Music

01 Jul 2023

Karol G Breaks Record With ‘Today’ Performance & More Uplifting Moments in Latin Music

From career milestones and new music releases to major announcements and more, Billboard editors highlight the latest news buzz in Latin music every week. Here’s what happened in the Latin music world this week.

Karol G’s record-breaking performance at TODAY

The Colombian star drew a record-breaking crowd during her performance in New York on Friday (June 30) as part of TODAY‘s Citi Concert Series. “All of you are my dream come true,” she said onstage, where she performed in front of more than 15,000 people. “The last two years we’ve been growing as a movement and Latinos, we support what we do around the world so we’re here proud of all of us and it’s such an amazing moment for me. It’s my first time on this stage and we’re breaking records, mami.” Among the songs that Karol G performed were her Shakira-assisted smash hit “TQG” and “Mientras Me Curo del Cora,” both part of her history-making set Mañana Será Bonito — the first all-Spanish album by a female artist to top the Billboard 200.

Yahritza y Su Esencia making dreams come true

Just days after Yahritza Martínez, of sibling trio Yahritza Y Su Esencia, received the first-ever breakthrough songwriter award at the SESAC Latina Awards, the 16-year-old artist and her older brothers, Mando and Jairo, surprised their parents with a new house. “Our dream finally became a reality,” Mando, the band’s requinto player, captioned the photo — featuring the Martínez family (doggies and all) in front of said house. “The dream of buying my parents a house has come come true. Thank God and to all of you that support us.” In April, the family was reunited in their home state of Washington after Mando spent nearly seven months living in Mexico City awaiting for his O-1 visa approval. Now, Yahritza Y Su Esencia is set to embark on their first-ever U.S. tour in August with stops in California, Oregon and Texas.

Ricardo Arjona performs historic string of shows in Miami

Ricardo Arjona is on a winning streak with his Blanco Y Negro: Volver tour in the U.S. The Guatemalan crooner has now performed five sold-out shows at the Kaseya Center (formerly FTX Arena) in Miami, becoming the first Latin singer-songwriter to do so, according to marketing and media company, Loud And Live. “Ricardo’s stunning string of five, sold-out arena shows demonstrates an enduring – and ever-growing – popularity among his legion of long-time fans, as well as among younger admirers who are discovering his classic repertoire for the first time,” said Nelson Albareda, CEO and founder of Loud And Live.

Ángela Aguilar to make hosting debut

Mexican music star Ángela Aguilar is set to make her hosting debut at Premios Juventud, which will take place July 20 in Puerto Rico. The singer-songwriter will not only join television personality Alejandra Espinoza as co-host, she’ll also be performing during the show that will broadcast live on Univision. Also confirmed to perform are Danna Paola, Farruko, Denise Rosenthal, Sofía Reyes and Eslabon Armado. This year’s Premios Juventud theme is “Exprésate a tu Manera” (Express Yourself Authentically). 

Grupo Firme supports local talent

Grupo Firme’s impact on a new generation of up-and-coming acts is undeniable. Eduin Caz, the Mexican group’s lead singer, shared on social media a heartwarming video where he’s performing alongside two kids, a singer and his guitarist, at a seafood restaurant in Mexico. “This kid has so much talent,” he captioned the video. In it, they’re singing “Calidad.” But that’s not the only song they sang together. In a video shared by the young boy on his personal account, he takes the lead performing “Qué Onda Perdida” as Caz admires his powerful vocals.

“Billboard” for Billboard

Earlier this week, Ovy on the Drums and Blessd premiered their new collaboration, “Billboard” — nine months after they first created it at the 2022 Billboard Latin Music Week. The three-minute and 54-second song is backed by Ovy’s innovative reggaeton beats (where violins and hard-hitting drums meet) and Blessd’s sultry, raspy vocals. “Billboard,” named after the place it was born — during our “Making the Hit, Live!” panel at last year’s LMW conference — tells the story of a man who can’t forget about the girl he likes and how everything is so insignificant without her. Watch the music video below:

30 Jun 2023

Jennifer Lawrence Didn’t Know Jack Harlow Is From Her Hometown

Both Jennifer Lawrence and Jack Harlow hail from Louisville, Kentucky — a fact that came as a surprise to The Hunger Games actress while appearing on the newest episode of Chicken Shop Date.

