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Minutes before midnight on Saturday at the Petronio Alvarez Festival in Cali, Colombia, the sound system stopped working with La Herencia de Timbiquí onstage. The crowd, estimated at 45,000 by festival staff, hardly missed a beat – and continued singing for several minutes.

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It was not surprising that the audience, a mix of Colombians and visitors from the U.S., Europe and elsewhere, knew the band’s material; they are among the few groups from the South American country’s musically-rich Pacific coast that is the focus of the “Petronio,” as it’s known, to reach tens of millions of streams on Spotify. But outside Colombia, even as Latin music gains increasing traction at a global scale, relatively few fans are familiar with the rich diversity of Afro Latino music that comes from Colombia’s Pacific coast.

The Petronio, named after Petronio Alvarez — a railroad worker and composer of a song that has become a hymn to the region, “Mi Buenaventura” — may help remedy that. 

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The event, which concluded its 28th edition on Monday, is held in Cali – the city with the second-highest Black population in Latin America, after Bahía, Brazil. Many of its Black residents immigrated here from the coast, driven by the drug war and other violence. They brought with them a rich cultural and musical heritage that includes genres steeped in folklore, like the brass-heavy chirimía and the marimba-driven currulao.

But those genres have never gained the prominence of others — like vallenato, cumbia or even the contemporary hybrid of rap and reggaetón.

Petronio has gained a higher international profile with each year; city government organizers estimated the 2024 festival would draw up to a half-million attendees, after beginning in 1997 with only five thousand locals in the stands. And this year, a visit from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who both spoke from the stage (Markle speaking in perfect Spanish) as guests of Colombian vice president Francia Marquez — the country’s first Black vice president — put new eyes on the event.

Markle spoke in perfect Spanish from the stage and the royal couple not only danced to and heard music from the Pacific coast, but also attended events focused on challenges facing the people of the historically-marginalized region.

Yuri Buenaventura

Jesse Pratt López

Still, the question some ask is: What will it take for the Afro-Colombian sounds of the Pacific coast to reach a global audience?

One person drawn to the music was Inma Grass, founder of Spanish music company Altafonte, acquired by Sony Music in January.

Altafonte’s roster includes La Herencia de Timbiquí among its artists, and Grass came to Cali both to “brainstorm” a campaign to celebrate the band’s upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary and to meet and hear new artists. En route to the airport on Monday, Grass told Billboard that her stay of twelve days was her first visit to Colombia. “I’m shocked by the musical richness [of the Pacific coast],” she said. “It has global potential.”

Musicians offering special performances outside the event’s contest format of five categories included Nidia Góngora, also from the Pacific town of Timbiquí. Góngora has toured for years in Europe and the U.S., and is known for her groundbreaking collaborations with the English electronic producer Quantic, as well as roots music recordings with her group, Canalón de Timbiquí (the group earned a Latin Grammy nomination in 2019 for the album De Mar y Río.)

When Quantic, whose real name is Will Holland, began speaking with Góngora about collaborating in 2017, she first asked him to visit her homeland. “I was afraid that it would be an extractive relationship,” she told Billboard on the second day of the festival, sitting in a side room of the seafood restaurant Viche Positivo that she runs in Cali (viche is a liquor made from sugar cane). Góngora took Holland to her family’s house on the coast. “He came back with more respect,” she said, explaining that he “took on a commitment” to the marimba and percussion in her roots.

The result: Curao, an album with six tracks that have each been streamed more than a million times on Spotify, in which “two sounds come together without either one taking away attention from the other,” said the singer. The name refers to a traditional blend of viche and herbs.

Such musical blends are increasingly found at the Petronio in the “Libre” or Open category of competition.

The six-day fest also included after-hour events, such as one featuring Alexis Play, a singer from the Pacific coast who fuses horns from chirimía with electric guitar, conga drums – and rap. Even so, his concert included a brief chirimía presentation beforehand, as if to remind the audience about the artist’s musical roots.

Many musicians and others at the festival in Cali were concerned about these roots, and their makers, being lost without attention or support. A highlight was the first-night concert led by marimbero Hugo Candelario, who gathered a 26-person ensemble featuring a handful of marimba maestros, the oldest being 87-year-old Genaro Torres – and their young relatives. Candelario founded Grupo Bahía, winner at the first “Petronio,” in 1997.

The Guapi-born musician also spent several days during “Petronio” speaking to whoever would listen about the need for everything from video recordings of the maestros explaining their techniques, tuning and other musical knowledge, to music schools on the Pacific coast for keeping traditions alive and developing future talent. His audiences included Colombian government officials and a delegation from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

“The danger is that the ancestral magic and wisdom go to the grave with the maestros,” Candelario said. “The festival is not a panacea,” he added – meaning it can’t solve these problems by itself.

