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Hermanos Gutiérrez, the Ecuadorian-Swiss brothers whose instrumental guitar tracks have become essential listening for festival fans, dropped their new LP Sonido Cósmico (which translates to “cosmic sound”) Friday (June 14). Produced by Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach for his Easy Eye Sound label, the spatial sounds of Sonido Cósmico are meant to lift the listener away from the desert landscapes of the band’s 2022’s breakout album, El Bueno Y El Malo, into the infinite expansive of the musical universe.
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Standout tracks on the record include the captivating cumbia and salsa inspired song “Cumbia Lunar” and “Low Sun,” their second single, with a video that provides a glimpse into life inside a late-state parapsychology research center circa 1960, where physicists, neuroscientists and philosophers study and analyze supernatural phenomena such as telepathy, ESP and the paranormal.
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Born eight years apart, Estavan Gutiérrez and his younger brother Alejandro Gutiérrez’s music career began when Estavan was 28 and left their home in Switzerland to spend a year with their mom’s family in Ecuador.
“I used to play the guitar in our house all the time and when I left, he missed hearing guitar songs,” Estavan recalls to Billboard. “When I came back, he just could play the guitar. And I was amazed. I asked him how do you do it, and told me he learned guitar by watching YouTube videos.”
“We never wanted to be a band and tour — we just wanted to record our songs for vinyl because we’re vinyl lovers,” Alejandro shares. “For our first LP, Ocho Cincos, we printed, maybe, 200 copies. We thought nobody would buy it. But then we started to sell through word of mouth and we ended up doing a repress.”
Today, Hermanos Gutiérrez’s unique sound, the brothers explain, comes in part from the heavy influence from their maternal grandfather, who introduced them to the music of Julio Jaramillo, an Ecuadorian singer from the 1940s and ’50s, and a guitar teacher who introduced Estevan to Argentinian Malango music.
“That’s first song that I had to learn,” he explains, “and the special finger picking needed that song always stuck with me. I really love the passion that you can feel, along with the nostalgia and the tragic sadness and love of these songs. Sad music is not something negative, it’s something beautiful. It’s honest, and it touches you heart.”
After releasing their second album, El Cama, Hermanos Gutiérrez started playing small gigs around Zurich, releasing five LPs on their own label before linking up with Auerbach and releasing El Bueno Y El Malo in 2022, earning the group an album of the year nomination at the 2023 Americana Music Honors & Awards.
“Dan is just such a mentor for us with his advice and his experience as a musician,” Alejandro says. “It’s just amazing to see how he works in the studio, and I think he’s really helped us in the last month to level up our sound.”
The band’s next gig is Sunday (June 16), at the Black Deer festival in Kent, U.K., before heading to Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island on July 27. From there, they will launch a tour through the Southwest U.S. with stops in Santa Fe, N.M.; Phoenix; and an Aug. 2 show at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. In August, Hermanos Gutiérrez heads to Europe for a number of headline shows before returning to the states in October to play two weekends of Austin City Limits festival.
Listen to new album Sonido Cósmico and check out the video for “It’s All In Your Mind” below.
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A 58-year-old Arizona man who spent months plotting to stage a violent attack at a Bad Bunny show in Atlanta in May in order to spark a race war ahead of this November’s presidential election was indicted by a federal grand jury on Tuesday. According to NBC News, Mark Adams Prieto was indicted on charges of firearms trafficking, transfer of a firearm for use in a hate crime and possession of an unregistered firearm following a monthslong investigation by the FBI that resulted in his arrest last month.
The Justice Department said that Prieto is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service awaiting transport from New Mexico to Arizona. NBC reported that according to an arrest affidavit, officials began investigating Prescott, Arizona native Prieto in October after a confidential source told a Phoenix FBI agent that a man — later identified as Prieto — had talked about wanting to incite a race war in the run-up to this November’s election.
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The source told authorities that they’d spoken to Prieto more than 15 times over the course of three years at gun shows, where their chats grew from small talk to political discussions. Last year, however, the source told authorities that Prieto started making concerning comments “advocating for a mass shooting” that the affidavit said would specifically target Black people, as well as Jews and Muslims.
Prieto — a vendor at gun shows who allegedly traded his personal guns in cash or swap deals in order to evade detection from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives — reportedly believed that “martial law will be implemented shortly after the 2024 election and that a mass shooting should occur prior” to it being invoked, asking the source in late 2023 if they were “ready to kill a bunch of people.”
