Billboard September 28, 2024 (Digital)

WEEKS ON CHART 480 The Weeknd’s “Dancing in the Flames” ignites at No. 10 on the Billboard Global 200 with 46.6 million official streams and 18,000 sold worldwide in the first week following its Sept. 13 release, according to Luminate. It likewise debuts at No. 10 on the Billboard Global Excl. U.S. chart. —GARY TRUST NO. 3 Run Of ‘Luck’ Continues “Good Luck, Babe!” by Chappell Roan (above) surges 7-4 on the Billboard Hot 100, surpassing its prior No. 6 high to become her first top five hit on the chart. The song drew 22.3 million streams (up 10%) and sold 4,000 (up 20%) Sept. 13-19. The Missouri native performed the track on Sept. 11 at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards, where she also won for best new artist. In addition, the single tallied…

Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” takes flight to No. 1 on Mainstream Top 40. She earns her third leader on the airplay list after “Therefore I Am” and “bad guy” reigned for two weeks each in April 2021 and August 2019, respectively. The song is Eilish’s second Mainstream Top 40 top 10 from her latest album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, after “Lunch” reached No. 10 in August. The set, released May 17, has earned 1.5 million equivalent album units in the United States through Sept. 19, according to Luminate. “Birds of a Feather” also perched atop the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts for three weeks each in August. Plus, it wrapped at No. 9 on the 2024 Songs of the Summer ranking. Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and…

Luke Combs notches his 18th Country Airplay chart-topper with “Ain’t No Love in Oklahoma.” The song, from the soundtrack Twisters: The Album, increased by 12% to 30.2 million audience impressions Sept. 13-19, according to Luminate. Combs last led the chart with his version of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 Billboard Hot 100 top 10, “Fast Car,” for five weeks starting in July 2023. The Asheville, N.C., native’s 18 leaders dating to his first, “Hurricane,” in May 2017, mark the most among all artists in that span; Thomas Rhett and Morgan Wallen follow with 14 each. Combs also boasts the most weeks at No. 1 — 52— in that stretch, ahead of Wallen’s 43. Notably, the soundtrack to 1996’s original Twister spun off its own Country Airplay No. 1: Shania Twain’s “No One Needs To…

The original Broadway cast recording of Hell’s Kitchen reenters the Cast Albums chart at No. 1 for its first week atop the list following the set’s CD/vinyl release on Aug. 30. The two-time Tony Award-winning show, inspired by Alicia Keys’ New York upbringing, boasts new original songs and classic compositions by the singer-songwriter. The Cast Albums chart is typically led by such evergreens as the original Broadway cast recordings of Hamilton: An American Musical (with a record 411 weeks at No. 1) and Wicked (the second-most weeks atop the chart, with 342). So far in 2024, 10 albums have ruled the list for the first time, including the original Broadway cast recordings of The Outsiders, The Notebook and The Great Gatsby; the new Broadway cast album from Merrily We Roll Along;…

Yolanda Adams (above) banks her 17th top 10 on Top Gospel Albums as Sunny Days bursts in at No. 9 with 1,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States Sept. 13-19, according to Luminate. The set is the Houston native’s first entry since May 2011, when Becoming debuted at its No. 3 best. Before that, What a Wonderful Time reached No. 2 in December 2007 and The Best of Me became her fifth No. 1 that May. Adams ties Fred Hammond and CeCe Winans for the most Top Gospel Albums top 10s since she logged her first week in the region with the No. 8-peaking Just As I Am in November 1988. Shirley Caesar and Kirk Franklin follow with 16 each in that span. Adams is currently on The Reunion Tour with…

FOR THE SECOND TIME in three years, Universal Music Group (UMG) chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge tops Billboard’s annual list of the highest-compensated music executives. In the first year of a five-year employment contract, the London-born, Los Angeles-based Grainge earned $150.3 million, nearly six times the $25.6 million paid to second-place finisher James Dolan, executive chairman/CEO of both Sphere Entertainment Co. and Madison Square Garden Entertainment. (The fiscal years of the latter two companies ended June 30, 2023.) Live Nation president/CEO Michael Rapino, last year’s No. 1, was third at $23.4 million. Most other executives appeared on the prior two compensation rankings. Warner Music Group CEO Robert Kyncl and WMG’s outgoing CEO of recorded music, Max Lousada, were fifth and sixth, respectively (for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2023). Spotify co-president/chief product and…

