State Champ Radio Latin
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Just two days after teasing fans with new music, Bad Bunny officially unleashed the track called “Gato de Noche” in collaboration with Ñengo Flow, out today (Dec. 22). “This is to close the year,” he said on TikTok just hours before blessing fans with the surprise song.
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Urbano veteran Ñengo recruited Bunny for “Gato de Noche,” a hard-hitting reggaeton track from the point of view of the “chico malo” (bad boy) who’s after a taken lady. “He loves you and gives you everything/ But you’re the devil and you’re crazy for me/ You like the bad boys and are playing fire with me […] although you’re a sin, I’m going to hell following that big a–/ I’m on my way/ Today I’m picking you up after midnight,” Bunny chants in the sultry lyrics.
“With the real beast,” the Puerto Rican act said of Ñengo when he revealed the collab on his Instagram stories. The pair have many collaborative efforts, including “Que Malo” and “Safaera,” which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart dated April 11, 2020. Both tracks form part of Bunny’s YHLQMDLG album.
“Gato de Noche” follows the Arcangel and Bad Bunny track “La Jumpa,” which debuted at No. 3 on the Hot Latin Songs chart dated Dec. 10, 2022 and wraps up Bunny’s fruitful year.
In 2022, Bunny ruled Billboard’s year-end Top Artists chart for the first time, while his Un Verano Sin Ti made history as the first all-Spanish album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 year-end albums chart. He also closed out the year with a record-breaking $435 million in tour grosses that combine more than 80 concerts from two separate tours (El Último Tour del Mundo and The World’s Hottest Tour).
Watch the “Gato de Noche” video below.
Earlier this month, Grupo Frontera landed a major collaboration with Carin León, resulting in their latest single, “Que Vuelvas.” Composed and produced by Edgar Barrera, the heartfelt track debuts at No. 15 on Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs chart this week — and in less than two weeks since its release, its video has amassed nearly 10 million views on YouTube, and is quickly becoming a popular sound on TikTok.
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The group is also simultaneously making the rounds with two Fuerza Regida collabs, called “911” and “Bebe Dame,” proving that they are Música Mexicana’s “it” boys right now.
But this time last year, Frontera — a six-man ensemble comprised of Adelaido “Payo” Solis III (vocalist and bajo quinto player), Juan Javier Cantú (vocalist and accordionist), Julian Peña Jr. (percussionist and animator), Alberto “Beto” Acosta (bajo quinto), Carlos Guerrero (drums), and Carlos Zamora (bass) — was merely a local band from the Texas border town McAllen, creating music as a hobby and performing at family gatherings.
“We all had our own jobs and didn’t really do things as a group,” Cantú tells Billboard, expressing that once they took the project seriously at the beginning of 2022, great things began to happen.
The indie Mexican group officially launched this March with an independently-released debut EP that contained four cover versions of timeless pop songs, such as Diego Verdaguer’s “La Ladrona.” But it was a one-off released just a month later — their norteño rendition of “No Se Va,” a 2019 single by Colombian folk-pop group Morat — that catapulted them to fame.
To date, the music video has nearly 170 million views on YouTube, and the sound has hundreds of thousands of creations on TikTok, where it first gained momentum. “No Se Va” debuted on Hot Latin Songs in September, and scored the group their first top 10 hit on the chart, peaking at No. 3. The track also became only the fifth regional Mexican song to hit the Billboard Hot 100 in the chart’s history, and topped Latin Digital Song Sales for one week in October.
“Honestly, I think it was the seasoning that we put with the congas,” Cantú says of the cover’s runaway success. “It doesn’t sound like your typical norteño song; in fact, it sounds like something fresh with that reggaetón vibe.”
And it’s precisely that — the group’s “fresh Norteño sound” — that’s making big waves in the music industry.
“The group’s appeal is very easy,” assures Peña Jr. “We’re trending, we’re moving up, and we’re doing great music that everyone likes. We’re creating music for people of all ages. We’re making romantic songs that you can dedicate. I feel that a lot of artists right now want to release love songs as opposed to party songs, and that’s why they want to work with us.”
Since their popularity skyrocketed earlier this year, Frontera has sold out shows in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, California, and Mexico, to name a few. They also closed the year with over 125 million streams on Spotify, and established a relationship with the McAllen-based hitmaker (and Latin Grammy winner) Barrera, who’s working on the group’s upcoming music. Frontera is managed by Victor Ruiz (founder of indie record label VHR Music), who also serves as its booking agent.
