Bad Bunny
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Massive overselling of tickets for the last two concerts of Bad Bunnyâs Worldâs Hottest Tour in Mexico City this weekend led to hundred of people being denied entry to the superstarâs shows and will have million-dollar consequences for Ticketmaster Mexico, according to Mexican authorities.Â
The head of Mexicoâs Federal Attorneyâs Office for Consumers (PROFECO), Ricardo Sheffield, told the Televisa network on Sunday that those affected must receive a 100% refund plus a 20% compensation, and that the company will also be fined.Â
In a statement, Ticketmaster MĂŠxico acknowledged on Saturday that âthe access problems were the result of the presentation of an unprecedented number of counterfeit tickets, which caused an unusual crowd of people and an intermittent operation of our systemâ which âgenerated confusion and made entrance to the stadium complicated, with the unfortunate consequence that some legitimate tickets were denied entry.â
Sheffield confirmed the ticketing problem for the Puerto Rican super starâs shows was triggered by an âoversaleâ of tickets. A total of 1,600 faulty tickets were reported for the first concert Dec. 9, and 110 for the second on Dec. 10. Both shows were at Estadio Azteca. Organizers said some 80,000 people attended each night.
âThe difference between those defrauded in the first and second concert is proof of it. 1,600 tickets in the first concert⌠and 110 in the secondâ, Sheffield explained on TV program Aguila o sol.Â
The fine for Ticketmaster MĂŠxico could amount to up to 10% of that companyâs total sales in 2021, the official said.Â
âTicketmaster claimed they were counterfeit, but they were all issued by them,â Sheffield said in an interview on Saturday with Radio FĂłrmula. Â
According to the Mexican official, in its investigation, PROFECO determined that many tickets claimed as false were indeed legitimate and had been purchased through legitimate channels.Â
Those affected are also preparing a class action suit against the company. PROFECO opened an investigation and invited those who had irregularities with their tickets for Bad Bunny and other major events to file a complaint.Â
âAs we are a fiscal authority, if they donât want to pay of their own will, we will seize their accounts then, and they will pay because they have to,â said Sheffield.Â
The ticket issue delayed Bad Bunnyâs show on Friday for almost an hour, while a crowd of hundreds outside Estadio Azteca demanded an explanation. Some people climbed through the main gate of the compound in an attempt to gain entry but were stopped by law enforcement. On Saturday, PROFECO announced plans to assist those affected.Â
Billboard EspaĂąol reached out to both Ocesa and Ticketmaster Mexico for comment on Friday and Monday, but had not received a reply by press time. On Saturday, Ocesa sent Billboard the press release issued from Ticketmaster Mexico about what had happened at Estadio Atzeca the night before. Last year, Live Nation acquired 51% of the operations of the Mexican company Ocesa and Ticketmaster MĂŠxico.Â
Cancellations or duplications of tickets for concerts operated by Ticketmaster MĂŠxico and concert promoter Ocesa have increased in recent months for massive concerts, including those of Daddy Yankee, Harry Styles and Dua Lipa, according to complaints from users of the popular ticket sales platform.Â
The situation in Mexico comes after fans of pop star Taylor Swift collectively sued Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation in the United States for the chaotic ticket sales of her The Eras Tour. Thousands of the singerâs followers were unable to get tickets for her concerts.Â
MEXICO CITY â For some fans, going to Bad Bunnyâs Estadio Azteca show Friday night in Mexico City was a dream come true. But for others, it turned into a nightmare after they became victims of a scam, with Ticketmaster Mexico canceling their tickets at the entrance to the show saying they were fake and a throng of angry fans at the door demanding to go inside.
Dozens of people who had arrived hours and some days earlier â coming from different places in Mexico and the U.S. â were not able to get inside Bunnyâs fist night in Mexico City, which also marks the end of his tour.
Valeria Carrillo, a young fan who came from the seaside town of Isla Mujeres and said she had paid over 9.000 Mexican pesos (some $455), was one of the unlucky ones. She stood in line since early in the morning to be one of the first to get inside the stadium. She couldnât.
âI didnât come all the way from Isla Mujeres to have this happen to me!â she told Billboard EspaĂąol, in tears. Â
Some desperate fans climbed over the main gates of the stadium trying to get inside but were blocked by security.
In a press release posted Saturday, Ticketmaster Mexico admitted that âthe issues with access were the result of an unprecedented number of fake tickets, which led to a not normal agglomeration of people and an intermittent operation of our system.
âThe above generated confusion and complicated the entrance to the stadium, with the unfortunate consequence that people with legitimate tickets were denied access,â added the release.
Mexicoâs Federal Attorney for the Mexican Consumer (PROFECO) said it had opened an investigation and asked those who had been affected to present their complaint on a website provided by the institution. By Friday evening, PROFECO said in the same release that only seven people had submitted complaints, but more were expected.