WHEN SLIPKNOT FIRST CONTACTED Cedar Ridge Distillery, which is located 120 miles from the band’s hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, management was not interested in an alternative-metal whiskey brand inspired by scary clowns. Until one of the owners forwarded the Slipknot email to employees. “Oh, my God, Slipknot — are you kidding me?” came the overwhelming response. “We have to do this.” The result, Slipknot No. 9 Reserve Whiskey, which debuted in 2019, represents the shattering of a “glass ceiling” in the heavy metal business, according to Cory Brennan, Slipknot’s manager. Metal-branded products were once taboo; today, they’re no-brainers. “For so long, the gatekeepers were scared of anything aggressive and scared of metal and scared of their audiences. Over the past 15 years, that’s really changed,” Brennan says. “More and more…

WHEN JEREMY Sirota signed on as CEO of indie digital rights nonprofit Merlin in January 2020, he had already spent years championing the independent music community. After starting his career as a tech lawyer in the mid-2000s, Sirota worked for nine years at Warner Music Group’s WEA subsidiary and ADA, helping to distribute WMG’s affiliated indie-label partners. He then moved to Facebook Music, where he was independent label lead for its business and partnerships team. That experience gives him the perspective needed to assist Merlin’s 30,000-plus label partners in more than 70 countries in navigating an increasingly complex digital world. Over the past four years, he has worked to set those labels — which collectively represent some 15% of the global recorded-music market — on a course to optimize partnerships that increasingly…

WHILE RECORDING his latest album, Eden, Eden Muñoz landed himself in the emergency room a whopping four times, all to monitor his fast-beating heart. “I consider myself a relatively healthy person,” the Mexican singer-songwriter says today, still sounding a bit perplexed by the situation. “It wasn’t stress — I know stress.” After consulting multiple cardiologists, Muñoz visited one more (who was also a good friend) and finally got his answer: He was told that the process of making Eden proved too energizing. “It was a type of excitement that didn’t let me sleep because it felt like I was wasting time,” he recalls. “I needed to be in the studio.” And though the hospital trips were nerve-racking, Muñoz welcomed the excitement — it was a feeling he hadn’t experienced in relation to…

FIVE YEARS AFTER the 15-piece salsa band Grupo Niche formed in 1979, the Colombian act scored an early international gig in New York, even then an immigrant hub for Colombians. There, while reminiscing about his homeland, Jairo Varela — the group’s producer, songwriter, vocalist and guiro player — wrote “Cali Pachanguero.” The fast-paced salsa track with dazzling metal arrangements and syncopated beats paid homage to Cali, the bustling Colombian city known for its salsa scene and nightlife — and the place that would become Varela’s adopted home. “Cali Pachanguero” was included on the band’s fourth studio album, 1984’s No Hay Quinto Malo, and was named the official song of the annual Cali Fair the year it was released. More importantly, “Cali” catapulted Grupo Niche to national fame and changed the trajectory…

THIS SUMMER, singer-songwriter Yeison Jimenez achieved his lifelong dream of selling out the coveted Movistar Arena in Bogotá, Colombia — not once, but three times, with more than 40,000 collective fans attending the shows. The feat was not only historic for Jimenez, but for any música popular (regional Colombian) artist. “No one in the genre has been able to [sell out] a solo arena throughout Colombia,” he says. Música popular — which fuses ranchera and the string music known as carrilera in Colombia — was born more than five decades ago in the country’s coffee region, which has four departments: Caldas (where Jimenez was born), Quindío, Risaralda and Tolima. Initially known as música de carrilera or música de cantina, its inspiration derived from regional Mexican music and first gained traction in…

MARÍA BECERRA ANNOUNCED a break from social media on July 30 amid the European run of her world tour. Despite positioning herself at the forefront of Latin pop over the past year — including scoring her first two No. 1s on the Billboard Argentina Hot 100 and selling out River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in record time — the 24-year-old simultaneously needed a hiatus from the scrutiny that she, and many of her peers, face online every day. “I understand that social media is necessary for our careers,” she says. “But the limit is reached when they start taking away my joy.” Why did you decide to take a social media break? The attack on women’s bodies who are part of the [music] scene is constant: If I’m too skinny,…

