Latin
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Jay-Z shared his year-end playlist of favorite songs on Tidal this week, which featured appearances from such usual suspects as Drake and 21 Savage, Kendrick Lamar, Nas, Lil Baby, Quavo and Takeoff, and, of course, Beyoncé. And, because he’s a devoted husband, he actually included three songs from Bey’s acclaimed Renaissance album: “America Has a Problem,” “I’m That Girl” and “Plastic Off the Sofa.”
The 41-song playlist of 2022 favorites has Jigga’s go-to tracks from the past 11 months, including SZA’s “Shirt” and “SOS,” Drake and Savage’s “Jimmy Cooks,” Vince Staples and Mustard’s “Magic,” Lil Baby’s “In a Minute,” Kendrick’s “Rich Spirit,” 42 Dugg and Est Gee’s “Thump S–t,” Kodak Black’s “Purple Stamp” and Sno Aalegra’s “Do 4 Love.”
Jigga also paid tribute to late Migos member Takeoff by including the MC’s track with his uncle and Unc and Phew bandmate Quavo, “Hotel Lobby,” and he nodded to rising star GloRilla via her collab with Cardi B on “Tomorrow 2,” while shouting to his friend and former rival Nas with the inclusion of “Thun.” He also threw in a few singles he appeared on, such as DJ Khaled’s “God Did,” where he ripped alongside Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, John Legend and Fridayy, as well as Pusha T’s “Neck & Wrist,” which also featured Pharrell.
Among the other songs making the list: two more Kendrick tracks, “N95” and “Savior,” two more Drake and 21 Savage songs, “Rich Flex” and “Major Distribution,” Rosalia’s “Bizcochito,” Burna Boy’s “Last Last,” Bad Bunny’s smash “Tití Me Preguntó,” Benny The Butcher and J. Cole’s “Johnny P’s Caddy,” Metro Boomin, 21 Savage and Young Nudy’s “Umbrella,” Lil Yachty’s “Poland,” Babyface Ray’s “A1 Since Day 1,” Ab Soul and Zacari’s “Do Better” and Lil Uzi Vert’s “Just Wanna Rock.”
Check out a snapshot of Jay’s list below.
Latin music is expected to reach the billion-dollar mark in revenues by year-end in the United States for the first time, according to the RIAA. That’s a big deal. But at the pace the genre has been growing over the past decade, it’s not surprising.
“I feel every year we’re talking about the Latin boom and we’re certainly not going ‘despacito,’” says Hans Schafer, senior vp of global touring at Live Nation. “I’d say this is the best year for Latin because we see it in streaming, in the number of tickets we’re selling, grosses in those shows and it’s not only Bad Bunny.”
Of course, Bad Bunny and his record-shattering album Un Verano Sin Ti — which became the first all-Spanish album to be ranked No. 1 on the Billboard 200 year-end albums chart — played a major role in giving the genre a boost. But the Puerto Rican hitmaker isn’t the only factor at play in what has been a years-long slow boil for Latin music, which was often seen as a fad in the past but is now regarded as a cornerstone genre in the U.S. music market.
Spanish-language music has been having a moment in the U.S. ever since Daddy Yankee released his breakthrough single “Gasolina” in 2004. After the Latin explosion of the late ‘90s, when Shakira and Ricky Martin were recording in English to achieve mainstream success in the U.S., the euphoric anthem became the first time a Spanish-language hit went global. Then, there was Luis Fonsi‘s “Despacito,” the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping song — spending a then-record 16 weeks at No. 1 in 2017 — that changed Latin music forever, spearheading a global Latin movement made possible by streaming.
This year, Spanish-language music in the U.S. and other non-Latin markets has reached new heights across multiple metrics, including on the charts, in market share growth and in global reach. In the U.S. alone, market share for the Latin genre — defined as music sung predominantly in Spanish — was 6.6% of the total market in the first half of the year, up from 5.9% last year, according to the RIAA’s mid-year report in October.
On the Hot 100 chart, a total of 45 Latin songs have entered the tally so far this year, way ahead of 2021’s 25 titles. Among this year’s crop, 22 were off Bad Bunny’s genre-hopping set Un Verano Sin Ti, which powered his extraordinary year along with two history-making U.S. tours. Those back-to-back runs grossed a total of $373.5 million from 1.8 million tickets across 65 shows, allowing the superstar to rank as the top act on Billboard’s year-end Top Tours chart.