“You’d think we’ve been playing together for 10 years, but we’ve only been out for a couple of months,” Cantú notes. “I still can’t believe everything that’s happening to us.”
Below, learn more about this month’s Billboard Latin Artist on the Rise.
Names: Adelaido Solis III, Alberto Acosta, Carlos Guerrero, Carlos Zamora, Juan Javier Cantú and Julian Peña Jr.
Ages: 19 to 32
Recommended Song: “Que Vuelvas” (with Carin León)
Biggest Achievement: “Up to now, it’s been two [different career achievements],” Peña Jr. says. “A very important one for us was our concert at the Auditorio Citibanamex in Monterrey. This is where artists such as Luis Miguel and Juan Gabriel have performed, and it was a dream come true for us. The other big accomplishment is that we’re managing to break away from being just a ‘one-hit wonder’ group.”
What’s Next: “We plan to go international in 2023, and already have two very big and important collaborations lined up,” he adds. “We’re also going to announce the tour. Hopefully the first week of January, everyone will already know about Grupo Frontera’s first-ever tour.”
Puerto Rican artist Jay Wheeler and Venezuelan newcomer Zhamira Zambrano tied the knot in an intimate civil ceremony on Wednesday.
Wheeler shared the exciting news on his social media with a video of his wife dressed in a baby blue gown and singing “Dicelo,” the collaborative heartfelt track they released in August. “I got married! I got married to the best woman on earth,” he’s heard saying in the background.
The newlywed couple met at the East Hotel in Miami and made their relationship Instagram official in February. Zambrano, who competed in the sophomore season of Univision’s La Banda, later made a cameo on Wheeler’s official music video for “EaZt.” “I imagine you already know to whom I dedicate this song. Zhamira, I’m so fortunate to have you,” he wrote in the caption.
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The lovebirds have since shared tons of sweet moments on social media, including when La Voz Romantica proposed to Zambrano at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in October. “She said yes,” he captioned the post on social media. Waiting for the Venezuelan artist onstage was a towering cake decorated with photos of them together, red roses and sunflowers, a big sign that said “Marry Me” and Wheeler dressed in a dinosaur costume.
Wheeler’s big day comes nearly four months after he earned his first top 10 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart with Emociones (Linked/Dynamic/EMPIRE), on the Sept. 3-dated ranking. The album marked his fourth chart visit, three of which he achieved in 2022. His previous high came with El Amor y Yo when it debuted and peaked at No. 13 on the Feb. 26-dated survey.
See Wheeler’s adorable wedding announcement below:
Barely a week ago, Carin León was announcing the release of his conceptual live album Cura Local (En Vivo) as a “treat” he wanted to give himself for Christmas. On Thursday (Dec. 22), three of its videos are trending on YouTube, including the one for “Dame Un Beso Y Dime Adiós” featuring Grupo Yndio, at No. 1.
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Released on Dec. 15 under his own record label, CL Music, Cura Local (En Vivo) includes 33 covers of songs that Carin León grew up listening to, like “Línea Telefónica,” also by Yndio; Roy Rosas’ “Cuando Toque Mi Piel,” and Los Apsons’ “Triste Luna.”
“I wanted to bring together the great artists from Hermosillo, those that I listened to in my childhood and my teens, and have the world see them,” the singer explained in a press conference in his native Hermosillo, Sonora, in northwestern Mexico, the day before the release. “We have a unique flavor and I want people to understand much more about Carin and my connection with these people, who are part of my DNA.”
“In Sonora, from the 70s to the 2000s, we had our own sound; we had our own way of sounding like a band, like a norteño. With all due respect to my Regional Mexican colleagues, we have always been different here, we have never wanted to look like anyone else, not even in the way we dress,” he added, surrounded by some of the acts featured in the album, such as Los Honorables, Manuel “El Indio” Ortega, Oscar Toscano, Roy Rosas, Alex Ramírez and Grupo Yndio.
Of the 33 songs in the set, 28 have music videos, three of which were trending on YouTube Thursday morning: “Dame Un Beso y Dime Adiós” featuring Grupo Yndio, at No. 1 with more than 3.8 million views; “Línea Telefónica” also with Yndio, at No. 12 with over 950,000 views; and “Déjenme Llorar” featuring Martín Ramos, at No. 20 with 600,000 views. The total views for the album’s videos already surpass 10 million.
