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He’s known on both sides of the Atlantic for traditional Latin pop classics such as “Yo Soy Aquel” and “En Carne Viva.” But Raphael, one of Spain’s most celebrated vocalists internationally with over six decades of career, doesn’t rule out the possibility of venturing into urbano music.
“I know it’s not my thing, because I don’t know how to do anything else. But you never know,” says the 80-year-old artist. “Maybe I’ll say ‘I’m gonna try doing this to see what happens.’ That was the case with ‘Escándalo’, and look how far it got,” he added about his 1992 Caribbean-flavored hit, which spent 12 weeks on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart.
Raphael made these comments this week at the first first Forum on Spanish Language Music in Madrid, presented by the Community of Madrid and powered by Billboard, which took place on Tuesday (March 19) at the WiZink Center in the Spanish capital. He was the star of the Icon panel moderated by Leila Cobo, Billboard‘s Chief Content Officer for Latin/Español.
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When Cobo asked him what he thought of Latin urban music, Raphael said that “like all music, there are salvageable things and less salvageable things, there are things that have grace. But I would give it some time, because it is in full bustle now,” he continued. “We have to give it time to see where all this ends up.”
And, with his characteristic humor, he answered whether he would like to collaborate with any urbano artist: “Maybe yes! Maybe someone will call me today!”
During the conversation, the Spanish superstar also spoke about the moment he knew that being an artist was his thing, the role of songwriter Manuel Alejandro as the “tailor” of his career, the process of his globalization and why he doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon.
“I don’t see myself doing nothing, with so many things that can be done and so many theaters and places to go, and so many countries to revisit, where I have been loved so much for so long. I prefer to be active,” he said. “So, as long as this one responds, I’m going to be singing,” he added pointing to his vocal cords.
“Obviously I am aware that someday I will have to stay at home, but the later the better. And if it can be when I leave for good, then let me take advantage of the exit,” he added with a laugh. “It’s not about wanting more, it’s about doing what you are passionate about every single day.”
Share of streaming among the top 10,000 tracks measured by Luminate in its recently-released 2023 Year End Music Report went down by 3.8 percentage points since 2021. Which begs the question: Where did that 3.8% go?
It went fully into the streaming share of Spanish language tracks, which went up by 3.8%.
Indeed, today, Spanish is the second most consumed language in music, both in the U.S. and globally.
In the United States, the top three languages in music consumption by percentage of the total are, of course, English (88.8%), followed by Spanish (8.1%) and Korean in a distant third (0.7%).
The most recent numbers show Spanish language music’s market share among the country’s most popular songs almost doubled over the past two years — jumping from 4.2% of the top 10,000 tracks in 2021 to 8.1% in 2023. Overall, consumption of Latin music in the U.S grew by 19.4 billion on-demand audio streams in 2023, a 24.1% jump. In total number of streams, it was second in growth only to country, which grew by 20.4 billion streams.
Worldwide, English-language music consumption among the 10,000 most listened to tracks fell substantially in 2023, from 67% in 2021 to 54.9% in 2023. Spanish-language music consumption also dipped, from 12.4% in 2021 to 10.1% in 2023, while consumption of music in Hindi grew from 6.1% to 7.8%, and in Japanese from 1.3% to 2.1%. However, all told, Spanish is still the second most listened to music language in the world, according to the study.
In the U.S., Spanish-language music’s growth has been a very gradual process that’s come with the growth of streaming, a bigger Latin population, and with a major cultural shift that accepts that there are more cultures and languages that can coexist. Chief among them is Spanish, which benefits from being the lingua franca of an entire continent, plus Spain. While Latins are not monolithic, as many have long pointed out, they are all (with the exception of Brazilians) united by language; go to any Latin music concert in the U.S., and you’ll find a plethora of nations gathered under the same roof enjoying the same music, regardless of its origin.
The shift in consumption has been noticed by mainstream labels; 25 years ago, Latin acts like Shakira and Ricky Martin, had to record in English to garner widespread promotion. Spanish, the language which has long defined “Latin” music, was conversely, widely seen as stepping stone on the path to international superstardom but not as the goal.
Today, for the first time, mainstream labels are signing and developing artists who record solely, or almost solely in Spanish, such as Yahrtiza y su Esencia to Columbia Records and Xavi to Interscope.
There is strength in numbers, and those numbers opened the door for Latin artists to scale the charts by singing only in Spanish, as well as for predominantly Spanish-language series –like “Narcos” and the new “Griselda”—to score big viewing numbers despite what many would have perceived as a language barrier years ago.
But clearly, today there is a growing number of non-Spanish speakers who also listen to music in Spanish. According to recent consumer research insights from Luminate, for example, 25% of U.S. music listeners (ages 13+) said they engage with Spanish-language music, even though Hispanics account for 19% of the population.
People may not speak Spanish, but they’re definitely listening to the music.
The fact that Bad Bunny topped the Billboard 200 for the third consecutive time with his Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana (No One Knows What Will Happen Tomorrow) came as a surprise to no one. By now, the Puerto Rican artist is firmly entrenched in the pop culture zeitgeist, having entered that rarified club of artists who can do no wrong (in this moment in time, at least) and whose music demands immediate consumption.