Newer acts have also seen success on the touring front this year. Colombian reggaeton artist Feid sold out all 14 dates of his first-ever U.S. tour in a span of 24 hours after announcing it in October. So did up-and-coming sad sierreño act Ivan Cornejo, whose first U.S. trek — supported by local promoters and set to kick off in January for a total of 13 shows — sold out “within minutes,” according to his team, of the pre-sale.
The development of new artists, and understanding how the touring component complements their streaming and music video views, has been key to the continued growth of Latin music in the U.S. Emerging artists across Latin genres, notably in regional Mexican, are more diverse and younger, which has led to a new generation of Latin music fans who are bilingual, tech-savvy and more likely to embrace genre-blurring acts. The rise of Latin also coincides with shifting demographics in the U.S., where Latinos now represent nearly 20% of the population.
Mexican music had a banner year. The legacy genre is reaching a wider audience thanks to a new generation of acts such as Grupo Firme, the first banda outfit to perform at Coachella, who followed up that history-making performance with a stadium tour; Eslabon Armado, whose Nostalgia became the first top 10-charting regional Mexican album ever on the Billboard 200; and artists like Ivan Cornejo and Yahritza Y Su Esencia, to name a few. On Billboard’s year-end Hot Latin Songs Artists chart, seven out of the top 20 are regional Mexican acts. What was once considered music by Mexican artists for a Mexican audience has now become big business in the U.S. market.
“[Regional Mexican] music is a lot more relatable now for a Mexican American kid that lives in the U.S. because the sound and lyrics have evolved,” says Brayan Guerra, label manager at Lumbre Music, whose roster includes Yahritza Y Su Esencia. The sibling trio broke earlier this year with “Soy El Único,” which became the fourth regional Mexican song ever to enter the Hot 100. In November, they signed with Columbia Records in partnership with Lumbre and Sony Music Latin, making them the first Mexican music act to join the Columbia roster.
Streaming has played a huge role in the increase in Latin music consumption, with the RIAA’s mid-year Latin revenue report showing that streaming revenues were the biggest growth driver for the genre. Through the first half of 2022, music streaming formats comprised 97% of all Latin music revenues ($510 million), with paid subscriptions the biggest source of sales at 71%. That amounts to 69% of overall Latin revenues, totaling $350 million in paid subscriptions alone.
“Artists were able to build communities during the pandemic because of the time people spent consuming music during lockdown, and we’re seeing the impact now,” says Carlos Abreu, a London-based music agent at UTA. “Like Karol G when she had all her fans wearing blue wigs, Rosalía with the motomamis and motopapis.”
Success in the U.S. reflects the ever-growing popularity of the genre in other non-Latin markets. “Latin America and the U.S. continue to drive the consumption and engagement, but we do see it becoming more global with bigger acts like Rosalía, Karol G and Bad Bunny being consumed in continents like Africa,” says Maykol Sanchez, head of artist & label partnerships, LatAm & US Latin at Spotify, where 10 Latin artists were within the Top 50 global most-streamed artists this year. “The last few years have been an explosion with our friend Bad Bunny leading the way but a lot of other great artists having big moments too.”
To name a few, Anitta reached the No. 1 spot on Spotify’s Top 50 – Global chart with “Envolver” in March, making her the first Brazilian artist to do so. The same day, Paulo Londra landed in the No. 2 position with his song “Plan A.” And in July, Argentine producer Bizarrap and Spanish artist Quevedo reached the No. 1 position on the Spotify Global tally with their smash hit “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52.”
“It’s more a global business than it ever has been,” says Abreu, whose client Rosalía earned $28.1 million touring on three continents so far this year. Europe is now quicker to embrace Latin music than it did previously, he adds. “I’ve seen the shift in real-time. Especially [when] booking European festivals and tours. Before there was the education that needed to happen, the convincing. Five or six years ago we were trying to convince promoters or buyers that these artists were mainstream. It’s exciting that the world is [finally] catching up and it feels good to say, ‘I told you so.’”
In terms of expanding Latin music’s global reach, the U.S. remains the jackpot market “because it’s the seal of approval” that helps launch Latin artists in other parts of the world, says Bruno Del Granado, head of global Latin music touring at CAA. “When I started working in the label business many years, at the end of the year the U.S. market would generate probably 70% of our revenue and international was 30%. Now it’s the opposite: 30% U.S., 70% international. The U.S. gives you prestige, but you also want China, India and Latin America. It adds into this big puzzle and every artist, the smart ones, always look at the world as their market.”