According to a detailed report by Oplaai, a company that distributes León’s music, from Dec. 15-19 Cura Local (En Vivo) exceeded 4.5 million streams, with Spotify being the main platform, followed by Apple Music.
Prior to these stats, the singer assured at the press conference that more volumes will be released “because there’s still a lot of music to rescue,” and pointed out that “although singles prevail these days, I still think of making albums and concepts.”
Here are the 10 most-viewed videos for Cura Local in its first week:
1. “Dame un Beso y Dime Adiós”, Carin León Ft. Grupo Yndio
2. “Línea Telefónica”, Carin León Ft. Grupo Yndio
3. “Déjenme Llorar”, Carin León Ft. Martín Ramos
4. “Cuando Toque mi Piel”, Carin León Ft. Roy Rosas
5. “Abrígame”, Carin León Ft. Alex Ramírez
6. “Celos”, Carin León Ft. El Boca Aguada
7. “Triste Luna”, Carin León Ft. Los Apson
8. “Presa de tu Amor”, Carin León Ft. Manuel “El Indio” Ortega
9. “Las Higueras”, Carin León Ft. Fabián Gómez
10. “Tal Vez Sea Mejor”, Carin León Ft. Fabián Gómez
Exactly three months ago, on Sept. 22, we officially launched Billboard Español with Colombian star Camilo on our first digital cover. We started literally from zero.
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Today, after only 90 days, we publish over 40 original stories per week to the site, boast over a quarter of a million monthly visits to billboardespanol.com and are growing our number of visits and users by 20% month to month.
Thanks to music fans who speak Spanish in every corner of the world, Billboard Español is a hit.
Given what we’ve attained in terms of numbers, it’d be logical to say that launching Billboard Español was a business decision. But this is, first and foremost, an initiative that comes from the heart.
When I came to work at Billboard, 20 years ago (yes, unreal), I felt my mission was to “translate” our music, our culture and our artists to the mainstream, English-speaking world. I looked around me and I couldn’t understand why major media companies ignored what happened musically in Spanish. The lack of interest extended to other areas, like film and television. We were virtually invisible. It felt like language was an unbreachable barrier.
But in Billboard I found a powerful tool: a media brand that was recognized as the “Bible” of the music industry. And within it, a platform where I could constantly generate content about Latin music and its artists. We devoted the last two decades to growing this platform and opening the eyes and ears of our readers to the sounds of our artists.
From one a column a week, we went to a page, several pages, a Latin department and a wide array of coverage that includes a vast menu of videos, social media and reporters in the Latin world, in addition to the Billboard Latin Music Awards and, of course, our unparalleled Billboard Latin Music Week.
We’ve had more than 40 Latin artists on the cover of Billboard and we’ve made history. We were the first English-language media brand to have a reggaeton star on its cover (Daddy Yankee in 2005), the first and only to have J Balvin and Nicky Jam together on a cover, and the first to join Jennifer Lopez with Maluma. The list goes on and on. This year alone, Romeo Santos, Maluma, Grupo Firme and Sebastian Yatra — four artists representing four different Latin music genres — were on our cover, in addition to Camilo.
The final flourish, of course, was Bad Bunny on the cover of our No. 1s issue. Not only was he the first Latin artist to ever grace our No. 1 cover issue, but he was also the first artist to be featured on simultaneous Billboard covers in English and Spanish.
Billboard Español is the latest link in this long chain of achievements, and it’s perhaps the most significant, for we are covering Latin music in two languages. In addition to our extraordinary Latin music team, we’ve built an excellent editorial team for Billboard Español, with Sigal Ratner-Arias, a respected veteran of entertainment and music reporting, as deputy editor.
We are literally creating a new way of covering music, in our language.
Today, Spanish is the second most-spoken language in the United States; according to the U.S. Census, more than 41 million people speak it at home. And music in Spanish is the second most listened to music in the world, only after music in English.
That means that for 2023, there is only room for us to grow, expanding our coverage of Latin music on all our Billboard platforms, including Billboard Español.
The best is yet to come!
Leila Cobo
Chief Content Officer, Billboard Latin/Español
After the pandemic quarantine lifted, the Billboard Latin team continued its tradition of hosting interviews via Instagram Live, resulting in our social media franchise “Live with Billboard Latin.” Moderated biweekly on Thursdays, the Billboard Latin editors invited some of today’s hottest music acts for a 15- to 30-minute interview about their current projects, as well as to answer fan questions.