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But unlike every other artist who has ever hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — well, “every” until earlier this year, anyway — Bad Bunny’s feat carries a massive, previously unheard of caveat: He sings only in Spanish, and he achieved his trifecta of No. 1s with Spanish-only albums, something no one has ever done before.
That alone is noteworthy. But seeing Bad Bunny (or Benito, his real name, and the name he increasingly goes by publicly, including on the cover of his new album) host Saturday Night Live (SNL) largely in Spanish took things to a whole other level. Thanks to a rapper from Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, Latin presence in U.S. pop culture has been mainstreamed for perhaps the first time since I Love Lucy in the 1950s. The big difference is, I Love Lucy used comedy as a vehicle to “translate” Desi Arnaz’s accented English, accompanied by boogaloo.
In contrast, Bad Bunny makes no attempt at translation or compromise when he very matter of factly speaks in Spanish. Last Saturday (Oct. 21), during his SNL opening monologue he not only went back and forth between Spanish and English, but also repeatedly alluded to language as a bridge (“I’m very excited to be here in Sábado Gigante,” he joked, referring to the iconic late night show that defined Spanish language television for decades) and as a divider (“People are wondering if I can host this show, because English is my second language”).
It’s an important point to make. While Benito has clearly spruced up his English chops and was indeed perfectly capable of hosting the evening, Latin artists were long kept off the air and off major events because they either spoke and sang only in Spanish, were not fluent enough in English, or because their Latin accents were not as broadly accepted as the more elite British or French.
Their other-ness was problematic: So much so, that back in 2013, when New York-born and raised Marc Anthony sang “God Bless America” at the MLB All-Star game in America, he received an avalanche of criticism on Twitter claiming he wasn’t American, despite his Bronx accent.
Fast forward to August, 2017 — still just six years ago — when the runaway smash “Despacito” was at the height of its popularity, having culminated its 16-week, then-record-rying run at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Despite it already boasting the most-viewed video of all time on YouTube, it didn’t get a single Video Music Award nomination, a fact the VMAs attributed to miscommunication and technicalities.
Whatever it may have been, it was par for the course at the time. That same year, USC’s Annenberg School of Communications released a report revealing that although Latinos comprised nearly 18 percent of the U.S. population (the biggest minority in the country), only 5.8 percent of speaking roles in film and television went to them. Two years later, the number actually went down, to 5%.
As for the Grammys, in 2017 there had been only three Spanish-language performances since Ricky Martin brought the house down in 1999 with “The Cup of Life” (singing in English).
Even the Hot 100 bears witness to the exclusion of Latin music. Between 2010 and 2016, only 14 songs performed primarily in Spanish made it to the chart. In 2017, the year of “Despacito,” the number jumped to 19 — no doubt spurred by the sudden visibility into the opportunity of Spanish or bilingual songs.
Since then, the ascent has been steady, with Spanish-language (and by extension, Latin music) artists gaining increasingly prominent looks in marquee properties, from late night shows to this year’s Grammys (with Bad Bunny famously opening the ceremonies with an all-Spanish performance) to September’s VMAs, where Shakira received the Video Vanguard award and sang a 10-minute bilingual medley of hits. On the Hot 100, so far this year nearly 100 songs in Spanish have made it onto the chart, including every track on Bad Bunny’s latest album.
It would appear that Spanish, at last, has been normalized in the American mainstream, and that Latin faces at last have become visible — and that Latin culture, at last, is not seen as simply quaint or colorful or foreign, but as part of the very fabric of this country. It’s a tipping point I earnestly longed to encounter as an observer of Latin culture for the past two decades.
Years ago, When Bad Bunny debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in December of 2020 with El Ultimo Tour del Mundo, it marked the first time in history that an all-Spanish album had topped the all-genre chart. The notion that this could be a fad or a bleep on the screen was very real. Back in 2017, when I interviewed Nicky Jam and J Balvin for a Billboard cover story, I specifically asked about the importance of language choice in their songs. Their answers reflected the reality of the moment.
“If you’re aiming for the American market, it has to be in English,” said Nicky Jam. “I can’t picture an African-American rap fan sitting in his car saying, ‘I love Nicky Jam’s rap!’ [in Spanish]. Just being realistic.”
I concurred with Nicky Jam. Over the years, nothing I had seen in the marketplace suggested that it was ready for Spanish as a dominant music language. Balvin, however, didn’t agree.
“I think it’s possible [to have a No. 1 in Spanish], but we’re not there yet,” he said. “It may take many years, but as new generations emerge and realize the United States isn’t the only place in the planet and English isn’t the only language of value [it may happen].”
The words were prescient. A few months after that interview, “Despacito,” in its bilingual version with Justin Bieber, rose to No. 1 on the Hot 100, opening the floodgates for possibility, investment and A&R. Coupled with the global surge of consumption of music in Spanish, Latin music began to creep onto the all-genre charts, the numbers rising steadily and peaking at 70 tracks so far in 2023 — before Bad Bunny’s new album release last week, which added 22 more Spanish tracks to the list.
Not surprisingly, Bad Bunny was both a performer at last Saturday’s SNL and also the host, asking to change the “Speaking in a non-English language” caption that caused an uproar seven months ago at the Grammys to the more humorous “Speaking a sexier language.”
Is it really sexier? I don’t know — but finally, I can say it’s no longer frowned upon. It’s Spanish. And it’s cool, and it’s part of us, even if you don’t understand a word.
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