From career milestones to new music releases to major announcements and those little important moments, Billboard editors highlight uplifting moments in Latin music. Here’s what happened in the Latin music world this week.
RBD’s songs get the regional Mexican treatment
RBD’s “Nuestro Amor” in banda? Yes, please. A number of regional Mexican artists, including Calibre 50, Chiquis, Banda Carnaval, Banda Los Sebastianes de Saúl Plata, Los Socios del Ritmo, among others, have teamed up for Somos Rebeldes, a 15 songs-set, via Universal Music Group México, that pays tribute to the Latin pop band, which recently wrapped their epic reunion tour in the U.S. The LP drops ahead of RBD’s upcoming tour in Latin America, including shows in Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. Below, steam Somos Rebeldes, which includes reimagined versions of “Sólo Quédate en Silencio,” “Qué Hay Detrás” and “Sálvame.”
University of Miami’s new Knight Center for Music Innovation
Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Ben Folds and Jon Secada were among the stars in attendance for the opening of the Knight Center for Music Innovation at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music Nov. 2. The cutting-edge, $36.5 million, 25,000 square foot music and technology center includes two performance spaces: the 200-seat Robert and Judi Prokop Newman Recital Hall, and the Thomas D. Hormel Music Innovation Stage, a versatile innovation space equipped with advanced recording, lighting, and broadcast technology. Performances in both spaces can also be seen via a state-of-the-art technology Windowcast system that broadcasts live in the surrounding plaza. Thursday night’s gala featured performances by Frost School alumni Jon Secada, Dawnn Lewis, and Lee Levin, among others. The gala was hosted by University of Miami Board of Trustees Chair Laurie Silvers, University of Miami President Julio Frenk, and Frost School of Music Dean Shelton G. Berg.
Gloria Estefan and Emilio Estefan arrive at the Frost School of Music’s Knight Center for Music Innovation Inauguration Gala at the University of Miami on November 2, 2023 in Coral Gables, Florida.
Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images for Frost School of Music at The University of Miami
Bésame Mucho in Texas
After launching the first edition of Bésame Mucho in Los Angeles last year, the festival is expanding and holding its first Bésame Mucho festival in Austin, Texas on March 2. Following the concept showcased in Los Angeles in December, the one-day event will feature an array of artists different genres, including rock, pop and música mexicana. The lineup includes headliners Los Tigres del Norte, Grupo Frontera, Caifanes, Cafe Tacvba, Gloria Trevi and Alejandra Guzmán. Others set to perform include Banda MS, El Tri and Belinda. The second Bésame Mucho festival in Los Angeles is still set to take place Dec. 2 at Dodger Stadium with headliners Maná, Los Bukis and Reik.
Alejandro Sanz to donate to those impacted by Hurricane Otis
Spanish superstar Alejandro Sanz announced donations to benefit the victims of the devastating hurricane Otis in the beach resort of Acapulco and the Costa Grande region of Guerrero, in southern Mexico. Sanz said he will donate 800,000 Mexican pesos (about $45,540) to those affected by the powerful category 5 hurricane that hit Mexico’s Pacific coast on Oct. 25, his representative agency in Mexico, Ocesa Seitrack, said Wednesday (Nov. 1). The money will come from tickets sold at his recent concerts in the Mexican cities of Tijuana, Hermosillo, Culiacán and León, part of his Sanz En Vivo tour.
Laura Pausini talks Person of the Year
In a candid interview with Billboard Español, Italian singer-songwriter Laura Pausini shared how she’s feeling just a few days out from being honored as the Latin Recording Academy’s 2023 Person of the Year. She will become the first artist born outside of Latin America or Spain to receive the accolade. On Nov. 15, on the eve of the 24th edition of the Latin Grammys — which for the first time leave the United States to take place in Seville, Spain — Pausini will be celebrated at a gala. “For 30 years I always say that I am the most Mexican, most Argentinian, most Spanish Italian… because I have grown up spending many days of my life with you,” Pausini said. “Maybe not my blood, but my soul, my ideas, my ideals, I have made them grow with yours, and I feel Latin.”
Read her interview here.