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“Really? He’s from Kentucky?” Lawrence, in disbelief, asks host Amelia Dimoldenberg, who goes on to explain that he’s from Louisville.

“I’m from Louisville. There is no way Jack Harlow is from Louisville, Kentucky,” Lawrence replies, to which Dimoldenberg suggests, “I thought you would know, and be friends.”

Lawrence said she’s “down to be friends” with the rapper, referencing how much she “loved” his viral interview with Emma Chamberlain at the 2022 Met Gala. In the clip, the “Industry Baby” star and the YouTube sensation have a hilariously awkward yet flirty interaction, telling each other that they love each other at the end.

Dimoldenberg’s reaction to Lawrence’s statement suggests that the Silver Linings Playbook actress might have not seen her own viral, flirtatious Chicken Shop Date episode with Harlow, which currently has more than 15 million views.

Elsewhere in their date, Dimoldenberg asked Lawrence if the actress’ husband, Cooke Maroney, likes The Hunger Games, in which she starred as Katniss Everdeen. “He just died laughing at me,” Lawrence recalls of the time she asked, “and like, texted all my friends that I said that.”

She later clarified that Maroney, with whom she shares one-year-old son Cy, does in fact like The Hunger Games.

Watch the entire Chicken Shop Date with Jennifer Lawrence below.

30 Jun 2023

Watch Jelly Roll Get a Major Haircut, With an Assist From Wife Bunnie XO: ‘I Can’t Believe I Cut My Curls!’

Jelly Roll is taking things short for summer.

The “I Need a Favor” singer/songwriter cut off his long hair and shared a video of the process via Instagram on Friday (June 30).

“You ever wake up and just feel like ‘F— it’? That’s exactly how I woke up feeling this morning,” he says, narrating footage of his haircut. In the clip, Jelly Roll enlists a friend to cut his hair and shape up his beard.

As Jelly Roll readies himself to cut off his signature long mullet, he and his wife Bunnie XO banter, with Jelly Roll calling Bunnie “hair hater No. 1.”

“Are you excited it’s leaving today?” he asks.

“Me and about 5,000 other women!” she responds. “All the ladies in the comments are talking about how beautiful you look with your hair cut, so I’m so excited.”

Bunnie even grabs some clippers to help cut a few of Jelly Roll’s locks off herself. The video shows the rest of the haircut, as locks of Jelly Roll’s curls fall to the floor.

“I can’t believe I cut my curls!” Jelly Roll says at one point in the video clip. “This clip is about acceptance; you can see that I’ve accepted that there is nothing I can do.”

The video ends with Jelly Roll heading to a bathroom to check out his newly shorn hair in the mirror. Clearly happy with his new, shorter haircut, Jelly Roll asked fans to chime in in the Instagram comments section to give their opinions.

“Freshy,” commented Miranda Lambert, who co-wrote “The Lost” with Jelly Roll and Jesse Frasure on Jelly Roll’s album Whitsitt Chapel. Bunnie commented, “We stan a clean shaven king.”

Jelly Roll was recently the cover star of Billboard’s Country Power Players issue, and opened up about his life and career so far, including time spent in jail as a teen and young adult, launching his career as a rapper, meeting his wife Bunnie, and his recent success topping both Billboard’s country and rock charts.

30 Jun 2023

Ja Rule Talks ‘Power & Perseverance’ of Hip-Hop, Teases Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Performance

For Ja Rule, the Fourth of July has always held special, family-centered memories in his hometown of Queens, New York.

“Growing up, we always did fireworks displays on the block. As I got a little bit older, before I was even an artist, me and my homies would go get fireworks and light them up for the young kids and stuff,” he recalls to Billboard. “We try to keep traditions rolling. A good friend of mine still does it in the hood every year for the kids. I also try to do it out in New Jersey for my family, but Jersey got the little foofoo fireworks.”

