Innholdsfortegnelse for September 23, 2023 i Billboard Magazine

OVER THE PAST few years, we’ve spent a lot of time analyzing how TikTok is changing the music business. Now, finally, we get to take a closer look at the music that’s shaking up TikTok. In this issue, we are thrilled to introduce the new TikTok Billboard Top 50, a weekly chart that will track the most popular songs on the platform in the United States. Based on a combination of creations, video views and user engagement by U.S. TikTok users, it’s the first chart ever to monitor the popularity of music on the video-sharing app. That’s something to celebrate — and not just for the artists who top it. Understanding music’s enormous influence and usage on fast-growing digital platforms like TikTok is essential to ensure that creators get…

Laufey scores her first entry on the Billboard 200 with her second album, Bewitched. The set also debuts atop the Traditional Jazz Albums and overall Jazz Albums charts — marking the first No. 1 on both lists for the 24-year-old Icelandic singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. With 23,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending Sept. 14, Bewitched snares the largest debut week for a jazz album in nearly two years, after Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga’s Love for Sale started with 41,000 (Oct. 16, 2021). Notably, 68% of Bewitched’s first-week activity was driven by streaming, with the album’s 14 songs collecting 22.4 million on-demand official streams. Prior to Bewitched’s release, Laufey amassed nearly 3 million TikTok followers and 339 million on-demand official song streams in…

THE FIRST TIKTOK BILLBOARD Top 50 chart, dated Sept. 16, features Sexyy Red’s rising hit, “SkeeYee,” at No. 1, while Taylor Swift scores the most entries on the list. The chart is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The inaugural chart reflects activity covering Sept. 4-10. (Activity on TikTok is not included in the Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.) “SkeeYee,” which follows Sexyy Red’s breakthrough hit, “Pound Town 2” with Tay Keith and Nicki Minaj, reigns amid its notable prominence on TikTok over the past few weeks. Released in June, the song was initially aided by a trend in which users whipped their hair during the St. Louis rapper’s…

NICKI NICOLE With an undeniable swagger and a knack for penning hard-hitting rap verses, Nicole shines brightly in the crowded trap scene of her native Argentina. The 23-year-old wordsmith launched her career as a teenager, performing at freestyle rap competitions in her hometown. The exposure led her to sign with Argentine label Dale Play Records, an indie home to local hero turned global phenomenon Bizarrap. Nicole recorded a fiery session with the producer in 2019, which has earned over 200 million YouTube views. “That collaboration was key in my career,” Nicole says. “I’ve had many moments that have been pivotal — but I still think the best is yet to come.” A few years ago, fresh off her debut album, Recuerdos, Nicole was still considered an emerging MC; today,…

FERNANDO GIACCARDISenior vp of Latin entertainment, Red Light Management As a senior vp at Red Light Management, Giaccardi played an integral role in several major Latin tour launches last year. Most notably, he worked on the Trilogy Tour, co-starring crossover bilingual hit-makers Pitbull, Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias (whom he has managed for decades), which is scheduled to play 25 North American arenas starting in October. Giaccardi also worked on bringing Iglesias to even wider audiences with concerts in Romania and Albania this year. “I continue championing Latin music on the global stage,” Giaccardi says. ISAEL GUTIÉRREZFounder, Music VIP; artist manager, Grupo Firme Gutiérrez’s company, Music VIP, has been home to regional Mexican superstars Grupo Firme since 2018. The group has scored 21 hits on the Regional Mexican Airplay…

ROCÍO GUERRERO Global head of Latin music, Amazon Music JOSE NOVA Senior manager of industry relations, Latin global, Amazon Music Amazon Music’s Latin team has leaned into its video-streaming platform, Twitch, to bring fans in touch with artists such as Myke Towers through the interview talk series La Semanal. The team also celebrated the 50th anniversary of hip-hop this year with the HipHopxSiempre documentary series, which featured exclusive music from artists like Eladio Carrión. And it centered Latin artists in one of Amazon’s biggest recent music initiatives — artist merchandise — where Amazon became, Guerrero says, “the exclusive tour merch partners for worldwide superstars such as Rauw Alejandro and Romeo Santos.” MARCOS JUÁREZ Director of Latin music and content, Pandora LETICIA RAMIREZ Associate director of Latin programming, Pandora Pandora…

Over the past 12 months, Latin music’s growth has only accelerated. U.S. revenue surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time ever — driven in large part by regional Mexican music, now the dominant Latin presence on the charts — indicating that the appetite for music in Spanish worldwide is vast and diverse. The 33rd edition of Billboard Latin Music Week, taking place Oct. 2-6 in Miami and including the Billboard Latin Music Awards, delves into the diversity of sounds and revenue sources fueling the genre, with events including these highlights. “The Art of the Festival” Over the past five years, the presence of Latin artists at major, multigenre U.S. festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza has grown — but there has also been a boom in Latin music-focused…

