Awards
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Prince Royce and Gabito Ballesteros took center stage at the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards to perform “Cosas de la Peda,” their first collaborative effort, which took them to the top of Billboard‘s Tropical Airplay chart earlier this year. The track, a fusion of bachata and corridos tumbados, is part of Prince Royce’s album Llamada […]
“Cali Pachanguero,” the iconic Colombian dance track that this year turned 40 years old, got a new look and sound with a thrilling rendition during the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards. Celebrating the four decades of the song that took Colombian salsa to the world, its creators, Grupo Niche, performed a contemporary rendition that nevertheless retained much of its signature arrangements.
Dressed in elegant yellow suits, the 15-piece band performed a rousing version of “Cali Pachanguero,” its singers dancing up and down the stage as they improvised in a tight performance that got the audience at the Billboard Latin Music Awards on its feet.
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“Cali Pachanguero” was conceived and written by the late Jairo Varela, the founder and leader of Grupo Niche, while touring in New York City in 1984. The song speaks nostalgically about Cali, the Southwestern Colombian city nestled in a valley and known for its beautiful women and love of salsa music. With its recognizable trumpet/trombone brass foundation and its fast-paced beats, the song put Colombian salsa on the global map.
Although Varela died in 2012, his band has lived on with a mix of new and older members and is now in the midst of its biggest tour ever, following a Grammy and Latin Grammy win. At the Billboard Latin Music Awards, the group demonstrated that, regardless of the passage of time, good music has lasting power.
The Billboard Latin Music Awards recognize the impact of Latin music on the global scene, being the only awards based directly on the performance of albums, songs and artists on Billboard‘s weekly charts. This year, awards will be presented in 49 categories, spanning the genres of Latin pop, tropical, Latin rhythm and regional Mexican.
Finalists, and the eventual winners, reflect performance of new recordings on Billboard’s albums and songs charts for the period covering rankings dated Aug. 19, 2023 through the September 7, 2024 charts. Determinations are based on key fan interactions with music, including album and digital song sales, streaming, radio airplay and touring, tracked by Billboard and its data partner, Luminate.
Produced by Telemundo in collaboration with American Country Broadcast Inc., the awards can be seen on Telemundo, the Telemundo app, streaming service Peacock and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional.
This year, the list of finalists is led by Karol G, who has 17 mentions in key categories such as Artist of the Year, Tour of the Year, and Global 200 Latin Artist of the Year. Bad Bunny and Peso Pluma follow closely behind with 15 mentions each. Other notable finalists include Feid, with 11 mentions, and regional Mexican stars Fuerza Regida and Junior H, both with 8 mentions, including Artist of the Year. See the full list of finalists here.
Alejandro Sanz was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards that aired on Sunday (Oct. 20) via Telemundo.
“Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart to Billboard for the generosity of giving me this award, which means a lot to me,” Sanz, who was presented the award by Spanish pop artist Ana Mena, said during his acceptance speech.
“I want to dedicate it of course to you, the comrades who make music. There was a time when making music in Spanish was not so easy… I’m not saying that it isn’t easy now, but I’m saying that you should enjoy it a lot, that you should feel proud of what has been achieved here through many generations, through many different genres. All genres have their moment, their place, they are all wonderful and they are all unique like us, like people. So I want to dedicate it to you too, especially to the people who make this possible, the people who listen to all of us. To the general public, to the people who listen to music,” he continued.
The Spanish singer-songwriter also promoted his new single “Palmeras en el Jardín,” set to drop on Oct. 25 and part of his forthcoming album. “It’s one more reason to be happy. Music is what moves this heart that has been walking for so long. Long live music, long live life,” he noted.
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Earlier in the week, during his Icon Superstar Q&A at Billboard Latin Music Week, Sanz shared an exclusive sneak peak of his upcoming song.
“It’s a story of love and of wanting to change everything in your life so that someone feels comfortable,” he told Billboard’s Leila Cobo. “You thought you were doing a lot by planting palm trees but in the end it wasn’t enough and it turns out that you keep all the palm trees and she is left with her loneliness. That’s what the song is about.”
Past recipients of the Billboard Lifetime Achievement Award include Armando Manzanero, Intocable, José José, Los Ángeles Azules, Los Temerarios, Maná, Marco Antonio Solís, Miguel Bosé and Ricardo Arjona, among others.
Gloria Trevi and Maria Becerra unleashed a captivating showcase of female empowerment and a good dose of debauchery with their performance of “Borracha” at the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Awards on Sunday (Oct. 20). The potent single — a meld of regional Mexican music, pop and subtle trap beats — highlighted both artists’ unique strengths […]
Música popular colombiana — or “popular Colombian music” — made its debut with a big bang at the 2024 Billboard Latin Music awards with a performance by Luis Alfonso opening the show.