Bad Bunny could fix a bad situation in Mexico by playing a free concert.
That’s the suggestion of the country’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a do-over after hundreds were shut out of his concert in Mexico City in a ticketing snafu which is now being investigated.
When Bad Bunny’s World’s Hottest Tour stopped in the capital over the weekend, a flood of bogus tickets ruined the experience for many fans.
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As previously reported, 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, with 80,000 people attending each night.
Due to the “oversale” of tickets, Ricardo Sheffield, head of Mexico’s Federal Attorney’s Office for Consumers (PROFECO), said that those affected must receive a 100% refund plus a 20% compensation, and that Ticketmaster Mexico must be fined.
López Obrador has played the ball back into Bad Bunny’s court. Though the government couldn’t offer the Puerto Rican singer a fee, he said taxpayers would cover the cost for lights, stage and sound system, and even install a zip line.
“I would tell him how deeply we were touched to see young people sad because they couldn’t get in, because they had duplicated tickets, because they were victims of fraud,” the Associated Press quotes López Obrador.
Bad Bunny’s representatives did not immediately respond to the AP on the president’s offer.
Mexico’s consumer protection agency has said it will investigate the ticketing fiasco, which saw Bad Bunny’s show on Friday delayed for almost an hour.
According to the AP, Ticketmaster Mexico has said the event was highly sought-after but denied the concerts were oversold. A company statement said 4.5 million requests, with counterfeit tickets blocking some legitimate ticketholders from entry.
Despite the situation in Mexico City, Bad Bunny can look back on another dominant year, one that made him the biggest artist on the planet.
On the live front, Bad Bunny was the year’s highest-grossing touring artist, with over $373.5 million in ticket sales, according to Boxscore (with 20 Latin American stadium shows still left to play and tally).
On the recording side, his May album release Un Verano Sin Ti, via independent label Rimas Entertainment and distributed through The Orchard, is the first non-English album to ever top the year-end Billboard 200, after logging 13 weeks at the summit.
In November, it also became the first all-Spanish release nominated for album of the year at the Grammy Awards, and led Spotify’s annual albums chart.
The singer and rapper came in at No. 1 on Spotify’s most-streamed global artists list, with more than 18.5 billion streams in 2022, and becomes the first artist to top the tally for three consecutive years.
Carin León and his longtime manager Javier “El Tamarindo” González, CEO and founder of independent regional Mexican label Tamarindo Rekordsz, have mutually agreed to part ways, the pair tells Billboard.
After five years together, González officially announced the end of his professional relationship with his artist and business partner on Wednesday (Dec. 14).
“Carin is an exceptional artist with great versatility and an impressive voice,” González said in a press statement. “It was an honor to have been part of his project. I know he will continue to grow and I will continue to be a fan of his music. For a long time, we shared the same vision regarding the decisions of the project, but now we have agreed to end our collaboration in order to continue flying each on their own. Carin will continue to succeed and I will always be a part of his successes.”
The regional Mexican artist, born Óscar Armando Díaz de León Huez, signed to Tamarindo Rekordsz in 2018 after being the lead vocalist of norteño act Grupo Arranke for four years. He found quick success, scoring his first entry on Billboard‘s Regional Mexican Airplay chart in 2019 with “Me La Aventé” before going on to collect eight top 10 hits, two of which reached No. 1 (“El Tóxico” with Grupo Firme in 2021 and “Ojos Cerrados” featuring Banda MS in March). In November, he nabbed his first Latin Grammy for best regional Mexican song with the Matisse-assisted “Como Lo Hice Yo.”
“I personally think that being independent is the best thing that can happen to any artist because it means developing your art in the freest way possible and not depending on many things,” León, who hopes to expand his independence with the launch of his own label, previously told Billboard.
León and Tamarindo will still fulfill the commitments already established and scheduled for 2023, according to the statement.
One of the most memorable moments in Latin music during the 2022 World Cup was undoubtedly “Muchachos, Ahora Nos Volvimos a Ilusionar,” a cover of an old La Mosca song that was given new lyrics by a fan. The song has become the ultimate anthem to celebrate the achievements of the Argentine National Team in Qatar and beyond, and now it takes on special relevance with the Albiceleste’s advancement to the final of the event held this Sunday (Dec. 18).