On its end, Ticketmaster said it would refund ticket-holders who hadnât been able to get into the venue and would also provide additional compensation of âno less than 20% of the price paid for the ticket, in accordance with the terms of article 92 Bis of the Federal Law of Consumer Protection, which states that right when a service is deficient or is not rendered.â
Issues with tickets delayed the show for nearly 60 minutes. Originally scheduled for 9 p.m., it started at 10 p.m. But once the lights went out, it was party time. Benito Ocasio MartĂnez took the stage in front of 85,000 attendees, with a slew of special guests that included Bomba EstĂŠreo for âOjitos Lindos,â Chencho Corleone for âMe Porto Bonito,â Mora for âUna vezâ and Jowell & Randy, with whom he sang âSafaera.â Bunny finally brought up his friend and fellow hitmaker Jhayco for âTarot.â
One of the highlights of the evening came when the Puerto Rican star paid homage to the late Mexican music idol Juan Gabriel by sampling his hit âQuerida,â and later, when performing âYo No Me Visto AsĂ,â which also references âQueridaâ and Juan Gabriel in its lyrics.
For Bunnyâs second Mexico City show on Saturday, PROFECO had personnel at the entrance to the stadium beginning early in the afternoon, and there were reports on social media of fans with fake tickets being turned away.
Few things faze Noah Assad, Bad Bunnyâs manager. But even he admits that launching a stadium tour barely three months after an arena tour was a bit daunting.
âWe knew it was going to be a learning experience and something none of us had done before,â Assad says now, âbut we went for it and worked through it with the help of old and new partners and set new industry standards.â
Bad Bunny ends the year as the top touring act of 2022, grossing $373.5 million from 1.8 million tickets across 65 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore, and that number doesnât even include his last 20 Latin American stadium shows. This makes Bunny â born Benito Martinez Ocasio â the first act who doesnât perform in English to ever top the year-end tally.
Worldâs Hottest Tour broke venue revenue records in 12 of the 15 U.S. markets that it hit, including Chicago and Washington, D.C., and New York, where he played Yankee Stadium. All told, the North American leg of tour averaged $11.1 million per show â the biggest per-show average gross by any artist in any genre in Boxscore history (dating back to the late 1980s).
Bunny also became the only artist to ever launch separate tours each topping $100 million in the same calendar year. His stadium tour launched after he played his 35-date El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo, an arena tour that earned $116.8 million from 35 shows.
So, how did an artist who only records in Spanish, who is signed to an independent label and has only been five years in the market achieve this feat? To find out, Billboard spoke with agents, promoters and producers to piece together the ingredients of Bunnyâs spectacular touring success.
The seeds for Worldâs Hottest Tour, which ends with sold out shows Friday (Dec. 9) and Saturday (Dec. 10) at Mexico cityâs Estadio Azteca, were sown April 15, 2021, when tickets went on sale for Bunnyâs April 2022 arena tour. The tour sold out in a matter of hours, says Jbeau Lewis, one of Bunnyâs agents at UTA, with some 200,000 to 300,000 people in virtual queue in individual arenas trying to score tickets, and it became clear how much demand there was for Bad Bunny concerts.
âI remember vividly Noah having a discussion that day and saying, âWe have to hold some stadiums for next year.â We saw the unprecedented demand for [2022 arena tour] Ultimo Tour del Mundo,â says Lewis. âAnd knowing that tour was going to be nine months away and that Benito had plans to release more music, the only way to provide enough supply to alleviate the demand was to move to bigger venues. And thatâs when we started working on it.â
Last year Assad signed on with Henry Cardenas of Cardenas Marketing Network (CMN), Bunnyâs longtime promoter who was already doing his arena tour whoâd been booking him since he played 1,000-people club shows back in 2017 and 2018 in cites like New York and Miami. Cardenas brought in Live Nation, which has vast experience with stadiums, as his partners in the U.S.
In the U.S., the biggest challenge was not the prospect of selling out stadiums; Lewis felt very confident that wouldnât be an issue if they stuck to those markets where Bunny had strongest demand. Scheduling was the problem, given that the tour was being booked just 15-16 months in advance, and MLB and NFL teams already had dates locked down. Assad and Bunny were also adamant that he not play more than two dates per city, so fans wouldnât think that one market was preferred over another.
In the end, they settled on 15 U.S. cities and tickets went on sale before the tour design even was finalized, something tour producer Roly Garbalosa says is unusual. âNormally for a tour this big, you design, then look for the markets. Not here. Here we just went.â
Bad Bunny hit road Aug. 5 with a massive production hauling his massive âbeach,â palm trees, LED screens and of course, the contraptions needed for his flying stunt, where he gets on top of a small island with a palm tree and soars over the crowd, singing all the way. While a typical tour will take about 20 cargo trucks, Bunny traveled with up to 36, carrying 100 tons of equipment. While CMN and Live Nation promoted the entire U.S. trek of the tour, in Latin America CMN took over seven concerts. The others went to independent promoters Assad has long worked with in the past, including Bizarro in Chile, Westwood Entertainment in Mexico and Dale Play in Argentina.
