From record to record. From success to success. In recent times we are getting used to title in this way the increasingly propped up “conquest of the West” by music in Spanish.
as if it were the british invasion In the 1960s, Spanish was the protagonist of a massive landing of artists in the Anglo-Saxon market –mainly in the US–, exporting their most vernacular roots, their most identity rhythms and their language. This is different from the “invasion” of British bands in their prodigious decade, who fed the American market with their own music, inherited from the old bluesmen.
Gone are those times when the reality of the music markets was the opposite, with the Anglo-Saxon industry taking over important market shares in any list international, exhibiting mastery and absolute power of music marketing.
Music speaks the popular language
We must also understand that this gradual and galloping penetration in a market as huge as the United States is taking place through musical genres that were not exactly well valued or supported by the dominant music industry until a few years ago, such as trap or reggaeton.
However, it is not the first time, nor possibly the last, in which certain styles or musical movements have been initially ignored by the powers that be in the industry, only to be later naturally integrated into of their catalogues.
Let us recall the by no means insignificant cases of the “race music” (“primitive” music), the very rock and roll (“devil’s music”), the punk (the “anti-system”), or the rap (the “gangsters”).
All of them saw how the industry turned its back on them in their origins, until the companies detected that their public, their audience, in short, their clients, adopted these phenomena as their own. Therefore, they did not hesitate to sign the most prominent artists and propel them to the podium of the musical Olympus, turning them into adored protagonists of the star system. The writing, nothing new under the sun.
This reality of the “Latin invasion” has been verified in the recent edition of the Grammy Awards, the first held after the break due to the covid-19 pandemic, in which artists such as Bad Bunny and Rosalía have had a prominent role.
And it settles with the positioning of Andalusia as the venue for the celebration of the Latin Grammys in 2023in what will be the first edition of the awards to be held outside the United States.
Bad Bunny and Rosalia
Bad Bunny could be considered the most paradigmatic case of this “new reality”. The Puerto Rican artist does not stop making headlines thanks to his constant exploits, highlighting these most recent:
Rolling Stone
The other major irruption is that of the Catalan artist Rosalía, who is in the process of conquering the US market. It is not uncommon to see her invited to the media late nightsas The Tonight Show“, o awarded at the Grammys (Best Alternative Latin Album in 2020 with the evil will and in 2023 with Motomami). He also triumphed resoundingly in the Grammy Latinos and became the first Spanish-speaking artist to be on the cover of the magazine Rolling Stone.
Des-pa-ci-to
Among the cast of artists who have also tasted the honey of success in recent years in the complex North American market, we can find Luis Fonsi. In 2017, allied with another star of the dimension of Daddy Yankee, he designed the massive hit “Despacito”, the first single in Spanish to hit the charts. Billboard number 1.
Its metrics are really overwhelming: the video clip accumulates more than 8 billion views on YouTube and more of 1.5 billion streams on Spotify.
And who hasn’t enjoyed/suffered Shakira’s latest single (not exactly an internationally emerging artist) with the young and ubiquitous Argentine producer Bizarrap? In barely a month they have reached a whopping 339 million views on YouTubetogether with others 321 million on Spotify.
The Colombian composer and singer Karol G has become the first woman who reaches number one on the US charts with an album completely in Spanish: tomorrow will be nice. The album is also the first album by a Latin artist to reach number 1 on the Billboard 200 since 1995. That year, Dreaming of Youthe posthumous album – mostly in Spanish – by American singer Selena topped the chart for a week.
In short, we confirm the existence of a large brigade of Latino artists singing in Spanish and occupying a prominent position in American domestic music consumption. This denotes a striking and confirmed evolutionary reality in its consumption trends, catapulted by the unstoppable Latino demographic growth, arising both from the most recent migrants and from the already numerous native descendants.
And the forecast for the next few years it is not exactly downward.