The “Mesmerize” rapper, however, is looking forward to having his family enjoy “the good stuff this year” in terms of fireworks, as he’s slated to perform at Macy’s iconic Independence Day fireworks show on Tuesday (July 4). He joins fellow performers Ashanti, Bebe Rexha, Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson and LL Cool J featuring DJ Z-Trip & The Roots for the big event.

“I’m bringing my kids,” Ja Rule gushes about the upcoming event. “They’re not kids anymore, they’re grown… I’m bringing my adults! [laughs] It’s going to be a family affair.”

The slew of hip-hop performers on the lineup is fitting, as the genre is celebrating its milestone 50th anniversary this year — something Ja Rule is immensely proud of. “50 years, who would’ve thought hip-hop would make it this far? I’m very happy to see the growth,” he says. “50 years ago, it was looked at as a fad and that it wouldn’t be here, so to be here 50 years later and be the number one genre of music is a testament to the power and perseverance of hip-hop.”

Ja Rule, who released his debut album Venni Vetti Vecci in 1999 and has since dropped six more studio albums, remembers the days when hip-hop artists were “once told that we weren’t real artists.” He’s one of the many legends of the genre who flipped the script, as Ja Rule boasts three Hot 100 chart-topping songs, two No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and four Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart leaders over the course of his illustrious career.

“I wasn’t around for the history of other genres but I was around for hip-hop, and I’ve seen the hate we got,” Ja reveals, before quoting the King of New York and late hip-hop icon, The Notorious B.I.G. “Biggie said it best in ‘Juicy’ when he said, ‘Remember Rappin’ Duke? Duh-ha, duh-ha / You never thought that hip-hop would take it this far.’”

Catch Ja Rule’s performance during the Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks special, which will air live Tuesday (July 4) at 8 p.m. ET on NBC and will also stream on Peacock, which you can sign up for here.

30 Jun 2023

Luke Combs Rides ‘Fast Car’ to No. 1 on Country Airplay Chart

Luke Combs notches his 16th No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart (dated July 8) as “Fast Car” pulls into the most coveted spot. In the tracking week ending June 29, it gained by 7% to 33.4 million audience impressions, according to Luminate.

The song is an update of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 classic, which hit No. 6 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. Combs’ cover is the first take on a pop hit to top Country Airplay since Blake Shelton’s version of Michael Bublé’s “Home” led in 2008, after Bublé’s ruled Adult Contemporary in 2005.

Meanwhile, Combs’ “Fast Car” is the first remake of a Hot 100 top 10 to crown Country Airplay since Mark Chesnutt’s “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing” led the latter list in 1999, after Aerosmith’s original topped the Hot 100 in 1998.

Plus, as Chapman solely-wrote “Fast Car,” it’s the first Country Airplay No. 1 authored by one writer since December 2017, when the Mitch Rossell-penned “Ask Me How I Know” became Garth Brooks’ 19th leader.

Additionally, Combs’ “Fast Car” completes an 11-week cruise to No. 1 on Country Airplay, marking his quickest, besting the 12-week climb for “Lovin’ on You” in 2020.

“Fast Car” follows Combs’ “Going, Going, Gone,” which ruled Country Airplay for two weeks in March. He owns another place in the top 10, as “Love You Anyway” rises to No. 9 (18.3 million, up 5%). Further, Riley Green’s “Different ‘Round Here,” on which he’s featured, holds at its No. 36 high (2.8 million, up 1%).

A crossover hit, “Fast Car” also hits the top 10 (12-10) on the Adult Pop Airplay chart, becoming Combs’ first song to reach the tier on the tally (in his first visit to the list).

‘Georgia’ Goes Top 10

Elsewhere, Kane Brown banks his 11th Country Airplay top 10 as “Bury Me in Georgia” lifts 11-10 (18.3 million, up 12%). It follows “Thank God,” with wife Katelyn Brown, which became his ninth No. 1 in February.