âNoah has a code of honor,â says Fede Lauria, the founder of Dale Play, who promoted Bunnyâs two shows at Velez Sarsfield Stadium in Buenos Aires. âI promoted Benitoâs first tour here in Luna Park in 2016. This time, itâs been the biggest production Iâve ever done. We sold 90,000 tickets, but I would have sold 900,000. We sold out in half an hour. I had over a million people in virtual line trying to buy tickets.â
For Latin America, Bunny again insisted on his no more than two shows per city rule. He also insisted that his show had to be exactly the same as what his fans saw in the U.S. This is easier said than done. Usually, promoters will pay artists their guarantee plus the cost of local production. But Bunny couldnât rely on local production for such a technically complicated show. Many countries and venues simply donât have the equipment necessary to replicated what can be done in state-of-the-art stadiums in the U.S. And many local promoters canât afford to pay the costs of importing production and still break even, especially in countries that are suffering from massive devaluation. So, instead of modifying the show to meet local production standards, âHe took all his equipment, put it inside a 747 jet, and took it with him,â CĂĄrdenas says. âAnd he paid for that.â
Even then, says Garbalosa, adjustments were required. Bunnyâs flying stunt in the U.S. is done commonly by hitching the equipment to the lights and towers. Because many stadiums in Latin America donât have that capability, âWe had to rent cranes and place them outside the stadium,â says Garbalosa.
Bunny traveled through Latin America with the 747 cargo jet for his more than 100 tons of equipment; a passenger jet for his 130-plus crew and personnel and a private jet for himself and his immediate five-to-six-person team. And he paid those costs.
âNo other artist does that,â says CĂĄrdenas.â I will say it in plain English: Heâs the only artist who invests that kind of money in his production in Latin America.â
What that decision translates to is less money for the artist. Shows in the U.S. make more because ticket prices are higher and the cost of production, in this case, can be far less.
âBut he said, my fans deserve the same show,â CĂĄrdenas says. âIt will pay off in the future.â
In some ways, you could say itâs already paying off.
âIâve been doing this for 30 years,â adds Garbalosa, the production manager. âIâve never worked with an artist that creates this kind of frenzy.â
Bad Bunny talks to our Chief Content Officer of Latin Leila Cobo about his current tour, Worldâs Hottest Tour, his favorite places to tour, how he approaches collaborations, when he wants to take a break from his career, reflects on his journey to the top and more!
Attention Bad Bunny fans!
The worldâs biggest music star and Billboardâs 2022 Artist of the Year has been touring stadiums around the globe, and we tagged along to some of his favorite destinations, getting personal with him offstage after his historic concerts in Buenos Aires and New York for the cover story of our annual No. 1s issue, and for the December cover of Billboard EspaĂąol.
But hereâs the big news: We saved some of our best photography and most personal conversation for Bunnyâs devoted followers, and weâre only making it available in a special 44-page printed keepsake zine that includes two exclusive covers â one in English, one in Spanish â plus canât-miss content in both languages throughout.
The Billboard Collectorâs Edition Zine Featuring Bad Bunny includes 24 stunning photographs â 21 of which you canât find online â plus other superfan-only goodies you wonât get elsewhere, like the definitive list of historical records Bunny broke in 2022, a guide to the most exciting up-and-coming artists Bunny is making famous, and candid quotes that reveal how Benito really feels about family, staying humble and the signature stunt heâs still scared to perform at his own shows.
Billboard
Billboard Collectorâs Edition Zine Feat. Bad Bunny $35
If you want to own a piece of music history, nowâs your chance. Order the Billboard Collectorâs Edition Zine Featuring Bad Bunny today. The product is available for a limited time only and will ship worldwide the week of Feb. 6, 2023.
The Puerto Rican superstar rules Billboardâs year-end Top Artists chart for the first time, and his blockbuster release Un Verano Sin Ti is the year-end No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums recap. Itâs the first time that an act who primarily records in Spanish is the yearâs top artist and that a mostly non-English-language set is the biggest album of the year.
This story is part of Billboardâs The Year in Touring package â read more stories about the top acts, tours and venues of 2022 here.
At some point during Daddy Yankeeâs ongoing La Ultima Vuelta tour, which kicked off this summer, publicist Mayna Nevarez looked around and took stock of what was happening around her.
âI was with him at sold out arenas in Seattle, Denver, Sacramento and, I swear, it brought tears to my eyes,â says Nevarez, who owns Nevarez PR in Miami and has been Yankeeâs publicist for over 15 years. âFor so long it was cities like Miami, Los Angeles, New York â big Latin hubs â and we forget that the United States is so much more than that.â
Daddy Yankee is no stranger to big tours; in 2007, for example, he played 17 U.S. shows, and in 2019, he played a fabled 12 sold-out dates at Puerto Ricoâs Coliseo de Puerto Rico. But La Ultima Vuelta (The Last Tour) has been his biggest trek by far, selling over 1.1 million tickets for a $125.3 million in gross ticket sales during the tracking period, from Nov. 1, 2021-Oct. 31, 2022, landing him at No. 13 on Billboardâs Top Tours tally.
Yankeeâs numbers point to Latin musicâs potential for big touring success beyond Bad Bunny and beyond the cities that were long considered Latino strongholds. In 2022, Latin artists of all sizes and genres filled arenas, theaters and festivals, underscoring the huge potential and growing presence of Latin music across the country.
