Tag: J Balvin

Santiago, Chile: Spotify’s Streaming Capital of Reggaetón

October 16, 2019

When the Colombian reggaetón star J Balvin and Puerto Rican trap artist Bad Bunny dropped their eight-track collaborative album, OASIS, in June this year, every single song  made it into Chile’s Top 50 on the first day of its release. Though potentially surprising at first glance, a closer look shows this chart-topping is right in line for reggaetón.

Puerto Rico and Panama might be the birthplaces of the genre—and Colombia a current production powerhouse—but with over 400 million plays per month, Santiago, Chile is the indisputable capital of reggaetón streaming. Twice as many reggaetón songs are played in Santiago as the second city on the list, Mexico City (even though the Mexican capital has a population nearly double the size of its Chilean counterpart). 

“What we are seeing with reggaetón in Chile is a great testimony to the absolute powerhouse that is Latin America when it comes to building and delivering audiences for Latin artists,” said Mia Nygren, Managing Director for Spotify in Latin America. 

Spotify Flagship Playlist ¡Viva Latino! Hits 10 Million Followers

July 26, 2019

It’s been growing five times faster than any other playlist in Spotify’s top 1000. It’s propelled numerous Spanish-language songs to the Global Top 100 and Top 50 charts. And now, ¡Viva Latino!, our flagship Latin music playlist, has hit a remarkable 10 million followers. 

Spotify users from all over the world are tuning into ¡Viva Latino! to hear the hits from the hottest Latin artists – whether it’s the latest global anthems by Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Ozuna, or Nicky Jam, the soulful sounds of Karol G, the sultry hits of Becky G, or Rosalia’s reinvention of flamenco, to name just a few. ¡Viva Latino! is loaded with songs that grab your attention, fill your day with music, and secure a place in your heart.

The growth of the third-most-followed playlist reflects the incredible movement within Latin music over the past few years. Since 2014, Latin artists have seen a staggering 250% increase in representation across the Global Top 100. Plus, in the past two years alone on Spotify, we’ve seen an average 33% year-over-year increase in streams of Latin music.  

We’re excited about this 10-million-follower milestone—thanks in large part to you, the listeners and fans. The artists who made the playlist great are thankful and excited too. Check out the video below for best wishes from Daddy Yankee, Anitta, Wisin & Yandel, and more. We are 10,000,000 strong.

If you’re as excited about this milestone as we are, come celebrate with us in Miami at the second ¡Viva Latino! Live concert, featuring Bad Bunny, Nicky Jam, Rosalia, Sebastian Yatra, and Sech. Get tickets on Ticketmaster. 

¡Viva Latino! Live Miami Adds Rosalía, Sebastian Yatra, and Sech to Lineup

July 16, 2019

On June 10 we announced that renowned hitmakers Bad Bunny and Nicky Jam would be headlining the next installment in our ¡Viva Latino! Live series in the vibrant metropolis of Miami. Today that lineup is growing to include some of the hottest rising stars in the business: Rosalía, Sebastián Yatra, and Sech. Each artist brings their own growing momentum to the show, touting a combined 53.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

  • Rosalía has catapulted to stardom since being featured as an emerging artist just a year ago on ¡Viva Latino! The artist, who recently became the Spanish singer with the most monthly listeners on Spotify, gained widespread acclaim for her debut album and Coachella set this spring. Her collab with J Balvin, “Con Altura,” is now #41 on the Global 50.
  • Sebastián Yatra is one of the most formidable stars to rise in recent years. Since his breakout song “Tracionera” in 2016, he’s released two albums, including this year’s pop-leaning FANTASÍA. The album’s lead single, “Un Año,” reached the Global Top 50 in March. Most recently, he featured the Jonas Brothers singing in Spanish on “Runaway.”
  • Sech is this year’s biggest success story; the Panamanian artist was featured as an emerging artist to watch on ¡Viva Latino! in April with the release of “Otro Trago,” which reached #4—and is currently at #10—on the Global 50.

 This year’s lineup is a testament to the ever-growing power of Latin music. Bad Bunny’s surprise collab album with J Balvin, Oasis, debuted in three of our Top charts within the first 24 hours after release, and his track “Callaita” is #9 on the Global Top 50. These victories, coupled with Nicky Jam’s massive #1 global anthem, “X,” mark the show as one fans won’t want to miss.

 There’s no doubt that Latin artists will continue to grow within the Global Top 100. In fact, we’ve seen a staggering 250% increase in the number of Latin artists appearing in the Global Top 100 since 2014. In the last two years alone, we’ve seen an average 33% year-over-year increase in streams of Latin music.

