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Karol G has unveiled special merch dedicated to the city of Los Angeles, with all proceeds set to go towards wildfire relief efforts. The Colombian hitmaker joins artists like Chiquis, Fuerza Regida and Peso Pluma, to name a few, who’ve used their platform to express solidarity with the community of L.A. which, since last week, […]
Bad Bunny’s “DTMF” becomes the first song to debut at No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart since August 2024, bowing atop the Jan. 18-dated survey.
The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity Jan. 6-12. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
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“DTMF” starts at No. 1 after the release of its parent album, Debi Tirar Mas Fotos, on Jan. 5. It’s the fifth song since the ranking’s inception to debut atop the tally, following FamousSally and YB’s “Wassup Gwayy” (Sept. 23, 2023), Playboi Carti’s “Sky” (Oct. 7, 2023), Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do for Love” (Feb. 24, 2024) and Clean Bandit’s “Symphony,” featuring Zara Larsson (Aug. 31, 2024).
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It’s also Bad Bunny’s first No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, which began in September 2023. His previous best, “Monaco,” peaked at No. 5 in November 2023.
“DTMF” benefits from uploads referencing the song’s lyrics (DTMF is an acronym for the album’s title, which translates to “I should take more photos”), with users lamenting the losses of relatives, pets and relationships with photos and videos of their own. Bad Bunny himself posted a video on TikTok reacting to the trend.
“DTMF” concurrently debuts at No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 despite just five days of tracking (Jan. 5-9), earning 11 million official U.S. streams in that span, according to Luminate. It’s expected to sport a sizable gain on the Billboard charts dated Jan. 25 (Jan. 10-16), following its first full week of tracking.
The song reigns over a pair of previous TikTok Billboard Top 50 No. 1s in Stepz’s “Rock” and M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, while the top four is rounded out by a newcomer to the region in Braelyn Rankins, Theo Somolu, Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison Jr.’s “I Always Wanted a Brother” from the Mufasa: The Lion King film.
After debuting at No. 10 on the Jan. 11 ranking, “I Always Wanted a Brother” lifts six spots as creators continue to hone in on the “What did you say about my brother?” verse, sung by Taka/Scar voice actor Harrison, and the way the word “brother” is sung, though some instead utilize the eponymous “I always wanted a brother” refrain.
The scene has spawned lip synchs, animation edits and dances, with the song rising another 44% in streams to 4.5 million in the week ending Jan. 9.
G3, the artist name of basketball player LiAngelo Ball, snags the other top 10 debut on the TikTok Billboard Top 10 dated Jan. 18 with “Tweaker,” which bows at No. 6. Released Jan. 10, “Tweaker” became Ball’s first Hot 100 appearance, debuting at No. 29 on the Jan. 18 list via 12.4 million streams.
There’s not yet a highly centralized trend surrounding “Tweaker” on TikTok; users are generally quoting its “I might swerve, bend that corner, whoa” chorus, featuring dances, reaction videos, lip synchs, car footage and more.
There’s one other newcomer to the TikTok Billboard Top 50’s top 10: Flawed Mangoes’ “Dramamine,” which vaults 20-7 in its fifth week on the survey.
“Dramamine” is a cornerstone of what’s known as Hopecore TikTok, which generally consists of inspirational messages/quotes, videos and the like.
Ethel Cain’s “Strangers” is looming directly outside the top 10, starting at No. 11. Despite Cain releasing a new album, Perverts, on Jan. 8, “Strangers” is actually from her previous album, 2022’s Preacher’s Daughter. The TikTok-viral edition of the song is a pitched-up edit, with many users ranking the ways in which Cain sings the lyric “Am I making you feel sick?” toward the end.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
01/16/2025
From his debut album to DtMF, see our Billboard editors’ rankings.
01/16/2025
A historic moment occurred in Colombia in late 2024 when Heredero (real name Féizar Orjuela), the carranga music artist, achieved a major hit with his song “Coqueta”. The song not only became a huge viral hit, but also reached the No.1 position for the first time in history, a milestone that also represents a breakthrough for the traditional carranga music genre, which has recently found a new place in the music industry.
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“Coqueta” achieved the feat by becoming the first carranguera song to reach No. 1 in the official Spotify 50 Colombia ranking, displacing reggaetón smashes by hitmakers like Karol G and Feid, who have dominated the Colombian charts for many years.