JBALVIN AND I have a date at Tiffany’s. Admittedly, even I don’t realize this until I reach the storied display windows on Fifth Avenue, where I’m led to a private elevator manned by a uniformed attendant who silently takes me up, up, up. The doors open to a stunning private room with unfettered views of the Manhattan skyline and Central Park — where I also find José Álvaro Osorio Balvin himself. He looks every bit the lord of the manor, in a casually elegant short-sleeved white T-shirt tucked into sleek black Prada cargo pants. His beard is trimmed and his hair is pulled back in neat cornrows, exposing the matching diamond studs in his earlobes. On his wrist is a Patek Philippe watch. It’s a rare oasis of calm for an artist…

YOUNG MIKO IS SITTING, legs criss-crossed, atop her purple bed, surrounded by bookshelves, a boombox and a big Tamagotchi. A microphone clutched to her chest, she’s visibly emotional, almost teary-eyed. But she’s not alone in what appears to be her bedroom. On this September evening, she’s onstage at Miami’s Hard Rock Live, and a crowd of 7,000 is chanting the 26-year-old urbano star’s name — even though she hasn’t yet said a word. The bed, the centerpiece of her set, is a reference to the cover art for her latest album, this year’s att. And the satisfaction on her face is a reaction to an anything but private moment. She’s gazing in awe at the crowd of mainly Gen Z girls whose effortlessly chic looks mirror her own Y2K aesthetic —…

THE FIRST TIME GEORGE PRAJIN took Peso Pluma shopping for a music video, they didn’t see eye to eye. “I wanted him to go John Varvatos rock’n’roll, and he wanted to go to Burberry,” Prajin recalls. Considering that the video would also feature regional Mexican artist Luis R Conriquez for their 2022 collaboration, “Siempre Pendientes,” “I was like, ‘I don’t know about that,’ ” he adds. But, as Prajin proudly admits of the all-plaid ensemble (complete with bucket hat) that Peso insisted upon (and which perfectly contrasted with the gritty desert setting), “He was right — and after that I learned not to go against him.” That implicit trust now goes both ways — and Prajin, 52, has earned it. As the son of Antonino Z. Prajin — who owned Prajin…

JESÚS “JOP” ORTIZ PAZ CEO STREET MOB RECORDS As the lead singer of regional Mexican group Fuerza Regida, Jesús Ortiz Paz, aka JOP, lands on Billboard’s Latin Power Players list for his role as CEO of Street Mob Records. His label’s achievements this year include signing Chino Pacas (Billboard’s Latin Artist on the Rise for October 2023), as well as closing an exclusive alliance in September with Warner Music Latina for development of its roster. “The whole company is like, it. From employees to writers, everyone in the company — that’s our biggest accomplishment,” JOP says. “We are all under 30 ... [and] we really did it this year.” On the Billboard charts, he has had entries both as an artist and an executive beyond the regional Mexican rankings. In 2024 alone, Fuerza Regida scored…

NOAH ASSAD CEO JORGE BRACERO COO JONATHAN MIRANDA President JUNIOR CARABAÑO Vice president RIMAS ENTERTAINMENT RAYMOND ACOSTA GM HABIBI MANAGEMENT GROUP When Assad launched Rimas Entertainment in 2014, he told Billboard he aspired to make it a major label. Ten years later, the operation that started as a music hub primarily for digital marketing and distribution has become that, and more. Rimas Entertainment is now a powerhouse with label Rimas Music, whose signings include Bad Bunny, Eladio Carrión and Mora; management division Habibi, with clients including Karol G, Arcángel and Sebastián Yatra; distributor Sonar, through The Orchard; athletic agency Rimas Sports, with a roster of more than 70 clients; booking agency Rimas Nation; Rimas Publishing; and the Rimas Foundation, a philanthropic division that supports young athletes and musicians, as well as the initiatives of Rimas artists. “As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, ‘unprecedented’…

Music industry veteran Rebeca León, who has helped guide Latin music and culture into the mainstream and up the charts, is the recipient of the Latin Power Players’ Choice Award, which is an accolade chosen by Billboard Pro subscribers. As founder and CEO of artist management company Lionfish Entertainment and film/TV studio Lionfish Studios, León helms a roster that includes Brazilian superstar Anitta, Venezuelan singer-songwriter Danny Ocean, rising Spanish act st. Pedro and Venezuelan reggaetón LGBTQ+ artist La Cruz. The Miami-based León also oversaw the rise of global stars like Colombia’s J Balvin and Juanes, as well as Spain’s Rosalía, whom León developed from an unknown flamenco artist. León says working with artists she believes in is an honor and a privilege that “gives me hope for the future of music.” To…