With COVID-19 restrictions now lifted entirely, the 2023 edition of the Billboard Latin Music Awards promises to be more celebratory than ever when it airs live on Telemundo from Miami’s Watsco Center on Oct. 5. “We are all ready to party,” says Mary Black-Suárez, who produces the show through her MBS Entertainment. Here are five highlights to watch for. • In his first-ever awards show appearance, Mexican star Peso Pluma, who leads the list of this year’s finalists, will perform his hit “La Bebé” (with Yng Lvcas); the evocative “Nueva Vida” from his new album, Génesis; and a third song with a surprise guest. • To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of banda diva Jenni Rivera (who died in December 2012), her daughter Chiquis Rivera will pay…

MANUEL ABUD CEO, Latin Recording Academy Much like the Latin genre itself, Abud watched the profile of the Latin Recording Academy rise during the last year. Along with its cross-promotional work with She Is the Music and the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation’s $9.3 million in donations toward educational programs and research grants, Abud says one of the organization’s biggest wins came in May, when the academy announced that the 2023 Latin Grammys would take place outside of the United States for the first time in Seville, Spain. “Our cross-functional efforts outside of the U.S.,” Abud says, are “focused on building bridges across genres, gender, generations and geography.” RODRIGO NIETO GALVIS Vp/head of Miami entertainment banking, City National Bank ANA Y. PEREZ Vp/senior relationship manager of entertainment banking, City National…

DOJA CAT’S “Paint the Town Red” adds a second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200, with 88.7 million streams and 11,000 sold worldwide Sept. 8-14, according to Luminate. The single also spends a fourth week atop both the U.S.-based Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot Rap Songs charts. A week earlier, the song became the rapper-singer’s second Billboard Hot 100 No. 1, following “Say So” (featuring Nicki Minaj) for a week in 2020. It also marked the chart’s first rap No. 1 in over a year. Notably, “Paint the Town Red” samples Dionne Warwick’s standard “Walk On By,” which hit No. 6 on the Hot 100 in 1964. Thanks to its inclusion, legendary late songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David are credited as writers on Doja Cat’s…

NOAH ASSADFounder/CEO, Rimas Entertainment Assad revels in setting records and has continued to do so since he was named Billboard’s 2023 Power 100 Executive of the Year in January. After boasting the highest calendar-year touring gross for an artist since Billboard Boxscore launched in the late 1980s, Assad’s client Bad Bunny also became the first Latin artist to headline Coachella. Client Karol G became the first Latin woman to top the Billboard 200 with a Spanish-language album, signed a new record deal with Interscope, became the first Latina to headline Lollapalooza and kicked off her stadium tour. Rimas’ publishing division, RSM, was No. 1 on Billboard’s year-end Hot Latin Songs Publishers recap, and in April, Assad launched Rimas Sports. The stand-alone sports management company boasts clients like Francisco Alvarez…

BRUNO DEL GRANADO Head of global Latin music touring group, CAA RUDY LOPEZ NEGRETE Music agent, CAA Del Granado and Lopez Negrete report that the agency “recently launched CAA Latino, a cross-agency collaboration formed to maximize revenue and business opportunities for Latin and Hispanic clients across music, film, TV, endorsements, brands and beyond.” CAA’s roster includes Ricky Martin, Anuel AA, Maluma, Gloria Estefan, Becky G, Luis Fonsi, Danna Paola, Jencarlos Canela and Isabela Merced. During the past year, CAA’s Latin music touring team signed superstar regional Mexican band Grupo Firme, Mexican Latin pop group RBD, Latin urban/pop icon Rauw Alejandro and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Elena Rose. Del Granado also spearheaded the negotiation for superstar Estefan to costar opposite client Andy Garcia in the Plan B-Warner Bros. remake of Father of…

How was “Qué Onda” created? CALLE 24 I think some people already know, but I was not going to participate [as a performer] in it — that song was for another project. The other project didn’t happen, and suddenly, [Fuerza Regida lead singer JOP] told me, “We have to do it together.” We uploaded a Reel to Instagram promoting the song. That day, we added the voices; that night, it accumulated several million [streams]. It was something crazy. When did you write the song? Who helped with the composition? It was about a month or so ago in California. I’m a composer; Miguel Armenta, who is also a composer of [Fuerza Regida x Grupo Frontera’s] “Bebe Dame”; Cristian Humberto; and Jonathan Caro, who is a composer on “Sabor Fresa”…