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It is the first time a carranga song has generated so much attention and popularity through digital platforms and social networks. The musical genre, originating from the Andean region of Colombia, specifically from the departments of Santander and Boyacá, is, in essence, Colombian peasant music. It is composed of string instruments, such as the guitar, the requinto and the requintilla (a little smaller), guacharaca and/or charasca — which are also sounds that come from the roots of the lands of Colombia and are scraping idiophones or instruments that generate sound by themselves, when hit, shaken, or rubbed.
Heredero, currently one of its most outstanding representatives, describes it as “the country of the United States,” nourished by peasant songs and poems and has transitioned its structure by entering other cities over time.
“It is totally the sum of efforts, dedication, love for rural musical culture, years, generations,” Heredero tells Billboard Español.
Now that peasant music is reaching Colombia, the world is entering thanks to “Coqueta.”
With more than 1.9 Million videos created on TikTok, including videos by J Balvin and Valentina Ferrer, Jay Wheeler, and Zhamira Zambrano, and more than 55,00 reels on Instagram, her song “Coqueta” has connected with different types of audiences — which Heredero attributes to fans’ need to consume music that is based on what is simple and honest.
“Maybe at the time it was thought, and it worked, [that] you have to have baby skin, you have to project, I don’t know what… and [labels and artists] did not spend so much time on the important product, which is the songs,” Heredero tells Billboard Español. “Now we are consuming real things. Both young people, the children, the adults, and older people are eager for it. I believe that caranga music, or at least what I try to do, is for it to be that. Show me as a person as [they are].
“When someone asks me for a photo, I tell them: ‘Please don’t retouch it, don’t put a filter on it, let me look as natural as possible,’” he adds. “That is where people are connecting to; with being, with nature. A fake smile is fake — no matter how nice you pretend it is, it won’t connect. But a look, a real smile, is something else.”
Originally from Macaravita, Santander, Heredero — son of a poet mother and Carranguero musician father — carries in his veins the culture of his music and the lyrics that accompany it. “I try to honor myself the promise that I made to myself — and that I continue to nourish all the time — that the carranga grows and is known. What is happening right now is showing that it is possible, but there is still a lot of work to do,” he says.
From his childhood, Heredero had the best teacher at home: “There was no electric light on my sidewalk at that time, and my mother, a teacher by profession, went to a room with a wax or paraffin candle to write and write, and well, I was going to accompany her,” he remembers. “She used to write many things, such as poems and stories, and she made dramatizations for her students. And I accompanied her, but without intending to, learning because she was doing it. When I started doing my little things, I talked about the seven years I was doing some verses, and he corrected me: ‘Don’t repeat that word because you already said it… but say it this way.’ On the other hand, my father was making music in the town in the urban center of our municipality. While [he was doing that] I was sitting next to the musicians, watching them how they did and learning.”
Although Heredero was well known in the carranga scene, “Coqueta” was the song that brought him to fame. The single, from his third album (distributed by ONErpm), shows the slightly more romantic part of the project and the carranga.
The remix with Jessi Uribe occurred when their teams approached each other. Uribe became interested in the song; as Heredero tells us, he also wanted the remix to have the same feel as the original arrangement.
“When we started, he said: ‘I want it to continue tasting like Carranga; I don’t want us to make a ranchera.’ He comes from popular music and ended up singing carranga; I always say: ‘Well, what a tremendous ‘shampoo’ [A popular ‘saying’ when you have gotten the best or the top] I used on myself was to sing carranguera music with the top artist in música popular.’
Heredero says he’s grateful for Uribe’s new spin, “because it was really successful for carranguera music. Immediately the next day, we were trending in Chile, Central America, the United States, and Spain. We are a bridge, and that would possibly have taken me much longer to achieve [without the remix],” he adds.
What dreams does he have from here? “A Grammy for the carranga!” These things can happen, but if you work at them fully… I will be extremely happy as a farmer and as a carranguero to grab that gramophone and raise it in honor of my land and my roots.”
Alejandro Fernández claims the first new No. 1 of 2025 on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay chart as “No Me Sé Rajar” advances 3-1 to lead the Jan. 18-dated ranking.
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“No Me Sé Rajar” was originally written by Mexican guitarist and composer José Carmen Frayle Castañón in 1981 and recorded by the late Vicente Fernández, Alejandro’s father. The new version of the song, a more modern take to the original mariachi tune, was produced by Eden Muñoz and released by Alejandro Fernández Oct. 25 on Universal Music Latino/UMLE.