“Muchachos, ahora nos volvimos a ilusionar, quiero ganar la tercera, quiero ser campeón mundial,” or “Boys, we have our hopes up again, I want to win the third, I want to be world champion,” goes the song, which was chanted by thousands of fans on Tuesday (Dec. 13) when Argentina beat Croatia 3-0.
The song itself is a poetic ode to Argentina’s profound respect for soccer and its solidarity and empathy as a nation. It mentions the late sports legend Diego Armando Maradona cheering on Lionel Messi from heaven with his mother, Dalma Salvadora Franco, aka La Tota. She is said to have become the most influential figure for the mythical Maradona, which is why fans christened her “the Mother of Soccer.”
“It has to do with our frustrations, our successes, our hopes, Malvinas, finals lost and finals won. And of course to have the illusion of being champions again,” Guillermo Novellis previously told Billboard.
“Muchachos” came into the public consciousness when the world’s most popular Argentine soccer player, Lionel Messi, was asked what his favorite song was during a television interview just before the World Cup kickoff. He mentioned the endearing song by La Mosca, and even sang it on screen.
“It’s like arriving in Rome and being introduced by the Pope,” Novellis told Billboard about that moment.
In November, the entire Argentina national team was caught on camera singing it at the top of their lungs as they celebrated their victory over Mexico.
“Muchachos, Ahora Nos Volvimos a Ilusionar” is a version of “Muchachos, Esta Noche me Emborracho,” also by La Mosca, released in 2003. But the most recent version — written by soccer fan Fernando Romero in July 2021 to celebrate Argentina’s run to the Copa América final — is the one that has captured hearts.
“It’s a song that has a lot of tango in its lyrics and melody,” said Novellis. “This [newer] version started with Copa América, and the new lyrics are really good. They have to do with our frustrations, our success, our hopes, the Falklands, finals lost and finals won. And of course, the hope of being champions again. Maybe that’s why it resonated so much with fans and players.”
Here are the translated lyrics of the anthem that has gone viral during the 2022 World Cup:
In Argentina I was bornLand of Diego and LionelOf the children of MalvinasThat I will never forgetI can’t explain it to youBecause you won’t understandThe finals we lostHow many years I criedBut that’s overBecause at the MaracanáThe final with the brazucasDad won it againBoysNow we’ve got our hopes up againI want to win the thirdI want to be world championAnd DiegoFrom the sky we can see himWith Don Diego and La TotaCheering Lionel onBoysNow we’ve got our hopes up againI want to win the thirdI want to be world championAnd DiegoFrom the sky we can see himWith Don Diego and La TotaCheering Lionel on, and to be champions again, and to be champions again
For the original Spanish lyrics, click here.
Salsa singer Lalo Rodríguez, known for the 1998 hit “Ven devórame otra vez,” has died. He was 64 years old.
Rodríguez was found dead on Tuesday (Dec. 13) at a public housing project in his native Puerto Rico, police said, according to The Associated Press.
Authorities stated that there were no visible signs of violence, and that an autopsy would be performed to determine the cause of death. The singer had struggled for years with drug and alcohol problems and had been charged with cocaine possession, the AP reported.
Born on May 16, 1958, in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the artist — whose legal name was Ubaldo Rodríguez Santos — began singing as a child at festivals and radio and television shows in Puerto Rico. At age 15, in the ’70s, he joined Eddie Palmieri’s band. He recorded Palmieri’s Grammy-winning albums Sun of Latin Music and Unfinished Masterpiece as lead vocalist before launching his solo career in 1980.
“It is with deep sadness that I learn of the death of Lalo Rodríguez,” Palmieri wrote on Twitter along with a photo of the two. “I don’t need to tell you how much he has meant to me, our music and culture, and the global community. He was a giant in so many ways. We will miss him dearly and treasure his memory.”
Es con profunda tristeza me entero del fallecimiento de Lalo Rodriguez. No necesito decirles cuánto ha significado para mi, nuestra musica y cultura, y para la comunidad mundial.Era un gigante en tantos sentidos. Lo extrañaremos mucho y atesoraremos su memoria.🇵🇷 🎙 🎶 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/iIG95STsnk— Eddie Palmieri (@EddiePalmieri) December 13, 2022
In 1988, Rodríguez released his biggest hit, “Ven devórame otra vez”, which was part of his album Un Nuevo Despertar. Written by the Dominican Palmer Hernández, the song became a classic of romantic salsa with its famous chorus: “Devórame otra vez, ven, devórame otra vez / Ven, castígame con tus deseos, más / Que el vigor lo guardé para ti, ay, ven / Devórame otra vez, ven, devórame otra vez / Que la boca me sabe a tu cuerpo / Desesperan mis ganas por ti”.