UTA “It’s hard to pick just one,” Wallace says of UTA’s recent accomplishments in Latin music. In the first quarter of 2024, the team drove “exponential growth” in media value for clients including Bad Bunny, Karol G, Ángela Aguilar, Young Miko, Rauw Alejandro, Anitta and Rosalía while also achieving the “No. 1 priority” of helping clients reach partnership goals. For example, Puerto Rican rapper Eladio Carrión took on an ambassador role with New Balance as part of a multiyear deal that Wallace says is “a perfect example of what we strive to do for our artists through brand partnerships.” This past spring, the team put up historic numbers with Bad Bunny, who reigned on Billboard’s Boxscore chart for three consecutive months and, in total, grossed $211.4 million from 49 shows with his…

Two decades ago, while hip-hop maintained its cultural dominance, reggaetón began to carve out a niche in the global music scene, and Fat Joe — deeply connected to his Puerto Rican and Cuban heritage and known for his unmistakable New York swagger — bridged the two genres. As both have evolved, so has he: His involvement in Don Omar’s 2005 “Reggaetón Latino (Chosen Few Remix),” alongside N.O.R.E. and LDA, marked a pivotal moment in bringing reggaetón and rap closer together. Since then, he has consistently fused Latin influences with hip-hop, from his 2019 salsa-infused track “Yes” with Cardi B and Anuel AA (which samples Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón’s “Aguanile”) to the more recent single “Paradise” with Anitta and DJ Khaled. Fat Joe spoke with Billboard ahead of his conversation…

If Latin music exploded in 2023, it consolidated in 2024. According to Luminate’s 2024 Midyear Music Report, it is now the fastest-growing core genre in the United States, and Spanish is the second-most-consumed language in music both stateside and globally, behind only English. This year, Billboard Latin Music Week celebrates it 35th anniversary Oct. 14-18 at the Fillmore Miami Beach, with a wide range of acts from around the world that reflects the genre’s versatility both musically and as a business. The festivities will include the Billboard Latin Music Awards (airing on Telemundo on Oct. 20) — plus these highlights. (For a full schedule of events, go to billboardlatinmusicweek.com.) “FROM VIRAL HITS TO BILLBOARD CHARTS: THE POWER OF CONTENT CREATORS” Content creators have become increasingly prominent in raising awareness of Latin music…

While Karol G, Bad Bunny and Peso Pluma dominate the charts — and elevate Colombia, Puerto Rico and Mexico’s music scenes, respectively, to the world stage — a new wave of artists across other Latin American countries is also seeking, and earning, the spotlight. Earlier this year, Chilean artists scored their first No. 1 Billboard hit since 1991 when newcomers FloyyMenor and Cris MJ’s viral reggaetón hit, “Gata Only,” spent 14 consecutive weeks atop the Hot Latin Songs chart — a feat that would have seemed impossible for the country’s thriving local urban movement just five years ago. The new generation of Chilean artists has broken out in part thanks to star-studded linkups: Pablo Chill-E on Bad Bunny’s “Hablamos Mañana” (alongside Duki) in 2020; Paloma Mami on Ricky Martin’s “Que Rico Fuera”…

When today’s reggaetón stars refer to the genre’s OGs, names like Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Wisin and Yandel always come up. During Latin Music Week, Yandel will star on his own panel, which, like his upcoming album (out Oct. 10 on Warner Music Latin), is titled Elyte and will feature new and legendary reggaetón names across 19 tracks. At 47 years old — and now on his 11th solo set — Yandel is not only comfortable in his role as a solo act, but also as a leader and mentor to a new generation and a bridge between reggaetón’s past and future. What does being a reggaetón OG mean to you? I feel blessed to be here and still be relevant. It’s any artist’s dream. I’m a real OG, a real musical…

When “Big Dawgs,” the riotous song by Indian rapper Hanumankind and producer Kalmi, began spreading across the world in July, its creators couldn’t fully appreciate its appeal. India banned TikTok in 2020, leaving Hanumankind and his team largely in the dark about the track’s impact on the platform — including the more than 1 million videos using it. “We’re sitting at home like, ‘I guess this is happening. Let’s strap in,’ ” he says. Born Sooraj Cherukat, the artist bounced around the globe as a kid, with his father working in the oil sector. His family made stops in Nigeria, Qatar, Dubai and Egypt before moving to Houston in the early 2000s during his formative years. Despite developing vast hip-hop knowledge, the now 32-year-old says his parents hoped he would “build…