The fray, of course, is led by Bad Bunny, who tops this yearâs Top Tours chart with a $373.5 million gross across 65 shows in arenas and stadiums with a combined attendance of nearly 2 million. Bunnyâs Worldâs Hottest Tour broke venue revenue records in 12 of the 15 U.S. markets that it played, including Yankee Stadium, Chicago and Washington, D.C. The North American leg of tour averaged $11.1 million per show â the biggest per-show average gross by any artist in any genre in Boxscore history (dating back to the late 1980s).
At this moment in time at least, Bad Bunny is âa unicorn,â says Henry Cardenas, de CEO of CMN, which promoted Bunnyâs U.S. tour in partnership with Live Nation. âNo one does what he does.â But at a touring level, âWhat Bad Bunny really did is take Latin music to industry execs who arenât Latin, and make them realize there was a viable market,â says Nelson Albareda, founder and CEO of marketing and promotion company Loud and Live.
Loud and Live, which is owned by Albareda, is a prime example of Latinâs growth in touring. The entertainment, marketing and promotion company was launched four years ago and in 2019, pre-pandemic, produced around 50 shows. This year, it came in at No. 14 on the Top Promoters chart, with $96.5 million in gross ticket sales for 386 shows.
âOverall, touring is definitely stronger, and shows are doing better, including in emerging markets like Seattle, Salt Lake City,â says Albareda. âSecondary markets are here to stay and itâs not just the A acts. Itâs not a fluke. I think youâll see the Kansas City, Minneapolis, Nashville, Raleigh, Salt Lakes also do well. The Latino population is now much greater and definitely theyâre in every city.â
This allows for vertical growth that may not be always visible on the touring charts. Loud and Liveâs roster, for example, includes touring stalwarts like Ricardo Arjona, who ends the year at No. 63 on the Top Tours list ($31.5 million gross on 32 shows), but it also includes rising star Camilo, who just fell short of the Top 100, grossing $11.4 million and selling 149,000 tickets in 28 shows.
Tours by smaller acts, says Jorge Juarez, co-founder of management and promotion company Westwood Entertainment, can still yield impressive margins. Rising Mexican rapper Santa Fe Klan, for example, played 23 markets on his first U.S. tour, selling some 7,000 tickets per market at an average $100 ticket price, per Juarez. And regional Mexican acts have seen a surge in ticket sales as well.
âThereâs been a general tendency of growth here for the last two years. Certainly, a lot of factors post-pandemic that gave a surge, but we were already on a trend of growth,â says Hans Schafer, senior vp of Latin touring for Live Nation. âIt was inevitable that we would reach this point one way or the other [âŚ] The sort of evolution that weâre seeing in different genres within Latin is all adding to that. More music, more new artists. Better production at all levels. Connectivity with multigenerational fans.â
On top of that, the growth of the U.S. Latino population and its middle class cannot be discounted as a factor in the overall growth of touring and consumption. According to Nielsenâs âThe Evolving Hispanic Consumerâ study from 2021, in the next 40 years Latinos will contribute more growth than any other U.S. population segment, contributing 53% of population growth in the next five years and 58% of the growth to 2060. In terms of buying power, from 2010 to 2019, Hispanic buying power increased by 69%, outpacing non Hispanics (41%).
According to a Pew Research Center Statistical Portrait of Hispanics published in July 2022, Latino demographics have grown âin just about every corner of the nation. While California, Texas and Florida hold about half of the U.S. Latino population, the fastest growth rates are in states like North Dakota (up 148% between 2010 and 2020) and South Dakota (up 75% over the same period).â
The growth has profound impact at many levels. In the last decade, for example, Latinos became the largest racial or ethnic group in California for the first time, a fact that explains why cities like Sacramento and San JosĂŠ are now major touring destinations for Latin artists of all stripes.
The direct result of a Latin population with acquisition power can be seen at the new SoFi Stadium, which opened in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic and hosted its first full stadium shows with Los Bukis, the romantic Mexican group that had its heyday in the 1990s, on Aug. 27 and 28, 2021. The stadium also hosted two nights of Bad Bunny this last September.
âThe way we position ourselves is, weâre in Los Angeles, weâre in Inglewood, weâre 50% Latino,â says Adolfo Romero vp of programming for SoFi Stadium, Hollywood Park and YouTube Theater, which has held sold out shows by the likes of RosalĂa and Mexican rockers Caifanes this year. âWe looked at many different artists [for SoFi opening night] and when we saw this opportunity with Los Bukis, we were very aggressive. I think it kind of opened the eyes to the industry to see that Latin acts could do stadiums. That led us to do two nights of Grupo Firme in 2022, and now we have two nights of Bad Bunny.â
Romero says that when he booked Los Bukis for what would be their first-ever U.S. stadiums, the prospect of selling over 70,000 tickets for a Mexican nostalgia act didnât make him loose sleep. âI come from [major league] soccer. If we can sell 70,000 plus for soccer here, whatâs the difference?â he says. âItâs the same demographic. We have disposable income. A lot of our community was working in the service industry. Now, many of their kids are college grads.â
This story is part of Billboardâs The Year in Touring package â read more stories about the top acts, tours and venues of 2022 here.