On the Billboard charts, the song reached No. 10 on Hot Latin Tracks. In 1990, a version by Spanish female duo Azúcar Moreno also made the list, peaking at No. 9. And in 2004, the song reappeared in the voice of Charlie Cruz, who reached No. 10 on the Latin Tropical Airplay.
In 2018, “Ven, devórame otra vez” was included among Billboard’s top 15 salsa songs of all time.
With its genre-spanning, eternal-summer energy, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti transcended Latin music and became one of the year’s biggest blockbusters. To one of his main producers, MAG, “It’s been a long time coming.”
“The [previous] divide between Latin music and pop music has now merged, because Spanish-language music is pop music,” he reflects.
The Puerto Rican-Dominican hitmaker helped Bad Bunny create the omnipresent Un Verano Sin Ti. The LP has become the first all-Spanish album to top the year-end Billboard 200, ever, and reached No. 1 on the Billboard staff’s Best Albums of 2022 list. It is also the first all-Spanish-language release to earn a Grammy award nomination for album of the year. And thanks to the record’s wild success, Bad Bunny landed on Billboard Magazine‘s No. 1 year-end issue. It’s not just a chart-topping, record-breaking album, it’s an era-defining moment in pop.
The producer-artist pair have been working closely since MAG executive produced Bunny’s El Último Tour del Mundo in 2020, which also resulted in unprecedented success — it became the first Spanish-language release to top the Billboard 200 in the chart’s 64-year existence.
For reasons mentioned above and more, the super-producer peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Year-End Hot Latin Song Producers chart, and landed No. 5 on the all-genre Year-End Hot 100 Producers chart.
Born Marco Borrero in Brooklyn, MAG alchemized 15 of the 23 tracks total from Benito’s latest record, including its two highest-charting tracks on the Year-End Hot 100, “Tití Me Preguntó” and “Me Porto Bonito” — the two songs combined have reached a staggering 1.9 billion streams on Spotify alone since the album’s release in May via Rimas Entertainment.
When asked about the album’s groundbreaking accomplishments, Bunny’s long-time collaborator Tainy, who co-produced nine tracks in the album, tells Billboard: “We never felt these things could be possible for us coming from Puerto Rico and being Latin. We always felt like there was [an Anglo-imposed] level higher than what we were doing, because of the Anglo market. That doesn’t exist anymore, and a lot of that has to do with Benito. It’s special to see those barriers broken, and dreaming big ends up becoming true. This is the new normal.”
“I’m happy to finally see that when you’re talking about Billie Eilish, Adele, Harry Styles, Justin Bieber in the same conversation now, you’re also talking about Benito, you’re talking about Karol G, Rauw and Rosalia,” echoes MAG.
Billboard hopped on Zoom with MAG, who was just arriving to Los Angeles from Miami to be honored at the Variety Hitmakers event for helping Bad Bunny craft another revolutionary new album.
Since we last spoke during the El Último Tour del Mundo (2020) phase, things have evolved tremendously for you. How’s your year going?
We work so much, and every time we finish something we’re on to the next thing. But when I take a second to be present and reflect on my year, it’s heartwarming to see everything that’s happening with Spanish-language music, and the impact that it’s having culturally. What’s happened with the songs we’re doing, how they’ve been accepted and received, and how that’s become a part of pop culture is really heartwarming.
When you reflect on Un Verano Sin Ti’s unprecedented accomplishments, what goes through your head?
The [previous] divide between Latin music and pop music has now merged, because Spanish-language music is pop music. It is the most popular music right now. It makes me really happy to see that. It’s been a long time coming. Of course, streaming has assisted in that — because now we can physically see what consumers are actually listening to, and most consumers are listening to Spanish-language music.
Congratulations on topping the Billboard charts’ Hot Latin Song Producers and landing at No. 5 for the all-genres Hot 100 Producers chart. Did you anticipate these accomplishments given the album’s recent success?
I’m never thinking about charts or the success of what a song is going to have as we’re creating it. I think that’s been an important part of my creative process. Working with Benito, we’re making things that we love and pouring our heart into that, hoping that it’s going to resonate and connect with people. But to have the chart accomplishments, it’s beautiful to see. It’s definitely exciting.
