Billboard’s Latin Music Week in Miami Beach in October will celebrate the boom in Spanish-language music, which reached a record business value of “$1.5 billion in the last year” in the U.S., which artists like Guaynaa and Bebeshito attribute to Latin American migration.
Executives and artists on Thursday introduced Billboard Latin Music Week 2025, the largest gathering of the Spanish-language industry, which will feature more than 100 guests from October 20-24, including Laura Pausini, Pablo Alborán, Carín León, Gloria Estefan and Daddy Yankee’s first interview in three years.
The event, at the Fillmore Theater in Miami Beach, where part of the internationalization of Latin artists was born three decades ago, takes place while Spanish-language music is already the fifth most listened to music segment in the United States, said Leila Cobo, Billboard’s director of Latin and Spanish-language content.
“Around the world it is the fastest growing segment of music, the fastest growing, we are really part of the history of music, we are part of the mainstream,” said Cobo.
Billboard Latin Music Week: Migrants key to music success
In addition to streaming, digital platforms and international collaborations, which have boosted Spanish-language music globally, singers Guaynaa, from Puerto Rico, and Bebeshito, from Cuba, point out that Latin American migration has also been a key factor in crossing borders.
“There is a massive exodus, more than anything else for social or political reasons from Latin America in the last 10, 15 or 20 years, especially in Europe, as such, and gaps and paths have opened up that were not necessarily the doors that were there,” Guaynaa responded to a question from EFE.
The composer and rapper said that the musical taste “goes from a Spanish speaker to a European or an Asian, and stays there”.
“The Latinos with their suitcases, and the music inside their suitcases, have helped us to cross borders with our proposals, for me that is the biggest determinant,” he remarked.
Bebeshito, who is already the most listened to Cuban in Florida and seeks to internationalize the cast, a genre endemic to Cuba, also highlighted the cultural power of Hispanic migrants.
“As many Latinos are emigrating to other countries, I think that’s why they have taught Latin music (to the world). A Puerto Rican arrives in France, and made friends, and taught the music. You know what I mean? And I think that’s why it is having a boom at another level,” the musician answered a question from EFE.
Cobo recalled that this Billboard Week will be the biggest yet, with more than 32 panels featuring singers, songwriters, content creators and music executives, while the Billboard Latin Music Awards 2025 will be held in Miami on Thursday, October 23.
The event will also be attended by singers Aitana, Kali Uchis, Silvana Estrada, Anuel AA, Ela Taubert, Emilio Estefan, Goyo, Grupo 5, Danny Ocean, Luis R. Conriquez, Myke Towers, Netón Vega, Ozuna, Olga Tañón and Venesti.
Laura Pausini will receive the Billboard Icon Award during the awards ceremony, for which Bad Bunny leads the list of finalists with an all-time high of 27 nominations, followed by the regional Mexican group Fuerza Regida, with 15, and Puerto Rican Rauw Alejandro, with 14.
Although there are no specific details of the awards ceremony, this time they will be held live in a theater, said Cobo.
The awards are given based on the performance of artists, songs and albums in the music charts of traditional media such as television and radio, as well as new streaming platforms, reported Agencia EFE.
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