The touring industryâs comeback from the pandemic brought record revenues and ticket sales for the worldâs largest promoter, Live Nation, No. 1 on Billboardâs year-end Top Promoters ranking.
Driven by mega tours by Bad Bunny (who had the highest grossing tour of the year), the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Weeknd, Live Nation grossed $4.19 billion and sold 42.3 million tickets from 4,789 in the 2022 tracking period, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore covering a Nov. 1, 2021 â Oct. 31, 2022, collection period.
Live Nationâs reported gross was more than the combined $3.9 billion reported by the promoters ranked from Nos. 2-10.
While Live Nation benefitted from strong demand for arena shows, Cowen and Company analyst Stephen Glagola says Live Nationâs global distribution scale, customizable platform for event managers and its ability to finance artists add to their competitive edge.
âThe $9 billion in artistsâ fees paid this year is one of their biggest advantages,â Glagola tells Billboard, referencing money Live Nation collects through ticketing and other business areas that it returns to the artist.
As a promoter, Live Nation also gives artists financial guarantees as much as 10 months in advance of events. While that makes Live Nation vulnerable to sharp declines in attendance due to sudden events like a COVID-19 outbreak, it is also a persuasive tool to lock in the biggest artistsâ tours.
Live Nation had three of the top 10-highest grossing tours of 2022: Bad Bunny was No. 1, grossing $373.5 million; Red Hot Chili Peppers were No. 6, grossing $177 million; and The Weeknd was No. 10, with $131.1 million.
While promotion is considered a low-margin business for Live Nation, Glagola says, it âdrives the flywheelâ of the companyâs overall economics.
âBy getting more artists to promote and tour, it drives some of their higher margin, ancillary revenue, such as food and beverage and hospitality within their owned and operated venues, and the expansion of ticketing,â says Glagola.
On the companyâs most recent earnings call, Live Nation executives said the busy 2023 touring season is fueling high demand for live music, despite ongoing questions about the potential impact high inflation and tighter consumer budgets may have on ticket sales.
So far, the company is seeing surging demand.
âTicket sales for shows in 2023 are pacing even stronger than they were heading into 2022, up double-digits year-over-year, excluding sales from rescheduled shows,â said Rapino. Through the third quarter, Ticketmaster sold over 115 million tickets, up 37% from the same period in 2019. (Live Nation uses 2019 as the most recent year comparable to just its current business.)
Contrary to many industries, supply fuels demand, analysts at Cowen said. Â
âIt has to do with the fact that Taylor Swift only comes on tour every few years,â Glagola says. âWhen she comes through your hometown you want to see her.â
However, popularity has its pitfalls. Live Nation faces lawsuits and a U.S. Senate hearing next year related to the Nov. 15 Ticketmaster pre-sale for Swiftâs 2023 Eras Tour, which saw widespread service delays and website crashes as hundreds of thousands of fans tried â and many failed â to buy tickets.
Nobody has been able to unseat Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio as the yearâs Top Latin Artist for the last three years, and 2022 is no different as Bad Bunny crosses the finish line at No. 1 for a fourth consecutive year.
Notably, 2022 marks the eighth straight year that a male finishes atop the ranking (since Jenni Riveraâs 2013 domination). Before Bad Bunnyâs four-year rule, Ozuna was the 2018 champ, preceded by Daddy Yankee in 2017, the late Juan Gabriel in 2016, and a back-to-back command by Romeo Santos in 2014-15.
Billboardâs year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a titleâs chart run isnât considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
Explore All of Billboardâs 2022 Year-End Charts
Bad Bunny upholds his âYHLQMDLGâ (short for âI do whatever I wantâ) stance releasing all-Spanish-language tunes to global audiences without reservations. Heâs secured a global fanbase thanks largely to his knack for melding rhythmic melodies with elements from multiple genres, zigzagging from one format to another within the same song, which translated into a provoking shift in Latin music. Thanks to his solid chart performance, in addition to completing the year at No. 1 on the year-end Top Latin Artists chart, the Puerto Rican adds more achievements to his resumĂŠ in 2022, taking home the trophies for Top Latin Artist â Male, Hot Latin Song, and Top Latin Album.
Bad Bunny continues as the No. 1 Top Latin Artist for a fourth straight year thanks to his extraordinary success during the 2022 chart year on both the weekly Top Latin Albums chart and Hot Latin Songs chart, as well as his blockbuster concert earnings as reported to Billboard Boxscore.
His latest album, Un Verano Sin Ti, arrived at No. 1 on the weekly Top Latin Albums, Latin Rhythm Albums and all-genre Billboard 200 charts (dated May 21, 2022). On both Top Latin Albums and Latin Rhythm Albums, it spent the rest of the 2022 chart year at No. 1. On the Billboard 200, it notched 13 nonconsecutive weeks in the lead.
The set opened with 274,000 equivalent album units earned in its first week in the U.S., according to Luminate, the largest weekly sum by a Latin album during the 2022 chart year. Concurrent with the albumâs debut, mammoth streaming numbers (356.66 million on-demand official streams of the setâs tracks) yielded a Bad Bunny monopoly of the entire top nine on the Hot Latin Songs chart the same week. In addition, he broke the record for the most simultaneous titles on the chart in the same week, placing a total of 24 on the list (23 from the album).