30 Jun 2023

Megan Thee Stallion Shows Off What ‘Hot Girl S—‘ Looks Like in Blue Metallic Bikini

Hot Girl Summer is here, and Megan Thee Stallion is showing off her curves in a series of sizzling selfies posted to Instagram on Thursday (June 29).

In the series of snaps, the “Savage” rapper is seen rocking a metallic blue bikini, paired with a matching blue wig and colorful, 90s-inspired jewelry. “Real Hotgirl Sh?t,” she fittingly captioned the photo set, in which she serves face and body from all angles, and even enjoys a blue ice pop in one of the pics.

Meg has been on a much-deserved musical break this year to focus “on healing,” and she recently gave fans a lighthearted life update on social media.  “B—-, since the last time y’all seen me, I learned to do a motherf—ing pull up,” she narrated an Instagram video, as she’s seen doing pull ups and having a workout at the gym with her new trainer. “Ok, so anyways, I can’t drop music right now but, b—-, I might as well drop a little workout routine.”

She also shared scenes looking at Birkin bags at Hermès in Paris, France, before getting glam, having a creative meeting, and attending the Louis Vuitton Spring 2024 Menswear Collection Runway Show.

Check out her Megan Thee Stallion’s new bikini photo below.

30 Jun 2023

De La Ghetto Enters New Era With ‘GZ,’ His First Studio Album as an Indie Artist

De La Ghetto has entered his new career era with the release of GZ — his first studio album in three years and the first released independently under his label Latin Nation Entertainment, distributed by The Orchard.

Home to 12 tracks, including the previously released single “My Love” with Quevedo, GZ (short for his alter ego De La Geezy) navigates sultry and bold R&B sounds, inspired by the genre’s street vibe in the late ‘90s and early 2000s. The set also embraces a few hard-hitting reggaeton tracks as heard in the Myke Towers-assisted “Me Dijeron,” which samples Mario Winans’ “I Don’t Wanna Know,” and unapologetic trap as heard in “Ya Lo Sabes” with Arcangel, Nesi and Villano Antillano.

“The creative process was a little bit different because we weren’t going to do this album. We just wanted to drop singles, but my manager put the pressure on me,” De La Ghetto tells Billboard. “The vibe was different because this is the first album I’ve dropped as an independent artist, so there was more motivation. I didn’t have a crazy deadline, there was no pressure, I just flowed and was having fun with the album.”

The artist’s last album was the star-studded Los Chulitos, released in 2020 before parting ways with Warner Music Latina.

Unlike Los Chulitos, on which he teamed up with acts such as Nicky Jam, Rauw Alejandro and Manuel Turizo, De La Ghetto reeled in a new wave of trap and reggaeton stars from La Isla del Encanto (RaiNao, Dei V, Lyanno, and others) — all of whom remind him of himself when he was a rising urban artist in the early 2000s. 

“Sometimes the old-school producers, as great as they are, are drained from doing a lot of work. I wanted to bring that new energy, that new sound from Puerto Rico to the world — I wanted to use the people from my island without taking credit away from the artists in Colombia, Argentina and the Dominican Republic,” he explains. “When I work with new artists, I let them take control. When we’re in the studio, I let them lead and show me what they want to hear from the new De La Ghetto. At times I even find myself, finding new ways of rapping and new melodies, because this is always changing. Music is moving really fast.”

After personally selecting his collaborators and following a creative span of nine months, GZ was created.

“That’s why I took sometime after ‘Los Chulitos’ to release a new album because I was by myself, I was independent, and I was trying to find that passion of mine to create music,” he says. “What’s the point of releasing an album without feeling? I couldn’t just drop an album with no purpose. It’s not in my DNA.” 

Stream and listen to the GZ album below:

30 Jun 2023

What’s Your Favorite New Music Release of the Week? Vote!

It’s a jam-packed Friday (June 30), with some of today’s biggest stars gearing fans up for the long Fourth of July weekend by releasing new tracks to enjoy.