Yuri Buenaventura has told the story more than once of living penniless in Paris as a young man, and going on to sell more than a million copies of his album Herencia Africana, including a salsa version of the Jacques Brel song, “Ne Me Quitte Pas.” Now living in Cali and working on projects through a foundation he founded that include recording musicians from the Pacific coast, he worries that the festival might become “a caricature of itself” if musicians from the region don’t have a way to learn the ins and outs of the music industry, about such matters as production, marketing and songwriting royalties. This lack of knowledge also endangers the music, he said.

Petronio Alvarez Festival

Jesse Pratt López

Altafonte’s Grass addressed the tension between conserving musical and other cultural traditions and reaching a global audience. “Many musicians are recuperating their roots, and mixing them with genres that young people listen to,” she said. “You can’t be a purist,” she added — drawing on the example of Spain’s flamenco, which drew many such debates for decades, only to see the artist Camarón de la Isla fuse the traditional form with other contemporary sounds, reaching great success.

“I think we have to conserve traditional groups and sounds, while at the same time I love the way music keeps evolving,” she said. “If it doesn’t, it’s not going to connect with new generations – mixing trap, rap, jazz, reggaetón, everything they feel in their world.”

One category above others at the festival lent itself to these sorts of fusion – the “Open” competition. After midnight on Monday morning, Chureo Callejero — a group of young musicians from Tumaco blending marimba, rap and snare drums — were announced as this year’s winners in the category.

Within hours of the victory, a person presenting himself as an Italian visitor to the festival wrote a comment under one of the few YouTube videos of the group, with slightly more than a thousand views: “We want your music on Spotify! Long live Petronio! Long live Colombia!”

The production company founded by Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, is splitting ways with Spotify less than a year after the debut of their podcast Archetypes.
It is unclear why the podcast, hosted by Meghan, is leaving the platform but Spotify and Archewell Audio said in a joint statement that the decision was mutual.

Archewell landed a multiyear partnership with Spotify in 2020 to create podcasts and shows that would tell stories through diverse voices and perspectives.

The podcast premiered in August last year with tennis great Serena Williams as a guest and it was an instant hit.

It topped Spotify charts in seven countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., and it won the top podcast award at the People’s Choice awards last year.

“I loved digging my hands into the process, sitting up late at night in bed, working on the writing and creative. And I loved digging deep into meaningful conversation with my diverse and inspiring guests, laughing and learning with them, and with each of you listening,” Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, said at the time.

The show also had as guests Mariah Carey, Trevor Noah, Mindy Kaling and Paris Hilton.

Tech companies have been cutting costs in a rough economic environment and Spotify has not been immune. Six months after announcing that it would cut 6% of its global workforce, or about 600 jobs, Spotify said last week that it was trimming another 200 jobs.

The company said at the time that it would be combining podcast networks Parcast and Gimlet into its Spotify Studios operation.

Prince Harry has been at the High Court of London this month. He is accusing the publisher of the Daily Mirror of using unlawful techniques on an “industrial scale” to score front-page scoops on his life. The Duke of Sussex became the first senior member of the royal family to testify in more than a century.

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
King Charles III is set to officially be crowned as head of the British royal family. Viewers from all over the world are expected to tune in for the first British coronation in 70 years.

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Keep reading for more details on coronation weekend and how to watch from the U.S..
When Is the Coronation?

The coronation of King Charles and his wife, Camila, will take place at Westminster Abbey on Saturday (May 6). King Charles will become the 40th Sovereign to be crowned at Westminster Abbey where coronations have been held since the year 1066.

Members of the British royal family, including Prince William and Prince Harry, will be in attendance along with friends and family of their majesties.

International representatives from 203 countries will also be in attendance, including approximately 100 heads of state. Additionally, 400 young people representing charities chosen by King Charles, Queen Camila and the U.K. Government, “will have the opportunity to watch the Coronation Service and Processions from inside St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey,” according to a news release from Buckingham Palace.   
How to Watch the Coronation for Free

Prior to the coronation, King Charles and Queen Camila will participate in the “King’s Procession” from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey. The coronation is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. BST/6 a.m. ET. Both the procession and coronation service will broadcast live on BBC One, BBC 2 and BBC iPlayer.

How can you watch the coronation in the U.S.? The coronation will broadcast live on CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, BBC America and cable news networks. The ceremony will also stream live on the royal family’s YouTube page.

Coronation coverage starts at 5 a.m. ET in the U.S. Want to watch free? Stream CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox and BBC America with a free trial from DirectTV Stream or Fubo.

Paramount+ offers live access to CBS when you subscribe to the Premium plan (free trial included), while Peacock subscribers can stream NBC live on the Premium Plus plan. Sling and Hulu + Live TV also offer live television at an affordable price. And if you want to stream internationally, you can use ExpressVPN to watch the coronation live on streaming platforms and networks like CBS and NBC.

Coronation Concert: Performance Lineup & How to Watch

American Idol judges Katy Perry and Lionel Richie will take the stage for the coronation concert at Windsor Castle on Sunday (May 7). The concert will broadcast on BBC One, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sound and BBC Radio 2. BBC iPlayer only works in the U.K., but you can watch from the U.S. on ExpressVPN.