Benito also takes the yearâs No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs recap, with âMe Porto Bonito,â a co-billed collaboration with Chencho Corleone. It hovered at No. 1 for 20 weeks on Hot Latin Songs after the superstar ceded the throne to one of his own in October: âTiti Me PreguntĂł.â âBonitoâ concurrently earned Corleone his first champ on the multi-metric ranking.
Bad Bunny has seven of the year-end top 10 songs on the Hot Latin Songs roundup â all from his Un Verano Sin Ti album.
Karol Gâs Still Got It: Karol G is No. 1 on the year-end Top Latin Artists â Female chart for a fourth consecutive year. Sheâs also No. 2 on the overall Top Latin Artists chart â the only female act in the top 10. The success comes after her strong showing in 2022 with her fusion of Colombian rhythmic tunes with pop and Afrobeats â and some big collaborations.
Her 2021 chart-topping album KG0516 spent nearly the entire 2022 chart year in the weekly top 10 of the Top Latin Albums chart, while she notched multiple new hits on the Hot Latin Songs chart, including two No. 1s in âMamiii,â with Becky G, and âProvenzaâ (âMamiiiâ also marked Becky Gâs first No. 1 on the tally).
âMamiiiâ spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs and also topped the weekly Latin Airplay, Latin Pop Airplay, Latin Rhythm Airplay, Latin Digital Song Sales and Latin Streaming Songs charts. The song was soon overtaken by its follow-up âProvenza.â As it debuted at No. 2 on Hot Latin Songs, Karol G became only the second woman, after Selena, to hold Nos. 1 and 2 at the same time since 1995.
âMamiiiâ and âProvenzaâ close 2022 at Nos. 4 and 5 on the year-end Hot Latin Songs recap â the only two songs in the top five that are not by Bad Bunny.
Eslabon Armado & Ivan Cornejo Makes Waves for Regional Mexican Music: In a notable showing for the regional Mexican genre during the year, two regional Mexican acts snag the No. 1 spots on key overall Latin recaps. Eslabon Armado is the Top Latin Artist â Duo/Group, while Ivan Cornejo is the Top New Latin Artist.
Eslabon Armado hit its stride in 2022. As the groupâs fifth studio album Nostalgia was released, the California-based group made a historic debut across Billboardâs albums charts: it bowed atop Regional Mexican Albums (ruling for six weeks), in the top 10 on Top Latin Albums, while becoming the first top 10-charting regional Mexican album ever on the all-genre Billboard 200. Meanwhile, âTe EncontrĂŠ,â a collab with Ulices Chaidez, topped Regional Mexican Airplay for one week â its first ruler there.
On Hot Latin Songs, Eslabon Armado charted more hits during the 2022 chart year than any other duo/group â 11.
Ivan Cornejo quickly rose as a favorite among Latin artists fueled by his popularity on TikTok. He took a first shot uploading a requinto cover of regional Mexican artist Esteban Gabrielâs âHay Nivelesâ with instant credit from the singer. The 18-year-old crashed in the Latin charts in Oct. 2021, scoring his first top 10 on Hot Latin Songs with single âEstĂĄ DaĂąada.â In addition to becoming a fixture on TikTok, the track became just the second title by a regional Mexican act to snatch an entry on the Billboard Hot 100, a list devoid of regional Mexican tunes until the arrival of Gera MX and Christian Nodalâs âBotella Tras Botellaâ in May of 2021.
Cornejo, who captures the Top New Latin Artist honors, saw his sophomore album DaĂąado open at No. 1 on the weekly Regional Mexican Albums chart (and spend most of the rest of the 2022 chart year atop the list). On the Top Latin Albums tally, it reached No. 3 and spent months in the top 10.
Further, Cornejo visited the all-genre Billboard 200 for a second time, becoming the fourth regional Mexican act to secure an entry there in 2022 (trailing Junior H, Yahritza y Su Esencia and Eslabon Armado).
Yahritza y Su Esenciaâs Youthful Takeover: The regional Mexican genre, meanwhile, caps off the year with a mounting presence on the Billboard charts, thanks in part to the younger generations of singer-songwriters who are setting new rules as they experiment with different sounds. Such is the case of Yahritza y Su Esencia, who finish at No. 2 on the year-end Top New Latin Artists recap.
The Mexican American outfit burst out of the gate earlier in the year with unprecedented speed as its debut single, âSoy El Ănico,â went viral upon its release thanks to TikTok. The momentum yielded a No. 1 start on the weekly Hot Latin Songs and a top 20 debut on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart (making the sibling trio the highest-ranked regional Mexican act in the 64-year-old chart).
âSoy El Ănicoâ closes 2022 at No. 34 on the year-end Hot Lating Songs recap while Yahritza y Su Esencia also places at No. 5 on the Top Latin Artists â Duo/Group roundup.