Olivia Rodrigo made her long-awaited musical return with her bloody good new single “Vampire,” Lil Uzi Vert treated fans to a whole new album with Pink Tape, Shakira and Manuel Turizo teamed up for a summer-ready single and so much more.

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Which music release of the week will you be jamming to the most? Check out our Friday Music Guide here, and let us know by voting below.

30 Jun 2023

Peso Pluma, Shakira, Tainy & More: What’s Your Favorite New Latin Music Release? Vote!

This week, our New Music Latin roundup — a compilation of the best new Latin songs, albums, and videos recommended by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors — is powered by new music from Shakira, Becky G, and Peso Pluma, to name a few.

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The list includes new Música Mexicana releases such as Becky G’s “La Nena,” in which she teams up with Mexican newcomer Gabito Ballesteros for the ultimate girl power corrido song; Peso Pluma and Grupo Frontera’s “TULUM, in which “La Doble P” steers away from his signature corridos bélicos sound and dips his toes into Frontera’s very catchy norteño-cumbia fusions; and DannyLux’s “ZAFIRO” with Camila’s Pablo Hurtado, an emotional song that “talks about being in love with a person that truly did hurt you, and every time you look into their eyes it reminds you of that,” according to DannyLux.  

The Billboard staff also highlight Shakira’s eagerly anticipated “Copa Vacía,” a collaboration with Manuel Turizo. The infectious pop-reggaeton song — about unrequited love and not getting enough affection from a loved one — will make listeners want to dance. “Drop your phone, use your hands with me,” Shakira sings, while Turizo replies, “I’m looking in the streets who can fill this emptiness I feel.”

Also on the list is De La Ghetto and Myke Towers’ “Me Dijeron” — part of the former’s new album GZ — a wonderful Spanish rendition of 2004’s “I Don’t Want to Know” by Mario Winans, in which the two Puerto Rican pair interplay poetic rhymes about vulnerability and denial.  

Last week, Bad Gyal, Young Miko and Tokischa’s “Chulo pt. 2” won the fan poll with more than 66 percent of the votes. Who should win this week? Vote below!

30 Jun 2023

Cardi B Shows Off a Lavish Chanel Handbag From Latto: ‘This Purse Tho’

Besties give each other luxury handbags — at least, Cardi B and Latto do. Cardi took a moment Thursday afternoon (June 29) to publicly thank her friend for gifting her with a stunning bright blue Chanel purse, just a couple weeks after the duo landed a chart hit with their “Put It On Da Floor Again” remix.

Sharing a photo on Twitter, Cardi showed off her new accessory — a classic Chanel handbag with turquoise leather and gold hardware — and wrote, “This purse tho ??….. Thanks @Latto.”

“Love u Big Bardiiiii,” Latto replied, retweeting Cardi’s post.

The stylish purse appears to be Chanel’s Mini Flap Bag, which is made of patent calfskin with gold-tone metal in green and blue. According to the brand’s website, the accessory costs $4,900.

The lavish purchase may have been a celebratory thank-you gift for Cardi, whose remix of Latto’s “Put It On Da Floor Again” propelled the track to new heights on the charts. Clocking in at No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart dated June 17, the song earned Latto her second ever top 10 track on the ranking.

The remix also recently hit a peak of No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Latto’s second highest-placing song on the chart behind “Big Energy,” which reached No. 3 in 2021. “Dey thought I was gone fall off I hate to bring u bad news ? Jackpots & Bardi Gang up +10000!!!!” the Atlanta, Georgia native celebrated on Twitter at the time.

Both women were nominated this year for best female hip-hop artist at the BET Awards, with Latto taking home the prize at the June 25 ceremony.

In other Cardi news, the “WAP” rapper was recently involved in an online spat with her own husband after Offset implied she’d cheated on him with a post on his Instagram Story. In response, Cardi sounded off in a Twitter Spaces audio clip, telling the Migos rapper, “So please, boy, stop acting stupid. Stop acting supid. Going crazy over a f—ing space. Don’t play with me. What the f–k. Stop playing. That’s all I’m gonna motherf–king say.”

See Latto’s stylish gift to Cardi B below: