonsi's most mature, and relaxed, record yet. ``I hate cliches, but this record is the calm after the storm,`` he says. ``All that dark period is over. She's healthy. Our family is great. I've learned and grown as a songwriter. All these things have enriched me.''

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