The song’s coronation on Regional Mexican Airplay comes after a 14% gain in audience impressions, to 7.7 million, logged in the tracking week of Jan. 3-9, according to Luminate. Thanks to the surge, Fernández adds an 11th No. 1 among 30 total entries since the tally begun in 1994. He extends his third-most champs streak among soloists, behind Christian Nodal (17 No. 1s) and Gerardo Ortiz (13).
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Notably, out of Fernández’s 30 career entries on Regional Mexican Airplay, all his No. 1s have arrived in the 2020s decade, dating back to the one-week ruler “Caballero” in January 2020. With 11 rulers since, he claims the record for the most No. 1s by a solo artist this decade.
While Vicente Fernández’s version of “No Me Sé Rajar” didn’t make it to the charts as it was released before the 31-year-old ranking launched, the late mariachi star scored seven No. 1s among his 47 entries on Regional Mexican Airplay, dating to “Nos Estorbo La Ropa” in 1998 and placing his last champ with “El Último Beso” in 2009.
“No Me Sé Rajar” also gains territory on the overall Latin Airplay ranking, where it jumps 5-3 with a 10% gain in impressions, to 8 million.
Karol G Ties Shakira for Most Weeks At No. 1
Elsewhere on Latin Airplay, Shakira’s “La Tortura,” featuring Alejandro Sanz, has company as Karol G’s “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” adds a 25th week atop the overall Latin radio ranking, which puts both songs into a tie for the all-time record for the most weeks at No. 1 since the chart launched in 1994.
“Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” ties the record through continued strong performance on Latin Airplay, with 25 weeks at the summit among its 29-week run. Despite not gaining audience, the song holds solidly atop with 11.8 million total impressions.
Beyond its new mark, “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido” adds a 27th week at No. 1 on Tropical Airplay, extending its second-most weeks atop, only two weeks short from the record held by Prince Royce’s “Carita de Inocente,” which continues to lead with 29 weeks in charge.
The night of Oct. 20, 2024, was full of firsts for Xavi. The 20-year-old Mexican American singer-songwriter gave his first televised performance of his breakout hit, “La Diabla,” at the Billboard Latin Music Awards, where he also won his first trophy, for artist of the year, new. And this occurred just eight days after he released his celebrated debut album, Next, which became his first top 10 on any albums chart.
“I’m still processing it,” Xavi says today. “It’s something that I didn’t really expect, but it’s a blessing. My grandpa and my whole family would always talk about this type of stuff; it was their dream to make it in the music industry. I’m really trying to push their dreams forward.”
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Jennifer McCord
This digital cover story is part of Billboard’s Genre Now package, highlighting the artists pushing their musical genres forward — and even creating their own new ones.
It was a fitting, and familiar, flurry of events for the young artist. After the August 2023 release of “La Víctima,” “La Diabla” followed in November and took off in 2024, helping maintain Xavi’s momentum and quickly establishing him as one to watch.
“La Diabla” has since tied for the second-longest-reigning title of the year on the Hot Latin Songs chart, dominating for 14 weeks. (“La Víctima,” Xavi’s first chart entry, peaked at No. 2.) By the end of 2024, Xavi had placed nine songs on the tally while Next debuted at Nos. 6 and 9 on the Regional Mexican Albums and Top Latin Albums charts, respectively. But Xavi’s greatest accomplishment in a year of many is the spread of his hybrid subgenre: tumbados románticos.
Xavi photographed December 3, 2024 in Los Angeles.
Jennifer McCord
Jennifer McCord
With his pioneering blend of the musicality of corridos tumbados with the melodies of sad sierreño, Xavi has paved a clear path for himself to explore other genres, too. Growing up between Sonora, Mexico, and Phoenix, his mother would wake him up with music by Vicente Fernández and Selena, but he says coming to the United States was “a whole different world” and he quickly became a fan of artists like Justin Bieber and Daniel Caesar. Now he’s eager to explore all kinds of sounds — sometimes simultaneously.
“We’re talking about R&B, we’re talking about música mexicana. When you get all those elements and put them into one, it literally becomes its own — it brings out this new sound,” he says. “Since it’s something new and we’re getting to the bottom of it, it’s done with so much love and patience. We do it with a lot of passion.