The Colombian star kicked off the awards with a boisterous rendition of his hit “Tequila Con Cerveza,” originally recorded with urban star Blessd, followed by current hit “Chismofilia.” Dressed in leather pants and boots, Luis Alfonso sported his signature cowboy hat and performed backed by both banda and norteño instrumentation.
The Mexican influence is clear in both look and arrangements, but Luis Alfonso’s “popular Colombian” sound was unmistakable in the colloquial lyrics and traditional Colombian vibe.
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Luis Alfonso’s “Chismofilia,” which has become a runaway hit in Colombia and is also rising in the U.S. charts (this week, it’s No. 19 on Billboard’s Latin Pop airplay chart), featured a troupe of country dancers doing the singer’s signature (and irresistible) head bop.
It was enough to get the audience on its feet and setting the tone for the evening.
Earlier in the week, Luis Alfonso spoke about música popular colombiana at a panel during Latin Music Week that also featured country-mates Paola Jara, Yeison Jiménez and Pipe Bueno.
“It’s an honor to represent my country, Colombia, but also the heritage of popular Colombian music,” said Luis Alfonso in an interview.
The Billboard Latin Music Awards recognize the impact of Latin music on the global scene, being the only awards based directly on the performance of albums, songs and artists on Billboard’s weekly charts. This year, awards will be presented in 49 categories, spanning the genres of Latin pop, tropical, Latin rhythm and regional Mexican.
Finalists, and the eventual winners, reflect performance of new recordings on Billboard’s albums and songs charts for the period covering rankings dated Aug. 19, 2023 through the Sept. 7, 2024, charts. Determinations are based on key fan interactions with music, including album and digital song sales, streaming, radio airplay and touring, tracked by Billboard and its data partner, Luminate.
Produced by Telemundo in collaboration with American Country Broadcast Inc., the awards can be seen on Telemundo, the Telemundo app, streaming service Peacock and in Latin America and the Caribbean through Telemundo Internacional.
This year, the list of finalists is led by Karol G, who has 17 mentions in key categories such as Artist of the Year, Tour of the Year, and Global 200 Latin Artist of the Year. Bad Bunny and Peso Pluma follow closely behind with 15 mentions each. Other notable finalists include Feid, with 11 mentions, and regional Mexican stars Fuerza Regida and Junior H, both with 8 mentions, including Artist of the Year. See the full list of finalists here.
The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony in Cleveland on Saturday (Oct. 19) meant a lot to everyone involved, of course. But you can consider Peter Frampton among, if not the most, delighted people in the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Long considered one of the Rock Hall’s great snubs, Frampton’s induction was particularly poignant in light of his nearly decade-long battle with Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM), a degenerative condition that was expected to take him out of commission shortly after he revealed it six years ago and went on what was supposed to be a farewell tour. Yet he’s still playing — including at the induction ceremony, joined by his band and guest Keith Urban — and was beaming after his time on stage at Cleveland’s Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
“It was fantastic,” Frampton told Billboard. “It went better than I thought, which was wonderful.” He did note, however, that “halfway through the speech, as I looked down at my family… I needed a drink of water at that point. It can be a tear-jerker. It’s very emotional having everybody here. All my children are never all here together at a show. There’s always one here, one there or whatever. So it was wonderful.”
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Given, like other inductees, just seven minutes of performance time, Frampton originally planned a shortened version of his signature hit “Do You Feel Like We Do,” a song — featuring a Talk Box solo — that can stretch to 20 minutes during his concerts. “That’s the one everybody wants to hear,” Frampton noted, “so we edited that down, and that includes jamming with Keith as well. But then (show producers) said, ‘We feel really bad you’re doing just one number.’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve got the same amount of time as everyone else.’ They said, well, can you do another one for two minutes?’” For the “bonus cut” he chose “Baby (Somethin’s Happening)” from his third solo album, Somethin’s Happening, which turned 60 this year.
“The actual playing part, which I was most concerned about, obviously, because I’m the stupid perfectionist person and I worry about every little tiny detail… it just had to be great. That’s what made me nervous,” Frampton explained. “Or excited. Keith said, ‘Don’t say nervous. Say excited.’”