Other coronation concert performers include Andrea Bocelli, Nicole Scherzinger, Tiwa Savage, Paloma Faith, Frey Riding and Sir Bryn Terfel.

In the mood for more royal coverage? Get your royal fix by streaming hit shows and must-watch documentaries like The Crown and Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story on Netflix and The Princess on HBO Max.

All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Prince Harry’s highly anticipated memoir is finally here and it’s already a hit in the sales department. After debuting Tuesday (Jan. 10), Spare shot to No. 1 on Amazon’s bestsellers list and set “record-breaking, day-one sales” at Barnes & Noble.

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With 2 million copies printed in the U.S. alone, Spare is expected to be one of the biggest books of 2023. According to Barnes & Noble, customer demand compares to the first day of Michelle Obama’s bestselling 2018 memoir Belonging.

“It is thrilling as a bookseller to have a massive release like this to start our new year,” Shannon DeVito, director of books, Barnes & Noble said in a press release to Billboard. “We are experiencing the most extraordinary first-day sales, buoyed by the explosive headlines and litany of press. The leaking of extracts has only heightened the frenzy and is drawing customers into our bookstores in amazing numbers. The appeal of Spare is vast, piquing the interest of both fans and followers of the Sussexes, as well as their critics, and anyone interested in the British Royal Family.”  

Per the description, Spare chronicles Prince Harry’s “journey with raw, unflinching honesty” while sharing “insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.”

The father of two gets candid about grieving the death of his mother, Princess Diana, and battling “post-traumatic stress and crippling panic attacks” as a result. He also chronicles falling in love with Meghan Markle and later being “preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies.”

“Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country,” reads the book description. “Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother.”

Detailing his experience as one of the most famous royals in the world, Prince Harry goes on to open up about his beloved late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II , and the now strained relationship with his father and brother, Prince William and father King Charles III .

The 38-year-old royal promoted his new book in recent interviews with 60 Minutes (streaming on Paramount+) and Good Morning America (streaming on Hulu).

Spare is available in hardcover, paperback, Kindle, audiobook and e-book editions at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Target, Books-A-Million in addition to Audible, Google Play Store and Apple Books.

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Amid the negativity, Beyoncé brought some positivity into Meghan Markle’s life.

In Netflix’s second volume of Harry & Meghan released on Thursday (Dec. 15), the Duchess of Sussex receives a text message from the “Break My Soul” superstar in March 2021, a day after her groundbreaking interview alongside husband Prince Harry with Oprah Winfrey.

“Beyoncé just texted,” Markle says, as she’s sitting next to the Duke of Sussex in their home office in Montecito, Calif. “Just checking in,” the former actress reads the message with a smile. “I still can’t believe she knows who I am!”

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“Go and call her,” Harry said, to which Markle declined. “[Bey] said she wants me to feel safe and protected,” she continued. “She admires and respects my bravery and vulnerability and thinks I was selected to break generational curses that need to be healed.”

In response to the touching message, Harry replied, “That’s well said.”

After the Oprah interview, Beyoncé also took to her website to extend support to Markle, who opened up during the interview about just how challenging her time in the royal spotlight was. “Thank you Meghan for your courage and leadership,” Beyoncé wrote next to a photo of the pair meeting for the first time — alongside their famous husbands — at the London premiere of The Lion King in the summer of 2019. “We are all strengthened and inspired by you.”

In the prime time interview, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex unleashed a string of allegations against the royal family, including that Markle had asked the Palace for help because of suicidal thoughts and was turned away and that an unnamed member of the royal family had expressed concern to Harry about how dark the couple’s first-born child’s skin might be.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sent a special message to Elton John ahead of the last U.S. show of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour on Sunday night (Nov. 20).

“Hi Elton, we just wanted to say congratulations,” the Duchess of Sussex said in a video played during Disney+’s Countdown to Elton Live ahead of its broadcast of his final show at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles, which is the final North American date of his farewell tour. “And we are just so proud of you. We’re so grateful that we were able to see you on your farewell tour also.”

After offering his own “congratulations,” the prince added, “And thank you for entertaining everybody for so many decades. Thank you for being the friend that you were for my mum, thank you for being our friend. Thank you for being a friend to our kids and thank you for entertaining people right around the world.

“Even though this is officially your retirement, this will not be your last gig, we know that,” Harry concluded. “But we love you and congratulations on an incredible career.”

Of course, Sir Elton’s friendship with the late Princess Diana dates all the way back to before Harry’s birth, when he was asked to perform at Prince Andrew’s 21st birthday party in 1981. Elton and Princess Diana remained close for the remainder of her life, and the singer famously performed “Candle in the Wind 1997” at her funeral in 1997. (The song rocketed to No. 1 when he released the studio version following the service; it went on to spend 14 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100.)

Elton’s farewell concert also featured a number of special, in-person guests throughout the night, including Dua Lipa, Kiki Dee and Brandi Carlile.

Watch Harry and Meghan’s well wishes for John below.