“The studio is a kitchen, you know?” he continues. “And we’ve just been working on the sound of the fusion because there’s a lot of styles out there. But what happens when you put two, or three, or four or five genres into one song? It’s a fusion of corridos — I don’t want to say we invented it, but we definitely brought something new.”
This story appears in the Jan. 11, 2025, issue of Billboard.
The 2025 Calibash concert has been rescheduled amid the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles. Originally scheduled to take place Saturday (Jan. 18) at Crypto.com Arena, the event — presented by SBS Los Angeles, Mega 96.3FM and 97.9FM La Raza — will now take place Friday, March 7. Confirmed artists include Maluma, Wisin, Xavi, Manuel Turizo, Emilia, […]
Add a new line to Colombian reggaetón star Ryan Castro’s resume: professional sports team owner.
Castro announced that through his company AWOO Team, he has acquired a significant equity stake in Paisas Basketball club, a professional team in his hometown of Medellín. The acquisition makes Castro the first Colombian music artist to own a stake in a basketball team, and also makes him one of only a handful of Colombian artists vested economically in sports.
“It’s another facet for us as entrepreneurs. Supporting sports, because the kids in the barrios have the same dreams as us, the artists,” said Castro, who rose to stardom from the slums of Medellín, tells Billboard.
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The Paisas, he adds (the term “Paisa” is slang for people from Medellín), are from his hometown, plus, “I love basketball. Every time I go to the U.S., I like to go to NBA games. So, it all came together and the opportunity arose to support a team from my city to continue growing the basketball movement, generate more activity and support young people who are into sports.”
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While basketball is not nearly as prominent as soccer in Colombia, it’s on the rise. Castro’s acquisition coincides with Paisas Basketball debut in the Basketball Champions League Americas (BCLA0, which includes top teams from across the continent). The team also competes in the Betplay professional league in Colombia under Venezuelan coach Daniel Seoane.
On his end, Castro is no stranger to sports.
Last year, he released “El Ritmo Que Nos Une,” the official anthem for Colombia’s national soccer team during Copa América. The video, which has been viewed more than 110 million times on YouTube, shows Castro hanging out and playing soccer with members of the Colombian squad.
However, Castro wasn’t actively looking to invest in sports. The opportunity came to him via a close associate who works actively with basketball and the NBA. “He told me this was a possibility and me and my team gathered all the information we could about Paisas,” says Castro.
Beyond investing in the team, partnering with Castro also gives the Paisas the opportunity to leverage the musician’s platform as a popular Colombian artists with millions of followers on social media (4.5 million on Instagram alone). Plus, he says, “Taking into my account my life story, also take that message of empowerment, of working for your dreams to other kids. That’s the intention. Many kids dream of basketball and sports as a way to get ahead and have a better life, and my story is similar, but with music. So it’s about also taking that motivation, and, as a businessman, I want to venture into sports.”
Castro is set to officially announce his partnership Tuesday (Jan. 14) at a press conference in Medellín. At the same time, he’s releasing his first single of the year, “Ni x el Putxs,” featuring Colombian trap star Kris R.
Castro’s music is distributed by Sony Latin via his company AWOO Corp. He also has a strategic partnership and label services deal with WK Records with Leo Arango as his manager.
Bad Bunny makes history on Billboard’s latest charts (dated Jan. 18), thanks to the arrival of his new studio album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos.
The album launches at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 122,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in its opening week, according to Luminate. The set arrived Sunday. Jan. 5, so its opening week figure is from just five days of activity (with Billboard’s chart tracking week running each Friday through Thursday).
Despite its mid-week release, all 17 songs from the album chart on the Billboard Hot 100, led by the set’s opening track “Nuevayol” at No. 27. Below is a recap (all are debuts except where noted).
Rank, Title:
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No. 27, “Nuavayol”
No. 28, “Baile Inolvidable”
No. 36, “Voy a Llevarte Pa’ PR”
No. 37, “El Clúb” (up from No. 89; new peak)
No. 38, “DtMF”
No. 43, “Veldá,” with Omar Courtz & Dei V
No. 45, “Perfumito Nuevo,” with RaiNao
No. 52, “Weltita,” with Chuwi
No. 54, “EoO”
No. 59, “Ketu Tecré”
No. 60, “Pitorro de Coco” (up from No. 91; new peak)
No. 66, “Kloufrens”
No. 69, “Bokete”
No. 77, “Turista”
No. 83, “Café con Ron,” with Los Pleneros de la Cresta
No. 94, “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii”
No. 95, “La Mudanza”
(Bad Bunny has an 18th song on the latest Hot 100: “Qué Pasaría…,” with Rauw Alejandro, ranks at No. 72.)