Dance Genre Growth: Dance generated a big impact in Latin music this year. The genre grew at a lightning-fast pace among Latin heavy hitters. A clear example is Farruko and his ubiquitous âPepasâ which led Hot Latin Songs for 14 weeks during the tracking period (a total of 26 weeks in command). The song earned the Puerto Rican â who first reached the chart in 2014 â his first No. 1 on the weekly Hot Latin Songs chart. The track closes 2022 as the No. 9 title on the year-end Hot Latin Songs recap and at No. 3 on the year-end Hot Dance/Electronic Songs roundup.
Other Latin powerhouses dabbling with EDM include Karol G, whose team-up with Tiesto, âDonât Be Shy,â reached No. 4 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs (itâs No. 35 on the year-end Hot Dance/Electronic Songs recap), while Skrillexâs partnership with Jhayco on âEn Mi Cuartoâ and with J Balvin on âIn Da Gettoâ also nabbed a space on the tally (the latter is No. 37 for the year).
Further, Bad Bunny and Jhay Cortezâs âDakitiâ remained in the top 10 on Hot Latin Songs for 25 weeks during the tracking frame (previously topping the list for 27 weeks). Itâs No. 13 on the year-end Hot Latin Songs chart.
On a global level, Bizarrap and Quevedoâs âBzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52â became a major hit. The club anthem translated into the formerâs first top 10 on Hot Latin Songs and the latterâs first career entry there. Plus, both acts made their first trips to the top of the Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts. On the year-end charts, itâs No. 33 on Hot Latin Songs, No. 12 on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, No. 38 on the Billboard Global 200 and No. 21 on the Global Excl. U.S. recap.
When Bad Bunny appeared at No. 24 on 2021âs year-end Streaming Songs Artists chart, he found himself in a fairly elite group of acts who primarily record within Latin genres and in the Spanish language to make the annual list. What was more: he did so by virtue of multiple entries on the weekly Streaming Songs ranking. His predecessors, Luis Fonsi (No. 19, 2017) and Daddy Yankee (No. 25, 2017), made that yearâs rundown solely on the strength of the Justin Bieber-featuring global phenomenon âDespacito,â also that yearâs top-streamed song. Conversely, Bad Bunnyâs 2021 included a slew of entries, including a pair of No. 2-peaking songs on the weekly survey (âDakiti,â alongside Jhay Cortez, in November 2020 and âYonaguniâ in June 2021).
But the artist born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio leveled up in 2022 with Mayâs Un Verano Sin Ti. The streaming juggernaut of an album â by way of the streaming popularity of its songs âlands him at No. 1 on 2022âs Streaming Songs Artists chart.
In doing so, Bad Bunny becomes the first artist who records primarily in a language other than English to rule the year-end ranking, besting the likes of Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Morgan Wallen and Drake at Nos. 2-5, respectively. (The annual year-end Streaming Songs Artist recap began in 2013.)
Explore All of Billboardâs 2022 Year-End Charts
2022 saw Bad Bunny land his first weekly Streaming Songs No. 1, the two-week ruler âMe Porto Bonitoâ with Chencho Corleone. Exemplifying the long-tail virality of Un Verano, the song didnât even hit No. 1 until its 10th week on the ranking and was still in the top five well into October.
Billboardâs year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 20, 2021 through Nov. 12, 2022. The rankings for Luminate-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a titleâs chart run isnât considered in these rankings. That methodology details, and the November-November time period, account for some of the difference between these lists and the calendar-year recaps that are independently compiled by Luminate.
Six songs from the album debuted within the top 10 upon release week (May 21, 2022), too, with âTiti Me Preguntoâ (No. 4) remaining in the top five or 10 through October, too.
In 2021, two Bad Bunny songs â âDakitiâ (No. 13) and âYonaguniâ (No. 62) â appeared on the year-end Streaming Songs ranking. 2022 finds him with eight, including his first top 10s: âBonitoâ (No. 5) and âPreguntoâ (No. 6).
The year, however, wasnât all about Bad Bunny on streaming services â no matter what it may have felt like at times. After falling off Streaming Songs Artists entirely in 2021, Taylor Swift roars back with a vengeance at No. 2, her first time in the top 10 since she was No. 4 in 2015 and her highest year-end rank since it began being tabulated.
Chalk that one up to two different albums in the tracking period â one with fully new material, the other rerecorded. Her Red (Taylorâs Version), released in November 2021, boasted a weekly No. 1 in âAll Too Well (Taylorâs Version)â and a collection of top 10s, while the release of November 2022âs Midnights marked the second time ever that an act occupied the entire top 10 of Streaming Songs in a single week, paced by âAnti-Hero.â
The sheer volume of Swift material to make the chart throughout 2022 is so staggering, in fact, that on the year-end song ranking, she appears just once â at No. 66 â with âAll Too Well.â
An artist like Glass Animals took a separate approach. âHeat Wavesâ ranks as the No. 1 entry on the year-end Streaming Songs tally, while the band appears at No. 10 on the artists ranking, all by virtue of just one charting song on the weekly survey.
