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From career milestones to new music releases to major announcements and those little important moments, Billboard editors highlight uplifting moments in Latin music. Here’s what happened in the Latin music world this week.
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Thalia’s Christmas Agenda
This week, Thalia was confirmed as part of the “Christmas in Rockefeller Center” lineup, joining The Backstreet Boys, Coco Jones, Jennifer Hudson, and Dan + Shay, to name a few. She is set to perform at the Christmas tree lighting ceremony set to air at 8 p.m. ET on December 4 via NBC. The news comes just weeks after the Mexican star dropping her debut holiday EP, Navidad Melancólica, featuring standout collaboration “Nació La Luz” with Marcos Witt.
“I decided to release a Christmas album to transform these dates, which are often charged with social pressure and intense emotions, into a more positive and liberating experience,” the singer and actress said in a statement. “With this album, I seek to accompany those who wish to turn vulnerable moments into joyful and lasting memories. In addition, I saw in this project a beautiful opportunity to immortalize my own experiences, creating a musical legacy full of meaning and happiness.”
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Emilia’s New Movie Venture
On the heels of being nominated for best pop vocal album at the 2024 Latin Grammys, performing her vibrant “No_Se_Ve.mp3” at the ceremony, and participating at the Person of the Year gala, where she performed for Carlos Vives, Emilia is on to her next career venture. This time, she forms part of the forthcoming Moana sequel, having her own track called “Al Final” on the Moana 2 movie soundtrack. “It’s a dream. I still can’t believe it,” she expressed on her Instagram account. The Argentine artist previously starred as Sofía in Disney’s Entrelazados (Intertwined). Listen to “Al Final” below.
Honoring 30 Years of Intocable
Celebrating 30 years of Intocable, the Texas-based norteño band—known for their rich blends of rock, polka, pop, folk, and cumbia—will be honored with three prestigious recognitions in Texas. In a ceremony set for 6:30 p.m. on November 27 at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, the tejano group will receive an official Proclamation from the Texas Governor’s Office; presented with the Texas Flag by the Texas House of Representatives; and will be named Emissary of the Muses by the city of San Antonio. “These honors celebrate Intocable’s enduring contributions to music and their cultural impact both within Texas and beyond,” reads an official statement.
Intocable
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Joaquina Named Gibson’s New Artist Spotlight
Earlier this week, Gibson announced Venezuelan-American singer-songwriter Joaquina as its new artist spotlight musician. A former Billboard Latin Artist on the Rise and the 2023 Latin Grammy best new artist winner, Joaquina officially joins the program that kicked off this year that highlights an evolving roster of musicians who are celebrated across Gibson’s global channels. ““Currently, I’m working on my debut album, a project that has been about two years in the making,” the artist shared in an interview with Gibson. “It will be released in January 2025, and I’m working hard to make sure that this represents me as I navigated the last couple of years of my life. It’s been exciting to work hard on how it all sounds, looks, and feels.”
Joaquina poses with the award for Best New Artist in the media center for The 24th Annual Latin Grammy Awards at FIBES Conference and Exhibition Centre on Nov. 16, 2023 in Seville, Spain.
Niccolo Guasti/Getty Images
Zhamira’s First 2X Platinum Plaque
Zhamira Zambrano has received her first-ever Multi-Platinum plaque from the RIAA for her heartfelt track “Extrañándote” in collaboration with Puerto Rican artist and her husband, Jay Wheeler. “Hi little Zhamy, who dreams of being a singer. Little by little you are achieving it! And although there are still many dreams to fulfill and a lot of work to do, today I want to tell you that you have your first 2X platinum plaque,” she sweetly expressed on her Instagram account, along with a set of photos of her career achievement.
“Extrañándote” peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s Latin Pop Airplay chart earlier this year, earning Zambrano her second Billboard top 10 hit. “The song emerged organically in the studio,’” Zambrano previously told Billboard. “We wanted to do something more upbeat than a ballad and that’s how ‘Extrañandote’ came to be, as always, aimed at love and heartbreak and that’s why many people relate. I’m super happy to know that people have made it their own.”
11/22/2024
From K-pop gossip to the star-studded afterparty in West Hollywood, here’s what Billboard learned and overheard during the first-ever MAMA Awards ceremony in the States.
11/22/2024
J. Cole’s packing on the nostalgia for fans before 2024’s out. The Dreamville boss followed The Come Up‘s DSP arrival with the release of his sacred The Warm Up mixtape to streaming services for the first time on Friday (Nov. 22). Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news […]
Playboi Carti continues to drop music on social media instead of streaming services. On Friday (Nov. 22), the Atlanta rapper released “Play This” on his @opium_00pium Instagram account to follow up his recent ComplexCon performance in Las Vegas. The strategy is an interesting one, as he’s dropped a bunch of songs this year, but most […]
Kendrick Lamar still has a couple axes to grind. The Compton rapper surprised everyone by dropping his sixth studio album, GNX, and he addressed a bunch of things. A couple of the most notable topics he broached were that of Lil Wayne and his friends being upset that Lamar was chosen by Jay-Z and the […]
Back in 2007, Diplo and Switch were ready to launch the music they’d been working on together; they just needed to figure out what to call themselves. They each chose a bunch of words at random, wrote them on pieces of paper and threw them in a hat. They pulled two out, first was “major” and the second was “lazer.”
With that, one of the most influential dance music projects of the late 00s and 2010s was christened.
Billboard News recently spoke with Diplo and Switch for a rare joint interview, with the duo discussing the origins of Major Lazer and the 15-year anniversary of the group’s debut album, Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do.