Urban, for his part, was excited to jam out with Frampton, even in an abbreviated fashion, on “Do You Feel Like We Do.” “When he called and asked me if I’d play that song, of all songs, I was very happy to get to do it,” Urban, who subbed for Bryan Adams at the 2021 Rock Hall inductions in Cleveland, told Billboard after the performance. “It was amazing getting to play with Peter. He’s just got such a control over sensitivity and dynamics and intents. He makes to look easy, but it’s really hard to do what he does. He’s like a black diamond (trail) skier making it look like a green. It’s insane.”
Peter Frampton performs onstage at the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on October 19, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio.
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Frampton and Urban spoke of their Nashville history, meeting up during the ’90s after they’d both moved there and before Urban’s career took full flight. “I was living in an absolutely awful, crap house in a pretty gloomy part of town at the time,” Urban recalled, “and my manager called and said, ‘Hey, do you want to write with Peter Frampton? I’m like, ‘Holy s—, yeah! Where are we gonna write.’ He goes, ‘He’s gonna come to your house.’ I Go, ‘No, no, no. He’s not gonna come to my house. But sure enough he came over to my dwelling and we spent the day just playing music and writing.” Nothing came out of the session, however. “It was one of those strange, mismatched moments, musically. I wasn’t in a good headspace. I don’t think either of us was in the best place we’ve been in — but I was glad we got a good, solid friendship out of it.”
Another friend on hand Saturday was the Who’s Roger Daltrey, who delivered the induction speech for Frampton, who had opened for the Who on his first tour with his band the Herd. Daltrey also led the humorous revelry in the press room after the induction, joking that the original tour was “the pinnacle of your (Frampton’s) decline. No wonder you joined up with [Humble Pie], because you needed to be there. You were gonna be forever stuck in the Who — if being in the Who is forever stuck.”
Daltrey also gushed about hearing Frampton and Urban playing together at the ceremony.“It was fabulous to hear the sound of real guitars instead of all the fuzz box s— that they put out these days, detuned…,” Daltrey noted. “It’s not rock ‘n’ roll. It’s not music… and it was wonderful to hear Peter’s guitar sound and Keith and the band work together, and the sensitivity in (Frampton’s) voice… Your secret is everything you do comes from the heart and it’s always been that way and it’s always affected me… And I mean it! I’m not blowing smoke up your ass, or blowing it on the way down. I really do mean it.”
Frampton, who partied after the ceremony with family and friends back at the Four Seasons hotel, recently finished a short late summer concert tour and said he’s hoping to go out again next year. In the meantime he’s working on completing both an album of all-new songs as well as a documentary that’s being directed by his keyboardist Rob Arthur.
Despite the ebullient induction, the Foreigner camp was roundly sad not to have founder Mick Jones, who’s battling with Parkinson’s disease, in attendance. “We wish he was here, but we understand why he isn’t,” longtime bassist Rick Wills said. “He’s a very sick person right now, and he would be here if he could but he doesn’t want to be seen the way he is now. That’s not Mick. It’s just not his way. But he knows that we’re thinking of him, and we send all our love to him.” Original frontman Lou Gramm added, “And we’re representing him.”
Members of the group’s current lineup felt the same way. “To me it’s very tragic,” says Jeff Pilson, Foreigner’s bassist since 2007. “It really breaks my heart that he’s not here because this is his baby; we want to make sure that what we do is really right. I want to do that for him ’cause I love him dearly and I love his legacy and I love what he’s all about, so I want to make sure that he’s happy. So that’s what we’re doing and, yes, (Jones’ absence) does motivate us.”
Two of Jones’ children — actress daughter Annabelle and son Christopher — were in attendance on Saturday while the others were with their father at home, watching the stream on Disney+. “He was sad he couldn’t be here but was excited to watch on TV with our brother Alexander and our two sisters Charlotte and Samantha,” Christopher says. “They have balloons and everything. They’re doing a whole party.”
The two called the all-star performances “mind-blowing,” while Annabelle added, “I think it means the world to him. It’s a very kind of singular honor and recognition, and it means a lot to us. We’re extremely proud of him and really sad he can’t be here.”
Gramm, meanwhile, was less supportive of original drummer Dennis Elliott’s last-minute decision to skip the ceremony due to what he called “totally unacceptable” conditions — including, according to sources, the fact that band members’ wives were not permitted to join them on the small red carpet in the bowels of the arena. “He emailed us very angry, saying he and his wife wouldn’t be there and something, something, something and that’s it,” Gramm noted. “He’s real angry about something and we can’t figure out what it is, but he’s not coming. You’d think there’d be solidarity within the band, but not Dennis.”
For nearly 40 years, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has made it a tradition to gather together a batch of the biggest stars in the world and invite them to join the ranks of some of the greatest performers who have ever lived. On Saturday night (Oct. 19), that tradition continued with the […]
Sarcastically noting that answering questions is “my favorite thing to do,” Cher answered a few from the press backstage at the 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday (Oct. 19).
After taking the Rock Hall to task during her speech for waiting 35 years to induct her after she became eligible, Cher acknowledges that, “I have a kind love hate relationship [with the Rock Hall], because I thought, ‘What do I have to f–king do , y’know, to be inducted into this place? What do you have to do to be a part of it?’”
Though tempted to tell David Geffen, who she said wrote a letter to the Hall of Fame Foundation on her behalf, to “please take it back,” Cher said that in the end she was happy with the way things turned out. “I felt good. I can say that I’m happy that I’m in,” she says. “If I didn’t [think] it, I wouldn’t be here.”
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Reflecting on a 60-year career dating back to work with her late ex-husband Sonny Bono and sessions with Phil Spector’s Wrecking Crew, the singer said that she struggles with thoughts of legacy. “I [didn’t] have perspective, exactly — I just was busy living my life, so I wasn’t like thinking about it at all,” she says. “I was thinking about it from minute to minute, thing to thing. I thought of myself as a bumper car and when I hit a road I would just back up and turn in a different direction, because I wasn’t going to stop doing what I loved.”
And what about Sonny & Cher making it to the Rock Hall one day? “I think that we deserve it, ” Cher tells Billboard. “Even if we weren’t exactly rock ‘n roll, we represented music. I know it’s not like … we were corny, but we were very avant garde for what was happening at the time, so, I don’t know. I didn’t expect to get in. I just thought, ‘They’re never gonna let you in, b–ch.’”
During her speech, Cher made sure to send a message to all of the women watching around the world: “The one thing I have never done, is I never give up,” she explained. “And I am talking to the women, okay … we have been down and out, but we keep striving, and we keep going and we are somebody. We are special.”
With her induction into the annals of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday night (Oct. 19), Cher made sure to set expectations early on: “This speech is gonna be such a crapshoot — I wrote it the other day, and then I rewrote it tonight, and I’m dyslexic,” she declared.
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A crapshoot it was not — across her presentation at the annual ceremony, Cher stunned the crowd at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse with renditions of “If I Could Turn Back Time” and “Believe” — the latter featuring special guest Dua Lipa — before cedeing the stage to Zendaya, who introduced her idol with aplomb. “Where do I even begin?” the actress said, dressed in an outfit inspired by one of Cher’s many Bob Mackie looks. “There is not one person in this room, in this country, and pretty much in this world who doesn’t know the name of the artist I am here to honor tonight. She’s so iconic, she only needs one name.”
In a video tribute, stars appeared to pay tribute to Cher, including Cyndi Lauper, Shania Twain and P!nk, with the latter making it abundantly clear that the mononymous singer was a “f–king rockstar.”
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But once into her speech, Cher made it clear that her induction was never guaranteed: “It was easier getting divorced from two men than it was getting into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” she cracked. “I want to thank my guardian David Geffen, because he wrote a letter and sent it to the directors, and now, ha ha, here I am!”
While the singer made sure to occasionally make fun of herself (“I’m a good singer, not a great singer,” she cracked), she didn’t shy away from acknowledging her impact throughout her decades-spanning career. In one particular highlight, the star looked back on how her biggest songs nearly didn’t happen.
“[With] ‘Believe,’ I changed the sound of music forever, and it was an accident. My producer and I were having a fight, with my producer saying, ‘Cher, do it better,’” she recalled. “I said, ‘Dude, if you want it better, get a different singer.’ He called me later and said, ‘Cher, I’ve been playing around with the pitch machine, and I think I’ve got something.’ I went back and listened to it, and when it was over, we both jumped up and high-fived each other. And then the head of my record company said ‘we can’t do that because no one will know it was you.’ And I said, ‘Yes, that’s the deal! That’s the great part!’”
Cher also recalled the advice that she had been given by her mother from a young age that guided her career to where it is today. “She said to me, ‘You might not be the prettiest, you might not be the smartest, you might not be the most talented, but you’re special,’” she said. “She kept instilling it into me: ‘If you’re down and you’re out, you get up again.’”
Smiling at the crowd, Cher made sure that the women in the audience had heard her. “The one thing I have never done, is I never give up. And I am talking to the women, okay — you guys are on your own,” she offered with a smirk. “We have been down and out, but we keep striving, and we keep going and we are somebody. We are special, as my mother would say.”
Cher was just one of the icons honored at Saturday night’s event — fellow inductees included Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne, Kool & the Gang, A Tribe Called Quest, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner and Peter Frampton.