The FBI surveilled Prieto from January to March of this year, with the affidavit claiming that on January 21 Prieto told the source and an undercover FBI agent acting as an associate of the source at a Phoenix gun show that he wanted them to help him carry out a mass shooting that targeted Black people at an undetermined rap show in Atlanta. In describing his reasoning for picking Atlanta, the affidavit said Prieto explained, “When I was a kid that [Georgia] was one of the most conservative states in the country. Why is it not now? Because as the crime got worse in L.A., St. Louis, and all these other cities, all the [N-words] moved out of those [places] and moved to Atlanta. That’s why it isn’t so great anymore.”
Prieto allegedly said he wanted to attack a hip-hop show because there would be a high concentration of African Americans there and he was planning to leave confederate flags behind afterwards to send the message that “we’re going to fight back now, and every whitey will be the enemy across the whole country,” adding “KKK all the way” and that he wanted to show “no mercy, no quarter.” Prieto is also alleged to have made plans to travel to Atlanta in advance to store weapons in the area, stressing that having a “high body count” was the most important aspect of the planned attack.
On March 23, Prieto attended another gun show in Arizona where he allegedly told an undercover agent that he was still planning the attack, fearing that if he waited until after the election, “they might have everything in place you can’t even drive, you’ll be stopped,” according to the affidavit. At that point Prieto appeared to hone in on a pair of Bad Bunny shows at State Farm Arena in Atlanta on May 14 and 15, telling the undercover agent that he wanted them to wear hoodies because he thought they wouldn’t raise any alarms dressed that way at a hip-hop show. The following day Prieto allegedly sold an AR-15 to the undercover agent for $1,000 and told him to use it during the attack and to bring along as many gun magazines as he could carry.
At a subsequent gun show in April in Prescott the affidavit said that when the undercover agent asked Prieto if his attack was still on target for May, he said he was planning to push the date back. Prieto was then arrested in New Mexico on May 14 and admitted to knowing the undercover agent and the source and discussing the potential attack on a public venue in Atlanta.
“However, he told agents that he did not intend to go forward with the attack,” the affidavit said, noting that Prieto also allegedly admitted to having sold the AR-15 to the agent and telling him that it would be a good weapon to use in the attack. According to the Justice Department, Prieto allegedly told agents he had seven firearms in his car before being taken into custody and when agents searched his home they found additional firearms as well as an unregistered short-barreled rifle.
Each conviction on Firearms Trafficking and Transfer of Firearm for Use in a Hate Crime carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, as well as a fine of $250,000, or both; a conviction for Possession of an Unregistered Firearm carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. a fine of $250,000, or both.
A spokesperson for Bad Bunny had not returned Billboard’s request for comment at press time.
J Balvin is among a group of Latin music artists who are raising toddlers while still continuing to yield global hits. Balancing out the time he spends in the studio is the time he spends with his son Río, who was born in 2021. “I love going to the park with him, playing ball with […]
Mario Bautista has unleashed his new studio album Fénix — one that he began working on almost two years ago and added its final touches just hours before its release on Thursday (June 13).
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Home to 14 tracks, the set showcases Bautista’s evolution from boy-next-door pop star to a mature young adult who’s embracing life to the fullest. It also marks his new Música Mexicana era.
“I created this album thanks to the success I had with ‘Brindo’ because it was like the light at the end of the tunnel,” he tells Billboard during an Instagram Live interview. “It was something very revealing to be able to transmit a message through regional [Mexican] music. I fell in love with that because I didn’t think it was possible. Up to that moment, I had only created music to party and have fun. When ‘Brindo’ was born, it felt like I was planting something positive in the listeners’ heads, and that’s my purpose in life.”
“Brindo”—a feel-good mariachi with positive lyrics about been grateful for everyone and everything around you—was released in the fall of 2021 but it was its Banda El Recodo de Cruz de Lizárrga-assisted remix that earned Bautista his first No. 1 on the Regional Mexican Airplay Chart in 2022.
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“That’s how Fénix was born — it’s fully Regional Mexican, and it carries messages that I feel are very important for humanity to listen to,” he adds.
In addition to empowered tunes, such as “Cábron Yo Puedo” and “Mejor Así,” in collaboration with Adriel Favela, Bautista dedicates heartfelt tunes to his loved ones (“Flores” and “Pa’l Viejo”) and even tracks for independent women (“15 de Septiembre” and “Mujer Maravilla”).
But Fénix goes far beyond just optimistic lyrics and a tribute to his Mexican roots. It represents an awakening.