The pair first met at Fabric London, realizing, Switch says, that “we both had a soft spot for Jamaican music at the time, and we were both doing our individual sounds, so it was a good excuse for us to come together and do stuff.”
Both producers had been working with M.I.A. on her albums Arular and Kala, with Diplo calling her “the catalyst for our music.” Shortly thereafter, the guys were making monthly trips to Jamaica to make music, falling into the local music community and having Jamaican artists including Vybz Cartel and TKTK record music that would ultimately end up on the Major Lazer debut.
They knew they were doing something right when they heard their track “Pon de Floor at a gas station in Kingston, realizing that their music was, Switch says, “penetrating this market that we felt was very special.” From Jamaica, they took the sound to the U.K., where the pair played one of their first big shows at London’s Notting Hill Carnival. Guns Don’t Kill People… Lazers Do was released on June 16, 2009, hitting No. 169 on the Billboard 200 the next month.
The catalog of the group — which included Diplo, Walshy Fire and Jillionaire after Switch’s departure and now features Walshy Fire and Diplo alongside Ape Drums — has since aggregated 4.8 billion streams, according to Luminate.
“With our videos and everything we did, [Major Lazer] would be cancelled [nowadays] before we even started,” says Diplo. “Because people wouldn’t have given us a chance. They would have been like ‘We don’t really understand this and this isn’t correct.’ But back then, nobody really gave a shit. They were like, ‘I like the way this sounds.’ Today there’s too many tastemakers and rules.”
The group continued having breakthrough moments, with Beyoncé sampling “Pon de Floor on her 2011 smash “Run the World (Girls)” and Major Lazer and DJ Snake’s “Lean On” becoming what was, at the time, Spotify’s most streamed song of all time.
“We had really invented something with the Major Lazer language,” Diplo continues, “but by the second project we were able to make records that were actually hits. It was awesome to see our trajectory, something so chaotic and then to build something that made sense for people.”
Watch the full interview above to hear the pair talk about why Switch left the group, why Diplo thinks “Get Free” is Major Lazer’s best song and what it’s like working with Beyoncé in the studio.
Rosé and Bruno Mars brought the MAMA Awards over to their “APT.” on Thursday night (Nov. 21), performing their new collaboration live for the first time at the Los Angeles ceremony. The duo rocked matching oversized grey suits as they sang the high-energy track, backed by a band and supporting singers. The duo later accepted […]
11/22/2024
K. Dot surprised the rap world with his latest offering on Friday (Nov. 22).
11/22/2024
Few documents are more carefully studied than the annual Coachella lineup poster announcing the dozens of artists booked to play the Indio, California festival each April. So this year, it didn’t take eagle-eyed fans long to notice a rare typographical change to the typically standardized playbill: A band name printed in something other than the poster’s classic Eurostile LT font.
Instead, the name of that band — legendary punk rock outfit The Misfits — was printed in the timeless “fancy horror” font it’s become known for, with oversized M’s, F’s and T’s dominating the other letters.
It’s a subtle yet substantial change to one of the most recognizable lineup posters in music, made to honor Goldenvoice’s long ties to The Misfits — listed as “The Original Misfits” to underline that the version of the band that’s set to appear at Coachella will be composed of the classic lineup of original singer/songwriter Glenn Danzig, original bassist Jerry Only and longtime guitarist Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein. The font change is a nod to The Misfits’ profound influence on live music, Goldenvoice officials say, as well as a celebration of the long history between the band and Goldenvoice, whose roots with the goth-punk outfit predate Coachella itself.
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“The Misfits are one of the first bands we promoted,” says Paul Tollett, president of Goldenvoice, which has been producing the annual music festival since 1999 and whose roots in L.A.’s punk rock scene go back to the early 1980s. Back then, Goldenvoice was a small concert promotion company run by Gary Tovar, a street-savvy supporter of LA’s growing punk movement who was known for promoting underground bands like Black Flag and T.S.O.L. that most venues wouldn’t touch.
In 1983, Tovar managed to secure The Misfits a Jan. 21. headlining gig with the Circle Jerks at a community center in Goleta, Calif. — a small beach town 100 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. The band’s energetic and blitzing performance, supporting their recently released record Earth A.D., was captured by multiple video cameras and a half-dozen 35mm toting photographers — with its most memorable line coming from a young Danzig at the end of “All Hell Breaks Loose” when he matter-of-factly declared, “We f—ed that one up.”
Bootleg recordings from the gig would solidify its cult status among fans, and Goldenvoice would promote at least one Misfits show by having the band open for Black Flag at the Santa Monica Civic Center on June 11, 1983. But by year’s end The Misfits had broken up, and eventually, Tovar’s run would come to an end as well: In 1991, he was arrested on federal drug trafficking charges and later sentenced to prison, handing the company off to Tollett and others to manage.
Fast forward four decades to early 2024, when the partners at Goldenvoice found themselves with the rare opportunity to work with The Misfits once more by staging a one-of-a-kind classic punk festival at the LA Fairplex with a supporting lineup that included Suicidal Tendencies, Black Flag, Bad Religion and The Vandals. The festival, dubbed No Values, sold out more than 40,000 tickets immediately after going on sale.
The Misfits are scheduled to headline Coachella’s Outdoor Stage on both weekends (April 12 and April 19), marking their first appearance at the festival. Tickets are now on sale at coachella.com.
11/22/2024
Dot continues to shake up the game with this surprise album drop.
11/22/2024