 With ¡Viva Latino! on the precipice of reaching 10 million monthly followers—growing at a rate five times quicker than any other playlist in Spotify’s Top 1,000 Playlists—there is no better time to bring the music to life with a live show.

 ¡Viva Latino! Live Miami takes over American Airlines Arena on August 30, 2019, and tickets are now available on Ticketmaster.com.

 For the latest info, updates, and behind-the-scenes looks, be sure to follow @VivaLatino on Instagram and @SpotifyLatino on Twitter!

Who Will Win the Latin Grammy Awards? Here’s What Our Streaming Data Says

November 14, 2018

Honoring the biggest stars in Latin music, the 19th Annual Latin Grammy Awards on November 15 are just around the corner, and the lucky winners are anyone’s guess. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun projecting which talented artists will take home the coveted gold gramophones.

First, let’s look at what we know for sure. The breakout hitmakers topping the charts lead the pack of this year’s Latin Grammy hopefuls, including Colombian reggaeton sensation J Balvin, who racked up eight nominations. Flamenco fusion standout Rosalía isn’t far behind, with five nominations total, a testament to the Barcelona native’s sizzling sophomore album. Meanwhile, Afro-Colombian gypsy jazz ensemble Monsieur Periné is riding the worldwide Latin music wave to what could be the band’s second Latin Grammy win in just three years (the group won the Latin Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2015). Taking home the 2018 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year Award will be Maná. The iconic six-time Latin Grammy-winning and four-time Grammy-winning Mexican rock-pop superstars will receive the coveted award for the group’s outstanding contributions to the Latin music community and for its dedication to environmental preservation and support for human rights.

Maná, the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year Award

Now, just for fun, let’s gaze into our data-driven crystal ball. Drawing on Spotify’s own statistics—based on what the listeners are streaming—we put together projections for the leading hopefuls in four top Latin Grammy Award categories. Since we rooted our predictions in Spotify user behavior, our listeners are in the future-gazing driver seat. So, based on the total plays on Spotify in the past month (drumroll, please), the potential winners are:

Record of the Year

“X” – Nicky Jam & J Balvin, 17 million streams in the last month

“Mi Gente” – J Balvin con Willy William, 15.2 million streams in the last month

“Malamente” – Rosalía, 5.6 million streams in the last month

Album of the Year

“Vibras” – J Balvin, 45 million streams in the last month

“Prometo” – Pablo Alborán, 9.4 million streams in the last month

“¡México Por Siempre!” – Luis Miguel, 5.4 million streams in the last month

Song of the Year

“Robarte Un Beso” – Mauricio Rengifo, Andrés Torres, Carlos Vives & Sebastian Yatra, songwriters (Carlos Vives & Sebastian Yatra), 7.3 million streams in the last month

“Malamente” – Antón Alvarez Alfaro, Pablo Diaz–Reixa & Rosalía, songwriters (Rosalía), 5.6 million streams in the last month

“Bailar Contigo” – Monsieur Periné & Mauricio Rengifo, songwriters (Monsieur Periné), 1.7 million streams in the last month

Best New Artist

Karol G, 83 million streams in the last month

Best New Artist Nominee Karol G

Christian Nodal, 26 million streams in the last month

Best New Artist Nominee Christian Nodal

Angela Aguilar, 18 million streams in the last month

Best New Artist Nominee Angela Aguilar

Don’t forget to tune in to see where our predictions land. The 19th Annual Latin Grammy Awards air live Thursday, November, 15th on Univision at 8 p.m. EST/PT.

Get pumped for the big show with our 19th Annual Latin Grammy Awards playlist, packed with 127 songs from nominees spanning several Latin music genres—pop, salsa, banda, cumbia, and more.

J Balvin Skyrockets to the Most Popular Artist on Spotify

June 25, 2018

J Balvin has been on a mission to blow reggaeton into a global phenomenon since he started making music at 14. The Latin pop superstar, now 33, has done it at last. Today, Balvin snagged Spotify’s top spot with the Most Monthly Listeners Globally, surpassing Drake’s long-held record. With over 48.1 million monthly listeners, he is officially the most popular artist on our platform.

“It is so rewarding to have achieved this goal,” says Balvin. “I’ve spoken often about my belief that we can change the concept of what is ‘mainstream’ – that people around the world can vibe with the rhythms of our Latin culture, and this special moment continues to prove that point. I have the utmost gratitude to Spotify for the long support for my music, and I am beyond honored to join the ranks of Drake and others that have been able to connect with people of so many nationalities through Spotify playlists. We’ve proved that Reggaeton HAS gone global, and that songs in Spanish can stand alongside the best pop music on the planet.”