“Eleven years have gone by in my career and it’s been a wild ride,” he explains. “With ‘Baby Girl’ (the urban-pop song that put him on the map in 2018), I felt that it was my peak but at the same time, it was the time that I was most confused and lost with my personality. It took me years to return to Mario Alberto (his real name) and give him the wheel. Nowadays, that brings me joy and peace, and ‘Fénix’ represents this new stage, this rebirth.”
Listen to Fénix below.
Congratulations are in order for Jay Wheeler and Zhamira Zambrano, who are expecting their first child together. Zambrano made the announcement Thursday (June 13) on her Instagram page. “Bienvenida,” reads the caption. The four images on the slide see the couple embracing each other very lovingly. To coincide with the news, the Venezuelan singer also released […]
Johnny Canales, the iconic television host who dedicated his career to promoting Norteño and Tejano music in the United States, has died at 77. The announcement was made on his Facebook page Thursday (June 13).
“He was more than just a beloved husband, father, TV host, musician, and entertainer; he was a beacon of hope and joy for countless people,” reads the message. “His infectious charisma and dedication to promoting Latino music and culture left a large mark on the world. Johnny’s spirit will continue to live on through the countless lives he touched and the legacy he built.”
The Johnny Canales Show was an important platform for regional Mexican music artists, including Los Tigres del Norte, Los Relámpagos del Norte and Intocable, and was the prime mover of Selena’s career. “You got it, take it away” was one of the most famous phrases Canales used in his broadcasts to encourage artists in their nascent careers.
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Born in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, he moved to the Corpus Christi, Texas, area at a very young age. From childhood, he showed his passion for music and became a singer. However, it was in television hosting where he found stardom.
From 1988 to 1996, his program was broadcast on the Univision network, which allowed him to reach thousands of Mexicans living in the United States and become a cultural standard bearer for migrants. In 1997 he joined Telemundo, where he remained for several years, and later, his own show would be broadcast would be through their networks.
However, Canales’ health began to deteriorate in 2008 after suffering a stroke that led to loss of mobility, and forced him to give up television broadcasting. At the beginning of 2024, he appeared in networks in delicate health, reporting himself stable from his home. However, he would become weaker and weaker until his last days.
Below, watch a clip of Johnny Canales in action.
With her instantly recognizable warble, signature dance moves and singular stage presence, it didn’t take long for Shakira to reach icon status after she first found global fame with 2001’s Laundry Service. More than two decades later, it’s now hard to imagine what the modern pop landscape would look like without the Colombian singer, especially […]
Danny Ocean’s wish is granted as the Venezuelan achieves his first No. 1 on a Billboard chart with “Amor.” The pop-dembow tune surges 10-1 on the overall Latin Airplay chart and 2-1 on the Latin Pop Airplay ranking (dated June 15).
“What makes me happiest, beyond my name being there, is that a Venezuelan is at No. 1,” Ocean tells Billboard. “This is a project that has always honored love.”
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“Amor” takes the crown with 8.7 million audience impressions, up 54%, on U.S. reporting radio stations during the May 31-June 6 tracking week, according to Luminate.
Thanks to the 54% percentage surge on airplay, “Amor” wins the Greatest Gainer honor, awarded weekly to the song with the largest gain in impressions among the chart’s 50 titles. Among the song’s biggest supporters, New York’s WXNY leads the way in the latest tracking week, Puerto Rico’s WKAQ comes second, while Los Angeles’ KXOL rounds out the top three.
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“Amor,” one of 12 tracks on Ocean’s third studio album, Reflexa, completes a five-week journey to the top on Latin Airplay, having debuted at No. 45 on the chart dated May 18. Thus, it takes second-fastest rise to the summit among the ranking’s 21 rulers in 2024, after Xavi’s “La Diabla” which reached the penthouse in its third week (chart dated Feb. 10).
Only one song achieved the feat faster: Shakira and Cardi B’s “Puntería” debuted atop the list dated April 6. Here’s the recap of those songs that needed the least weeks to land at No. 1 on Latin Airplay in 2024:
Weeks To Position, Title, Artist, Reached On1, “Puntería,” Shakira & Cardi B, April 6 (debut)3, “La Diabla,” Xavi, Feb. 105, “Amor,” Danny Ocean, June 157, “Por El Contrario,” Becky G with Leonardo Aguilar & Angela Aguilar, March 97, “(Entre Paréntesis),” Shakira & Grupo Frontera, May 18
As “Amor” hits No. 1 on Latin Airplay, it pushes Alejandro Fernández and Alfredo Olivas’ “Cobijas Ajenas” from the lead, with a 33% drop in impressions, to 5.9 million.