Originally released in 2020, âHeat Wavesâ first made the weekly Streaming Songs in April 2021 and had broken into the top 10 by the end of the 2021 chart year. The song never actually rose higher than No. 3, but it spent the entirety of the weeks Jan. 29-May 7, 2022 anywhere between Nos. 3 and 8, and largely in the top 20 after that. Basically, the song â which now holds the record for the most weeks spent on the Billboard Hot 100 in its history (91) â refused to go away, and even when it felt like it wasnât everywhere anymore, it was still in the periphery.
âHeat Wavesâ becomes the second song in a row to reign over the year-end Streaming Songs chart despite having not been released in that chart year, following Dua Lipaâs âLevitating,â which ruled in 2021 after premiering in March 2020. The similarities donât stop there, either â guess where âLevitatingâ peaked on the weekly Streaming Songs? Thatâs right, No. 3. Steady wins the game.
Harry Styles appears at No. 3 on the year-end Streaming Songs Artists survey after never ranking higher than No. 15 (2020). His 2022 finish was buoyed by two-week No. 1 âAs It Was,â the yearâs overall No. 2 (and, due to âHeat Waves,â the highest-ranking song actually released in 2022).
Heâs followed by Morgan Wallen, who backs up being No. 11 in 2021 by rising to No. 4 on the Streaming Songs Artists roundup. All that despite not releasing an album in the tracking year; many of the country starâs streams came from 2021âs Dangerous: The Double Album, plus a trio of newly released singles and a featured role on Lil Durkâs âBroadway Girls.â
Wallen is the first act releasing music primarily in the country genre to appear in the rankingâs year-end top 10, let alone top five. And he paces a slew of artists from the genre who make the 25-position list; heâs followed by newcomer Bailey Zimmerman (No. 16), veteran Chris Stapleton (No. 22) and newer-guard acts Walker Hayes, Zach Bryan and Luke Combs at Nos. 23-25, respectively. Last year? It was just Wallen and Combs.
2022 also marks the return of Disney film franchises to the year-end chart, particularly its top 10. Encantoâs âWe Donât Talk About Bruno,â a 13-week No. 1 at the start of the year, ends up at No. 7 on the Streaming Songs tally, following in the footsteps of Idina Menzelâs âLet It Goâ from 2013âs Frozen, the No. 5 on the year-end 2014 list.
Things, for a while, have been unprecedented. Following an 18-month quiet period for concert venues worldwide, doors slowly opened, first in the U.S. and increasingly so around the globe. This made for an excepted review of touring in 2021, but the full return of live music presents a much fuller picture this year. With the 2022 year-end Boxscore recap, precedents continue to fade as Bad Bunny finishes as the yearâs top touring act (No. 1 on Top Tours) with total gross of $373.5 million from 1.8 million tickets across 65 shows.
Explore All of Billboardâs 2022 Year-End Charts
Bad Bunny is the first Latin act, and first act who doesnât perform in English, to finish atop Billboardâs year-end Top Tours chart. Beyond the historic nature of his win for genre and language, he is the only artist to mount separate $100-million tours in the same year.
Further, while Boxscore charts often favor older acts with deeper histories on the road, like 2020 and 2021 champs Elton John and The Rolling Stones, Bad Bunnyâs win this year is a testament to the growing power of contemporary stadium acts. In fact, the 28-year-old is just the third artist to simultaneously crown the year-end Top Tours and overall Top Artists charts, following Taylor Swift in 2015 and One Direction in 2014.
Bad Bunnyâs year in touring breaks down into several parts. First, he played two hometown stadium shows at San Juanâs Hiram Bithorn Stadium, earning $6.5 million on Dec. 10-11, 2021. That was followed by El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo, an arena run named after his 2020 album that broke ground as the first all-Spanish-language set to top the weekly Billboard 200 chart. On that trek, he earned $116.8 million from 35 shows, enough to set a record for the highest-grossing Latin tour in Boxscore history.
Billboardâs Year-End Boxscore charts are based on figures reported to Billboard Boxscore for engagements that played between Nov. 1, 2021-Oct. 31, 2022.Â
That tour broke local records in Inglewood, Calif., Miami, Houston, Seattle, and more, setting the stage for an even bigger fall in 2022. After releasing Un Verano Sin Ti and spending most the summer at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Bad Bunny played three Puerto Rico shows for a $4 million gross, and then properly embarked on Worldâs Hottest Tour, living up to its name at each stop.
The trek leveled Bad Bunny to stadiums and took in $232.5 million in North America, plus another $13.8 million from its first four Latin American shows. After setting arena records throughout the U.S. in the spring, he set revenue records in 12 of the 15 domestic markets he played in the fall. While Daddy Yankeeâs La Ultima Vuelta World Tour quickly stole Bunnyâs all-time Latin tour record from earlier this year, Worldâs Hottest Tour re-sets the pace as the first pan-American stadium tour of its size.
All of that combines to $373.5 million during the twelve-month tracking period, amounting to a record-setting, historic No. 1 finish, eclipsing Elton John and Ed Sheeran at Nos. 2-3, each of whom was a previous year-end victor.
These men lead the most eye-popping Top Tours chart ever. Five acts grossed more than $200 million, beating the previous high of four in 2018, and 16 acts generated more than $100 million in ticket sales, nearly doubling the previous high of nine in 2017 and 2018.