The series kicked off with CNCO, who spoke to us about their exciting plans for 2022, and later on in the year, we caught up with the Latin boy band at the Latin American Music Awards. Throughout the year, fans connected on Instagram with artists such as Mexican sisters Ha*Ash, who talked about their comeback tour; Latin pop crooner Mario Bautista, who celebrated his first-ever Billboard hit; Puerto Rican perreo duo Jowell & Randy, who premiered their single “Toro”; and most recently, Argentine rapper Trueno, who shared his excitement with Argentina headed to the World Cup finals.
With many exciting “Live with Billboard Latin” episodes, we have compiled the most-viewed interviews this year, which include our chat with Argentine singer Emilia Mernes, a laid-back conversation with Tokischa and Ozuna, and of course, CNCO. Below, see the top episodes from our 2022 live interviews:
Bad Bunny is doing it once again: surprising fans with brand-new music. On Tuesday (Dec. 20), just five days before Christmas, the Puerto Rican artist unleashed a preview of a never-before-heard track on TikTok.
“OK, now yes, check this out,” he said in the 50-second clip. “Let me play this for you. This is to close the year.”
Bunny’s sultry vocals are heard over a simple beat that soon transitions into a hard-hitting reggaeton. “He loves you and gives you everything/ But you’re the devil and you’re crazy for me/ You like the bad boys and are playing fire with me […] although you’re a sin, I’m going to hell following that big a–/ I’m on my way/ Today I’m picking you up after midnight,” he chants in the saucy snippet.
He teased fans some more in the caption. “Let me know if you want another preview,” he wrote, which has fans speculating in the comments that this could either mark the return of “Trap Bunny,” or that he might drop a whole new album before 2022 comes to an end.
As fans patiently wait for El Conejo’s next big move, there’s no denying that Bad Bunny was the year’s biggest music star.
Bad Bunny ruled Billboard’s year-end Top Artists chart for the first time, while his Un Verano Sin Ti made history as the first all-Spanish album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 year-end albums chart (and has spent 13 weeks at the top so far), and the album also became the first-ever all-Spanish release to earn a Grammy nomination for album of the year.
He also closed out the year with his record-breaking $435 million in tour grosses that combine more than 80 concerts from two separate tours (El Último Tour del Mundo and The World’s Hottest Tour). That amount became the highest gross for an artist in a calendar year since Billboard Boxscore launched in the late 1980s.
The unreleased track he teased on TikTok will follow his Arcangel-assisted “La Jumpa,” which debuted at No. 3 on the Hot Latin Songs chart dated Dec. 10, 2022.
Listen to his snippet of new music below:
Anuel AA nets his fifth straight top five album on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart as his latest release, LLNM2, debuts at No. 2 on the Dec. 24-dated ranking. The Puerto Rican’s fourth solo studio album boasts the fifth-largest opening sum of 2022 among Latin albums.
LLNM2 starts with 23,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 15, according to Luminate. The 33-track set was released Dec. 9 via Anuel’s label Real Hasta La Muerte.
Among all Latin albums in 2022 (anything that reached the Top Latin Albums chart), LLNM2 posts the fifth-largest opening sum, behind Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti (273,000 units), Eslabon Armado’s Nostalgia (29,000), Daddy Yankee’s Legendaddy (29,000) and Romeo Santos’ Formula, Vol. 3 (26,000).
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.
Streaming comprises 22,000 of LLNM2’s first-week units, which equates to 33 million on-demand official streams of the album’s songs. The remaining 1,000 stem from traditional album units and track-equivalent album units.
LLNM2 follows Anuel’s fourth-studio album, Las Leyendas Nunca Mueren, which debuted in Dec. 2021 at No. 1, where it remained for two weeks. Notably, Emmanuel, his second entry, holds strong at No. 31 on Top Latin Albums in its 133rd week on the tally.
As LLNM2 arrives, four tracks secure a spot on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart, three debuts and a reentry, starting with “La Máquina” at No. 23. The song earned 2.75 million clicks in the tracking week ending in Dec. 15. Here are the new recruits:
No. 23, “La Máquina,” with Jowell & Randy & De La Ghetto, featuring Yailin La Mas ViralNo. 40, “BRRR”No. 44, “Sufro,” with Kodak Black & Nengo FlowNo. 54, “Si Yo Me Muero” (reentry)
Elsewhere, LLNM2 debuts on the all-genre Billboard 200 at No. 30 and at No. 2 on Latin Rhythm Albums.