Over on Latin Pop Airplay, with “Amor” Ocean outdoes his prior best showing of No. 5 for “Miedito o Qué?,” with Ovy On The Drums and Karol G, in Jan. 2021.
On a hybrid level, with “Amor” Ocean secures his fourth entry on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs, which combines airplay, streaming data and digital sales. Debuts at No. 49 thanks to its radio haul.
Just days after Christian Nodal and Ángela Aguilar confirmed their romantic relationship, Cazzu is speaking out and thanking fans for checking in on her. On Wednesday (June 12), the Argentine singer and rapper (born Julieta Cazzuchelli), Nodal’s former partner and mother of their 9-month-old daughter Inti, shared just how much this situation has been for her to handle, without mentioning her ex or his new love interest.
“It is very overwhelming to be news everywhere for something like this,” she began her statement, which she posted to her Instagram Stories. “I always tried to avoid this side of the media exposure so mercilessly, and today to live it in this great dimension without having done anything to have so much attention and for my name to roll everywhere, it is an immense shame. But I take responsibility for my choices and also for what I have no control over. That is why I give you these words.”
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She continued: “I feel the need to let you know that I AM OK, going through it in the best way possible. I choose to step away from networks for a while to detox and focus on my baby, who is my priority, and on my work while everything calms down out there. Life is not totally beautiful or totally horrible, nor are people completely 100% good or bad, there are always grays and shades, but the important thing is to breathe and resist with love the necessary processes and learn. Thank you for the concern of so many. Now let’s turn the page, let’s live and let live.”
Nodal and Cazzu announced in May that they had ended their relationship after two years together. In a joint statement, both posted on Instagram: “The time has come to share that Julieta and I are going our separate ways,” Nodal wrote, which Cazzu reposted on her own account. “Our love and respect for each other remains strong, especially in our role as parents to our wonderful daughter, Inti.”
Less than a month later, Nodal and Aguilar confirmed they were a couple. On Monday (June 10), in an exclusive statement to HOLA!, Aguilar shared, “It is not a new relationship; it’s the continuation of a story that life made us pause so we could grow and miss each other. Because when we let go, we returned even closer.”
A day later, Nodal opened up in a video statement on Instagram. “First of all, Julieta is a person I love and who has my respect for life. We are public figures, we are artists, but we are not masters at life,” he said. “Love doesn’t always work. Our cycle together ended in the best possible way. It was a love that gave us the most precious gift that could have come to us in life, the most beautiful thing we could have done together, which is Inti, my daughter, who I will always love, who I will always take care of. And in that relationship there will never be a third party, there was never any infidelity.”
Rauw Alejandro, in the midst of touring and releasing new music, has assembled a new core management and business team, Billboard has learned.
Leadership includes his longtime attorney and business manager José Juan Torres and his longtime personal manager Matías Solaris.
In addition, sources confirm Alejandro has brought in Jorge “Pepo” Ferradas, founder of and CEO of FPM Entertainment, to head overall strategy of his career moving forward.
Rauw Alejandro was previously managed by Eric Duars, who signed him in 2017 and with whom he split last year.
“It’s a different vision, a different perspective,” Alejandro told Billboard last week about his new team during the Governors Ball music festival, where he was performing. “What we did together was great,” he said about working with Duars, and added: “I have a great team right now. I’m 31 years old, a grown ass man. I feel really happy at this moment of my life. I feel in control of my whole career. I know what I want to do. I have my notes. I learned. It’s just part of growing.”
Ferradas is Camilo and wife Evaluna’s longtime manager, and also co-manages Rels B along with Fede Lauria of Dale Play. Prior to launching FPM, Ferradas’ management experience includes managing Colombian star Shakira in all Spanish-speaking markets as well as overseeing her deal with Live Nation. Ferradas later helped found and develop GTS, Universal’s tour and management company, and was president of music at Univision.
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In the crowded world of reggaetón acts who came up in the mid-to-late 2010s, Rauw Alejandro (born Raul Alejandro Ocasio Ruiz) stands out as an artist who also performs dazzling choreography and experiments with genres like dance. That mix has continued to yield hits; to date, Alejandro has placed 53 songs on Billboard’s Hot Latin songs chart, including 11 top 10s, among them “Santa,” with Rvssian & Ayra Starr, which peaked at No. 8 in May. Thanks to his combined touring, streaming and sales numbers, Alejandro ended 2023 at No. 6 on Billboard’s year-end Top Latin Artists chart.
Alejandro is currently signed to Sony Music U.S. Latin.