With musical roots steeped in rap, R&B, bachata, reggae and champeta, the Colombian-born José Álvaro Osorio Balvín is a crossover king who understands the multiplicative power of partnership. The proof: his growing list of chart-topping collabs with today’s hottest pop and hip-hop artists including Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, Ariana Grande, Pharrell Williams (he has also toured with Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull).

And who can forget “Mi Gente,” his smash-hit summer jam? The multicultural dance anthem rocketed to Number One on the Spotify Global Top 50 Chart last August. Just one month later, the “Mi Gente” Beyoncé remix—in which Queen Bey sings in Spanish, English and French—landed on the U.S. Top 10 Songs Chart. The breakthrough single further catapulted reggaeton into the global spotlight. During this landmark year in Balvin’s career, Latin music listening increased by 110 percent on Spotify.

The Latin Grammy Award-winning singer blasted into 2018 on a collaborative roll, churning out a string of hit dream-team singles: “Machika” with Brazilian funk star Anitta, “X” with Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Nicky Jam, “Familiar” with former One Direction member Liam Payne and “I Like It” with Cardi B and Bad Bunny.

Balvin’s meteoric rise on the global charts and Spotify—the leading music streaming service in the world—is a testament to not only his barrier-breaking body of work, but also to the explosion of Latin music around the globe. With his Spanish language-only hit “Mi Gente,” the bilingual sensation showed that Spanish-language music is conquering pop on a global level, in both English and Spanish speaking regions alike.

To explore J Balvin’s eclectic array of hypnotic multicultural rhythms, check out the This Is: J Balvin playlist on Spotify.

Riding the Rhythm of the Colombian Music Explosion

April 20, 2018

Without a doubt, the fuego behind Colombian music is spreading fast. And like the salsa dancing at the heart of the “land of a thousand rhythms,” the energy of the movement isn’t missing a beat.

Colombia is a musical melting pot of cultures, styles, instruments, and artists, and this incredible diversity has given rise to a wealth of eclectic music inspired by folkloric styles, modern sounds, and global genres. From pop to reggaeton to rap to indie and folk, Colombian artists from all avenues of music are catching fire, in real life and across the globe through Spotify.

This rise of Colombian artists springs from the popularity of reggaeton and other infectious Latin rhythms bleeding into pop music. You hear it from homegrown powerhouses Shakira and Juanes, to Medellín’s own reggaeton stars J Balvin and Maluma, and the list goes on.

In fact, about 28 percent of tracks in ¡Viva Latino!—Spotify’s popular Latin Music playlist—is from Colombian artists, second only to Puerto Rican artists. And 90 percent of streams for Colombian artists on Spotify happen outside of Colombia—the main audience is in Mexico, followed by the U.S., Spain, Argentina and Chile.

But Colombian music today isn’t limited to pop and reggaeton. Following the lead of alternative Colombian music that burst onto the charts in the ‘90s (with Aterciopelados, and more recently, Bomba Estereo), a generation of alternative artists like the Grammy-winning Monsieur Periné are breaking through.

Monsieur Periné, the female-fronted Afro-Colombian gypsy jazz ensemble, mashes up Latin and European styles and blends languages in surprising ways. Creating a fresh new sound all their own, the Bogotá-based band transforms samples from traditional Colombian music and spins lyrics in Spanish, Portuguese, French and English. Their soulful tunes are interwoven with threads of swing and pop, fused with heart-thumping Latin rhythms like cumbia, salsa and Andean instrumentation.

“Colombia is a territory with spirit, and it needs to express it,” Catalina Garcia, Monsieur Periné’s lead singer, says in a new video episode of ¡Viva Latino! featuring an intimate version of the group’s new song “Bailar Contigo.”

“We make music that is a part of us, and a part of where we come from,” says Santiago. Her home is Quindío, nestled in western central Colombia and crossed by the Andes mountains, where her family has grown coffee for four generations. “From the time we are born, we are music because our heart plays the rhythm of life,” she says.

Featuring Monsieur Periné’s music on Spotify has exponentially amplified the band’s reach. Catalina also credits streaming her band’s songs on Spotify with opening up opportunities for Monsieur Periné to be heard in entirely new places. “It has allowed us to access many places where our music didn’t arrive before,” she says.

Being on the largest music streaming service in the world also helps the band connect with their fans on updates from new tour stops to their latest music. “Having our tour dates or playlist curated by ourselves allows us to show things to our fans that we did not have the ability to do before,” Catalina says.

As massive devourers of music themselves, Catalina and her bandmates also look to Spotify as an endless source of creative inspiration—an infinite toolkit to help them take their music to the next level again and again.

“Spotify is a huge encyclopedia of artists and music, an infinite sea of musical influences,” she says. “We have been able to discover songs from all over the world, from all periods, from all genres, and all these things that we listen to influence our way of creating.”