This year gifted us with a lot of exciting albums in Latin music, starting with Bad Bunny’s historic two-part album Un Verano Sin Ti.
Featuring thrilling collaborations (Rauw Alejandro, The Marias and more) and edgy fusions (from dembow to indie pop) that transported everyone to a summer in Puerto Rico, the 23-track set became the first all-Spanish album to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 year-end albums chart (and has spent 13 weeks at the top so far), and it also earned the first-ever Grammy nomination for album of the year for an all-Spanish release.
Romeo Santos also surprised fans with his 21-track Formula, Vol. 3, where he collaborated with major acts such as Justin Timberlake, Rosalia, and Christian Nodal. The set dropped eight years after Santos released Vol. 2 in 2014, which is still on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart after 386 consecutive weeks — the most for any Latin album in history.
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The year also marked a comeback period for acts such as Paulo Londra, who recruited acts such as Ed Sheeran and Travis Barker for his Back to the Game studio album released after a three-year hiatus. Christina Aguilera, on the other hand, paid tribute to her Latin roots by releasing Aguilera, her first Spanish-language album in 22 years, following Mi Reflejo, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart in 2000.
Just like Bunny, Santos, Londra, and Aguilera, many more artists unleashed musical masterpieces this year, ranging from reggaeton to sierreño, and more. Who had the best production? Vote below!
Read Billboard’s 25 Best Latin Albums of 2022 list here
This article is sponsored content.
Rodrigo Nieto-Galvis, the vice president and team lead in Miami for the Entertainment Banking division of City National Bank, is well aware that the Latin music industry works differently than any other genre, which is why he’s sharing his knowledge and expertise with independent and emerging artists who want to learn how to manage their money properly.
“It’s important to understand that usually an entertainer is self-employed,” he tells Billboard. “They don’t have constant earnings. They are easily exposed to lawsuits. They have international residency with income in multiple jurisdictions. And it’s really difficult to predict the future of their careers and their income.”
In this episode of Billboard‘sLatin Hitmaker podcast, Nieto-Galvis elaborates on five common mistakes artists make with their finances and how they can be fixed or avoided overall.
On building your career as a business: “You know, as an artist, sometimes they want to focus on their craft, on their art, on their music, but they also have to be the CEOs or of their careers. They need to manage their careers as a business […] and there’s something also that you may not be savvy in every area of a business, so you need to surround yourself with the right team. You need a lawyer, you need an accountant, you need a business manager who understands and can help you with your growth.”
On managing expenses: “You need to open an entity and you need to divide your personal income and expenses by your corporate income and expenses. Otherwise, your income is going to become your pocket money, and that’s not something that you want. You shouldn’t be mixing this type of income and expenses and also […] something very important as well is to not leave money on the table. So what that means is when you are negotiating contracts and deals, bring your lawyer, you know, bring somebody to understand these contracts and also sign contracts with every member of your team just to avoid future litigations.”
On creating a budget plan: “So the first thing that you need to do as an artist is creating a plan at a budget for the year. you need to know what will be resources you need to achieve the goals that you are trying to reach. Right. So like have a plan for 12 years. What are the resources that you’re going to need if you buy that car? If you can buy that boat, is that going to affect the plan? Are you still going to have the resources to achieve those goals? Right. So so again, the third issue is the area of problems is managing your expenses, having a budget, having a plan.”
On understanding taxes: “You really need to have an accountant that understands not only your business but the fact that you work in multiple jurisdictions, in multiple countries. So what we’re talking about is getting the right advice, or also there are elements such as the CW, tax exemptions, which are only for international artists.”
On protecting your savings: “Avoid getting into investments that you don’t understand and actually, the final component on that aspect is also to pay attention to estate planning. Like what’s the legacy that you’re going to leave, how you’re going to be providing to your loved ones once you are not here anymore. So you pay attention to those areas.”
Listen to the full episode of Latin Hitmaker here:
City National Bank Member FDIC. City National Bank is a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada. ©2023 City National Bank. All Rights Reserved. City National Bank does business in the state of Florida as CN Bank