“Tití Me Preguntó” is an explosion of genres: Dominican dembow, reggaetón and hip-hop. It also has an Antony Santos bachata sample (“No Te Puedo Olvidar”). Talk to me about your creative process and what inspired the inclusion of all these musical styles.
It’s like throwing every genre I love in a blender and seeing what happens. That got inspired by the Antony Santos sample that Benito played to me the morning that we created that song. He came over to me with his phone and he was like, “Mag, quiero samplear esto” and played me the actual song. We had some really exciting ideas for it when it was just a trap song, and we put the sample in the intro.
A couple of hours into working on the song, Benito had this idea to try a Dominican dembow section on it, so I sped up the tempo after the hip-hop part. But it was a hard one — because, like you said, we had to cross pollinate so many genres together, and that was a challenge. But it worked. The final product was very, very exciting to listen to.
The song represents you too, growing up in Brooklyn listening to hip-hop, and being of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent.
Yes, [it is] an absolute representation of me. I am Dominican and Puerto Rican. I grew up listening to a lot of bachata, reggaetón, and hip-hop. I love Dominican dembow and I’m from New York. The song has this New York grit to it — I know for a fact that a lot of my people, friends and family back home in New York gravitated towards that.
“El Apagón” has some tribal drumming and ‘90s dance elements..
Benito and I worked on “El Apagón” from scratch. It started with an Ismael Rivera sample from a song called “Controversia,” a song that Benito really loves. He was just rapping throughout the whole thing. Then Benito said, “I want to make another anthem for Puerto Rico.” “P FKN R” [from YHLQMDLG] was an anthem, but it has a lot of curse words. As we’re making this curse-free Puerto Rican anthem, we thought of this ’90s freestyle house section for it. We then threw in “me gusta la chocha de Puerto Rico” all over the chorus [a DJ Joe’s “Vamos a Joder” sample] with Gabriela [Berlingeri] singing in the outro, which was the cherry on top.
Everything in the lyrics is an ode to Puerto Rico, and the situation that’s happening there. To hear it everywhere when I was in Puerto Rico got me really emotional. It really felt like an anthem for our people to see that there’s a lot of street graffiti with the lyrics around Puerto Rico.
Has this genre-spanning approach changed your perspective on producing music? Searching sounds from within your culture, but also seeking external and perhaps previously-unfamiliar musical styles.
I can credit Benito for a lot of the growth that I have had as a producer. In all the work we’ve done together, we’ve challenged each other again and again, to blend genres, get out of our comfort zone, and do things that aren’t standard but feel great to us. That really helped me grow as a producer, in everything I’m doing now, and in everything I’m going to continue to do in the future.
I think that reflects in the music that we’ve made together, and how you hear all these changes and the meshing of genres in all these songs. Even if it’s a reggaetón song, you’re going to hear all these other elements. The growth has happened throughout my years as a producer but especially my work with Benito.
How has your creative relationship with him evolved since you two began working together in 2020?
I’ve been able to watch him grow and continue to develop as an artist. It has been amazing for me to assist in that. As far as our creative process and our working relationship, there’s a lot more trust. At this point, we each know how one another works and what our strengths are. We could be working on a song and he’ll say, “Mag, yo creo que le hace falta…” And I’ll complete the sentence for him. So the relationship has grown in that way. We have amazing chemistry creatively and we understand our workflow and exactly what the object is, whatever the obstacle in the song is, and we know how to get there.
I see that you produced 15 of the 23 songs in the album, and Tainy produced the other eight, but you only collaborated on one song, “La Corriente.”
Shout out to Tainy, the G.O.A.T., the legend. That [song] actually came from Tainy and his team. I was brought in last minute to structure it out, finalize and mix the song with Benito and La Paciencia. We worked on that remotely but it was still an honor to be a part of something with Tainy. He’s somebody who I’ve looked up to since I was a teenager and my entire career. Through my work with Benito, we’ve been able to actually become good friends.
I used to DJ house parties [in New York in the early 2000s], we used to call them hooky parties. We would cut high school and throw parties, and I used to play Tainy songs back then when I was 16, 17 years old. So to be in the same universe professionally with him now and to have collaborated on [“La Corriente”] is really special to me and an honor.
I peep that you dethroned him from the Hot Latin Songs Producer chart, where he held the No. 1 slot for the last three years. [Tainy landed at No. 2 this year.]