With 15 debuts, Bad Bunny ups his career total from 98 to 113 career Hot 100-charted songs. He becomes the 20th artist to join the 100 Hot 100 hits club, and the first who primarily records Latin music.
Here’s a look at every artist with 100 or more Hot 100 hits, through the chart dated Jan. 18.
Total Hot 100 Entries, Artist:
338, Drake
264, Taylor Swift
218, Future
207, Glee cast
187, Lil Wayne
161, Kanye West
155, Lil Baby
149, Nicki Minaj
119, Travis Scott
118, Chris Brown
113, Bad Bunny
112, Eminem
111, Lil Uzi Vert
109, Elvis Presley (whose career predates the Hot 100’s August 1958 start)
106, Beyoncé
105, 21 Savage
105, Jay-Z
105, Justin Bieber
104, The Weeknd
104, YoungBoy Never Broke Again
Of Bad Bunny’s 113 Hot 100 hits, 41 have reached the top 40; 12 have hit the top 10; and one rose to No. 1: “I Like It,” with Cardi B and J Balvin, in 2018.
Bad Bunny also pushes his total to a record-extending 189 career Hot Latin Songs chart entries.
While it’s rare for artists to chart a triple-digit total of Hot 100 appearance, it has become a more regular occurrence since the chart began including streaming data in 2007. As such, some artists have been able to chart a high number of songs after releasing high-profile albums. The model contrasts with prior decades, when acts generally promoted one single at a time in the physical-only marketplace and on radio. That shift in consumption helps explain why artists have been able to log many songs over short spans in recent years.
Bad Bunny came to play on Monday night (Jan. 13). The singer celebrated the release of his Debí Tirar Más Fotos album by doing it all on The Tonight Show. In addition a typically unique performance of his new single, “Voy a Llevarte Pa Pr” — in which he sang the track while doing his laundry and having a mug of coffee — Benito kicked off the takeover by, literally, crashing the stage.
As Fallon worked through his monologue jokes at the top of the show, Bad Bunny burst from behind the curtain with a rollicking, joyous parranda featuring two dozen drummers and dancers from Los Sobrinos and Los Pleneros de la Cresta, who worked their way through the audience singing the joyous new track “Café con ron.”
The singer went all out to promote his new album — whose title translates into “I should have taken more photos” — which became his ninth straight to hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart dated Jan. 18. He kicked things off by watching a replay of the time last week when he did all the jobs on a popular Puerto Rican morning news show and talking about his role in Adam Sandler’s upcoming Happy Gilmore 2.
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“Now he’s my friend,” Benito said of co-starring with the Sandman in his first attempt at comedy. “Now he’s my uncle, Tio Sandler. It’s been so crazy. It was one of the best experiences ever.”
Saying the album title is about taking time to appreciate the moment he’s in, Bad Bunny expressed his gratitude for the love he’s gotten for his latest project, which NPR dubbed “his most Puerto Rican and most political album yet,” one that puts a bright spotlight on the island’s distinctive musical rhythms and styles. Bunny explained that the LP is focused on the “plena” rhythm, one of the island’s oldest and most beloved percussion sounds.
Bunny also joined Fallon for one of his recurring gags: a trip down to the subway in disguise for some impromptu busking. They opened with a cover of the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way,” followed by a run through Bunny’s new track “Nuevayol.” With Bunny kitted out in a bushy beard and a curly red wig and Fallon rocking long hair and an equally impressive beard, they crooned the BSB tune to a group of excited commuters with some help from members of Tonight Show house band the Roots, before taking off their disguises and heating things up with the high-energy track from Benito’s new album.
The two also reminisced about Bunny’s many appearances on the Tonight Show, with Fallon busting out a photo of the singer from this very first appearance, where he sat alongside a Madame Tussauds wax figure of the host. Over the years, they have recreated that image several more times, including in 2018 and 2020, and then again on Monday night. But since he was co-hosting, Bunny suggested he switch places with Fallon and remake the pic again, but this time he pretended to be a waxy Fallon.
The pair also did some shots of Puerto Rican rum, pitorro, which Bunny brought along to share with his pal before they co-interviewed Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón.
Watch Bad Bunny on The Tonight Show below.