The explosion of the Mexican urban The coronation of young figures like Bizarrap and Peso Pluma and the recognitions of women marked music in Spanish in 2023, a year in which the Latin music industry also began to look for alternatives to the domain of reggaeton.
This year, international markets also opened for exponents of urban music beyond Puerto Rico and Colombia, with artists from Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico who They began to resonate strongly beyond their local audiences.
“We bring other sounds and another perspective, I think that has helped us Argentine artists open up the market to the north. It has also made us experiment more. “We have all won,” he highlighted. EFE Maria Becerra, whose bachata with Enrique Iglesias ‘ Así es la vida ‘ reached the top of the Billboard Tropical Airplay chart in the second week of December.
Pop and rock in Spanish also struggled this year to regain ground, and they achieved it by relying on nostalgia. Groups like Green Dwarves, The Law and G Men, among many others, they had a strong presence in the growing number of music festivals.
The year of the Mexican urban
However, nothing stopped the growth of the Mexican regional. In 2023, more than 35 songs from the genre entered the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The most successful was the lying run ‘She dances alone’, by Eslabón Armado and Peso Pluma, which made history by reaching number five. The song also spent six weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart, which tracks global music performance.
In addition, ‘La Bebe’, the remix of Yng Lvcas ft. Featherweight, He made history as the first Mexican reggaeton to reach first place in Latin Air Play, and achieved four platinum records in the United States.
For Jimmy Humilde, president of the independent label ‘Rancho humble’, where the corridos tumbados were born, “that search for alternative sounds to reggaeton also opened the door to new artists of Mexican musicwho have a lot to say, especially those who are at that crossroads of more traditional music and urban sounds.”
Mexican music not only benefited from the proliferation of small labels associated with multinationals for distribution and success on TikTok, but it also received the support of established urban artists such as the collaboration of Grupo Frontera and Bad Bunny in ‘X Ciento’Fuerza Regida and Marshmello in ‘Harley Quinn’ and Maluma with Carin León in ‘According to whom’.
Peso Pluma also collaborated with El Alfa, incorporating Dominican dembow into his sound, and with Anitta. His song ‘Bellakeo’, which came out last week, is a novel fusion of Mexican reggaeton with Brazilian funk.
Carin Leon, whose career also grew exponentially this year, has found a niche in his fusion of sierreño, norteño, blues and flamenco. His song ‘First Date’ took him not only to Spain, but to the iconic program ‘The Tonight Show’ with Jimmy Fallon.
The outstanding debt with women
Shakira, Karol G and Natalia Lafourcade They swept the main Latin music awards in 2023, including the Latin Grammys, the Latin Billboard, Lo Nuestro and the Rolling Stone.
With ‘Sessions, Vol. 53’ Shakira and the Argentine producer Bizarrap They achieved 13 Guinness records.
Karol G She was the first Latina to do a stadium tour in the United States and her two 2023 albums, ‘Tomorrow will be nice’ and ‘Bichota Season’, They made history on Spotify and Apple music.
However, the numbers make it clear that Latin music still does not open space for women. Only Karol G, Shakira and Rosalía are among the 20 most successful Latin artists in streaming and sales, in positions 3, 14 and 17, respectively.
Among the 50 most popular songs of the year, 11 are sung by women. Six for Karol G, three for Shakira, one for Becky G with Featherweight (‘Chanel’), and ‘Beso’, by Rosalía with Rauw Alejandro.
The story does not change on Billboard’s list of the 20 most successful albums of the year. Only 25 percent are women and three are by the same artist, Karol G, in addition to ‘Motomami’ that Rosalía released last year, and ‘Ones’, by Selena Quintanilla.
“In other words, without Karol G, the representation of women in the year-end numbers would have been much worse. It’s nothing new. With the exception of a handful of names like Selena, Shakira and now Karol G, “Women have had a very limited presence on the lists,” points out Billboard’s Spanish content director, Leila Cobo, in her 2023 analysis.
An absence attributed to a multitude of factors “like the lack of female executives supporting female artists, lack of support from record companies and the emergence of reggaeton and regional Mexican music, both dominated by men.”
(With information from EFE)
2023-12-17 12:38:40
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