It’s wild. My competition is always myself. It’s always MAG trying to improve in what I do. I think there’s space for all of us to shine as producers in this industry, and what we’re all doing culturally for music and in Spanish-language music. Tainy, myself, Ovy [on the Drums, and other Latin producers]. It’s just a beautiful moment for Spanish-language producers.
Aside from Bad Bunny, you’ve also produced for Eladio Carrion, Imagine Dragons, Selena Gomez, Arcángel, to name a few. How working with artists of different styles affect your approach to making a song?
My approach always changes song by song. Even when I’m working with the same artist, I always try to do what’s best for that song and to deliver the product that the artist needs. Never what I think is going to be best, never what I think people are going to like, just what fits the song.
What words of advice would you give somebody who is trying to start off their career as a producer?
Take your time in constructing an identity, a sound that’s you, that gives you an identity as a producer. It’s cool to be inspired by all your favorite producers, but there’s only one of them and there’s only one of you. So take your time and mold that identity. That’s what’s going to stand out as opposed to fitting in.
Arcangel bags his sixth top 10 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart as Sr. Santos debuts at No. 3 on the Dec. 17-dated list. The set, a tribute to his late brother Justin Santos who died at 21-years-old in 2021, also bows at No. 2 on Latin Rhythm Albums chart.
Sr. Santos starts with 19,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the tracking week ending Dec. 8, according to Luminate. The album was released Dec. 1 via Rimas Entertainment. Bad Bunny, Bizarrap, Myke Towers, Eladio Carrión, De La Ghetto, are just some of the several collaborators accompanying Arcangel on the 18-track set.
On the multi-metric Top Latin Albums chart as measured in equivalent album units, each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.
As with most Latin rhythmic albums, streaming powers nearly all of Sr. Santos’ opening week, equaling 27.3 million official on-demand streams of the album’s songs. Album sales and track equivalent album units comprise a little under 1,000 units.
Sr. Santos is Arcangel’s eighth studio album, and all reached Top Latin Albums, including six top 10s. Of those, he hit No. 1 with Sentimiento, Elegancia & Maldad in 2013, and reached No. 2 twice with Los Favoritos, with DJ Luian, in 2016, and Historias de Un Capricornio in 2020. The latter also contains his first entry on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, “Sigues Con El,” peaking at No. 78 in April of 2020.
Elsewhere, Sr. Santos debuts at No. 2 on Latin Rhythm Albums, and gifts Arcangel his highest-charting title on the all-genre Billboard 200 with a No. 37 start.
As Sr. Santos arrives, one of its songs debuts on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart: “La Ruta,” at No. 45.
Meanwhile, two others spend a second week each on the list. “La Jumpa,” with Bad Bunny, which surges 20-3 after its first full tracking week ending Dec. 11. The song was released Nov. 30 and debuted with five days of activity. The team-up is Arcangel’s most streamed song of the week, with 10.3 million in the week ending Dec. 8 and a No. 3 start on Latin Streaming Songs. Plus, it pushes 9-3 on Latin Digital Song Sales with 1,000 downloads sold in the same period.
In between those two, “JS4E,” shortened for Justin Santos 4 ever, holds at No. 23 for a second week.
Bad Bunny wrapped World’s Hottest Tour over the weekend in Mexico City, closing out a historic year on the Billboard Boxscore charts. Ultimately, his 81 concerts in 2022 – culled from two separate tours – combine for the highest gross for an artist in a calendar year ever, since Billboard Boxscore launched in the late 1980s.
Some may have thought there were no Boxscore records left to break for Bad Bunny. His arena tour in the spring, titled El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo, grossed $116.8 million, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. This made it the highest grossing Latin tour of all time. On a city-by-city basis, he broke local revenue records in 13 North American markets.
He then launched World’s Hottest Tour, a stadium run that made him the first artist to ever mount separate $100-million-tours in the same year. That trek broke local records in 12 of its 15 domestic markets, ultimately earning $232.5 million in the U.S.. Its 11 shows in September grossed $123.7 million, breaking the record for the highest one-month gross since Billboard launched its monthly rankings in 2019.
Bad Bunny topped the year-end Top Tours chart with a $373.5 million take, though he was still in the middle of a Latin American leg when the year-end tracking period ended. (Year-End Boxscore charts are based on shows that played between Nov. 1, 2021 – Oct. 31, 2022.) In doing so, he became the first Latin artist, and first artist to primarily perform in any language other than English, to crown the annual ranking.