MYKE TOWERS’ LATEST hit was born “in one of those magical moments that when I hear a rhythm I like, I can’t switch it off until I get something out of it,” recalls the Puerto Rican artist. Since chasing down that rhythm, Towers’ “LALA” has become an unlikely hit, with its arresting reggaetón thump and bewitching vocal sample rising to No. 1 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart. “LALA” started nearly three years ago, when Puerto Rican producers YannC of Full Harmony and Chalko were looking for an attention-grabbing vocal. The song begins with a woman repeatedly chanting the titular sound as if in a trance. YannC and Chalko combined that hypnotic hook — which the former discovered in his “library of vocal shouts” — with a mid-2010s…

ALEJANDRO DUQUE President, Warner Music Latin America ROBERTO ANDRADE DIRAK Managing director, Warner Music Latina RUBEN ABRAHAM Senior vp of marketing and artist strategy, Warner Music Latina DELIA ORJUELA GM of Mexican music, Warner Music Latina MARCELA VACCARI Senior vp of commercial services, Warner Music Latina MARCELA MOREIRA Vp of marketing, Latin America, Warner Music Latin America Warner Music’s U.S. Latin distribution market share rose to 8.1% (as of Aug. 10), up from 5.6% a year earlier, according to Luminate. The numbers reflect big successes from young acts like Myke Towers, with his global No. 1 “LALA,” and Yng Lvcas, whose “La Bebé (Remix)” with Peso Pluma reached No. 2 on the Billboard Global 200. Through its Mexican music division based in Los Angeles, Warner signed such acts as…

AT HOUSTON’S NRG STADIUM on Aug. 29, Karol G invited a special guest to join her onstage: her international tour’s opening act, the Puerto Rican rapper Young Miko. Clad in a vibrant pink crop top and matching baggy pants, Young Miko took Karol by the hand as the two sang their collaborative hit, “Dispo,” moving in perfect harmony in an undulating perreo-style dance. Amid the ecstatic cheers of fans, it was Karol, not the newcomer, who betrayed a rare glimpse of nerves as she admitted, “Ahora soy yo la que me puse nerviosa!” (“Now it’s me who has gotten nervous!”) Miko’s meteoric rise from nascent local sensation to captivating performer capable of holding her own beside a global superstar is a testament to her undeniable talent. In just over…

The WK Entertainment founder and CEO wins the peer-voted honor For 2023, Billboard introduces the Latin Power Players Choice Award, a peer-voted accolade chosen by Billboard Pro members to honor the executive they believe has made the most impact across the Latin music business over the past year. After three rounds of voting, Billboard Pro members have chosen Walter Kolm, founder and CEO of WK Entertainment, to receive the inaugural award. Launched over a decade ago, WK Entertainment represents Latin heavyweights Maluma, Wisin, Carlos Vives, Prince Royce, Emilia and Ludmilla. Last year, Sony Music Entertainment Latin-Iberia acquired a stake in WK Records, which Kolm inaugurated in 2020 with distribution by The Orchard. The independent label has a roster that includes Alex Rose, Zabdiel de Jesús and Daaz and is…

AFTER MORE THAN A DECADE AWAY, VICO C RETURNED WITH NEW MUSIC — BUT THE SAME STRONG ETHOS To a casual fan, it may have looked like Latin hip-hop legend Vico C completely fell off the map for the past 14 years. But he never stopped writing songs during that time, even if he couldn’t release new music due to business-related legal issues. “Having faith that those issues would soon resolve, I just kept writing so that I would be prepared for when I could finally release something again,” says the 52-year-old artist, known as the Rap Philosopher. “I couldn’t visualize what that ‘comeback’ would be like, but I just knew that I couldn’t die without releasing new music ever again.” The socially conscious lyricist, born Luis Armando Lozada…

Before sharing his new music with the world, the Colombian singer-songwriter opens up — and takes the En Vivo concert series stage — during Latin Music Week OVER THE LAST TWO DECADES, Fonseca has been a force in the Latin music industry with tropi-pop and vallenato hits that have made listeners dance and fall in love. The Colombian singer-songwriter, who rose to stardom in 2005 with the hit “Te Mando Flores,” has navigated changing industry trends and an often fickle market with his piercing, pathos-filled tenor voice and iconic sound intact. In an exclusive Q&A during Latin Music Week, Fonseca will celebrate his 20-year career before closing the En Vivo concert series on Oct. 6. In no more than five words, describe your career. Heart, gratitude, obsession, connection and…

Although British indie rock band The Last Dinner Party scored a top 10 hit with its debut single, the five women that make up the group have been preparing for this moment for years. Just before beginning university in 2020, lead singer Abigail Morris, bassist Georgia Davies and vocalist/guitarist Lizzie Mayland crossed paths and became fast friends, bonding over musical interests. They soon recruited lead guitarist Emily Roberts and vocalist/keyboardist Aurora Nischevi, both of whom were involved in the local music circuit. The five began writing music together at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, though their first release wouldn’t come for nearly three years — but the wait paid off. “Nothing Matters,” the cinematic alt-rock debut single that arrived in April, has become a staple at adult alternative…