Finally, Bad Bunny closed out World’s Hottest Tour with two shows at Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca on Dec. 9-10, adding $10.3 million and 116,000 tickets to its total. The Latin American run spanned 21 shows in 15 cities, earning $81.7 million from 910,000 tickets sold. Mexico was the highlight – not only for its two CDMX concerts, but for the $17.1 million out of Monterrey’s Estadio BBVA.
Altogether, the tour grossed $314.1 million and sold 1.9 million tickets, re-setting the record for the biggest Latin tour ever.
Added to his arena tour, plus three hometown shows in San Juan in July that were not a proper part of either of his two tours, Bad Bunny grossed $434.9 million in 2022, narrowly eclipsing Ed Sheeran’s $434.4 million in 2018, for the highest calendar-year gross in Billboard Boxscore history.
Bad Bunny’s gigantic year on the road is just one piece of his 2022 puzzle. He was also named Billboard’s Top Artist of the year, bolstered by the success of Un Verano Sin Ti. Released in May, his seasonal smash spent 13 weeks atop the Billboard 200 and landed seven of its tracks on the year-end Billboard Hot 100 ranking.
That album, plus his two 2020 releases, brought Bad Bunny from arena-contender to stadium-conqueror. His previous touring cycle, 2019’s X100 PRE Tour, earned $45.8 million between two legs, averaging $1.1 million per night. World’s Hottest Tour went stratospheric, pacing $3.7 million per show in Latin America and $11.1 million in the U.S.
Dating back to a Rosemont Theater show in October 2017 — his first show reported to Billboard Boxscore as a headliner — Bad Bunny has grossed $508.7 million and sold 3.3 million tickets. That’s one more broken record — enough to make him the highest grossing Latin artist in Boxscore history.
Replying to mounting criticism from the public and Mexican officials, Ticketmaster Mexico issued a formal statement on Monday (Dec. 12) following a ticketing fiasco that led to hundreds being denied access to Bad Bunny’s Mexico City shows Dec. 9 and 10.
“As has been reported, on Friday an unprecedented number of fake tickets were presented at the entrance of [Estadio Azteca], purchased outside our official channels,” wrote Ticketmaster in its release, posted on Twitter late Monday. “In addition to causing confusion among entrance officials, this situation generated a malfunction in our system, which for moments at a time, couldn’t properly identify legitimate tickets. It’s important to underscore that there was no oversale of tickets. Ticketmaster took the technological and logistical measures needed to ensure what happened on Friday would not happen on Saturday.”
Mexico’s Federal Attorney’s Office for Consumers (PROFECO), reported that more than 1,600 people were denied entry to Bad Bunny’s Friday show, leading to crowds of angry ticket-holders clamoring outside the gates of Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca. At the time, Ticketmaster attributed the issue to fake tickets that caused their system to malfunction. On Saturday, just 110 were denied entry.
PROFECO, however, said the ticketing problem for the Puerto Rican superstar’s shows was triggered by an “oversale” of tickets and that Ticketmaster would be fined as a result. “The 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 second”, PROFECO head Ricardo Sheffield explained on TV program Aguila o sol.
The fine for Ticketmaster México could amount to up to 10% of that company’s total sales in 2021, Sheffield said.
“Ticketmaster claimed they were counterfeit, but they were all issued by them,” Sheffield said in an interview on Saturday with Radio Fórmula.
PROFECO’s investigation determined that many tickets claimed as false were indeed legitimate and had been purchased through legitimate channels, according to Sheffield.
In its new missive, Ticketmaster says the Bad Bunny shows were the most in-demand ever in the country’s history, with 4.5 million people attempting to purchase just 120,000 available seats for both Azteca dates. The company said it’s collaborating “openly and widely” with the investigation and will refund ticket buyers in addition to paying them the 20% indemnization mandated by law.
Read full statement in Spanish below:
Ticketmaster has technology that can prevent the type of fraud that allegedly impacted entry to the show, but so far it has only been deployed in the United States. The technology, known as SafeTix, digitizes tickets and eliminates easy to duplicate barcodes that can be resold to multiple people. It’s unclear when the technology will be available in countries outside of the U.S.
Ticketmaster Mexico had been owned and operated by OCESA-CIE since the 1980s but last year Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation finalized its acquisition of Ticketmaster Mexico, transitioning the company from a license holder to a Ticketmaster subsidiary. Ticketmaster Mexico is forecast to sell 20 million tickets this year.