The researcher from Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona nonetheless points out that the messages these artists send out are not always anti-system. “Their songs are not cultural pieces made from scratch, they contain specific codes that connect with young people and create identities,” she says. The growing influence of new Latino pop stars is the subject of a study by Ecuadorian Priscila Álvarez. He points to examples such as the cover of the Rolling Stone magazine dedicated to Bad Bunny in June of this year, and hugely influential figures such as Colombian reggaeton artist J Balvin or Spain’s innovative flamenco fusion singer Rosalía, who are influencing young people every day on social media, where they are followed by millions of fans. They are an increasingly important part of society, aside from the terrible problem of racism there is today against the migrants coming from Central America,” says Tomas Cookman, perhaps the most influential figure of Latino origin (born in New York with Puerto Rican heritage) on the global music scene, as the founder of the Nacional Records label and the head of the Latin Alternative Music Conference (LAMC).įor this visionary entrepreneur – who has anticipated several of the phenomena that have marked popular culture in recent decades – despite the fact that there have always been Latino artists with international reach – Shakira, Gloria Estefan, Enrique Iglesias – “there have never been as many as there are now with success in other countries”. “Latinos have been present in this country for several generations. In the same way the statements made in years gone by Black artists like Jay-Z and Beyoncé helped propel Barack Obama to the presidency, today many are convinced that Latino celebrities like Bad Bunny will influence the 3 November elections in the United States, home to more than 60 million Latin Americans. What is exceptional about this is not the fact that an artist singing in Spanish criticised the ruler of a powerful country – we have seen other examples in recent history – but the real impact his words could have. Don’t stop the fight, keep your fists raised, let it be known that this is our home, that this is our land,” proclaimed the 26-year-old star in an interview for Time magazine. Your hate and tyranny, that is terrorism. Four years later, Bad Bunny (his stage name) has become one of the most influential music stars in the world whilst Donald Trump is faced with the ballot box at the worst moment in his presidency, severely criticised for his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic and by the Black Lives Matter movement. His attacks against the Latino community were constant, open and vicious.Īround the same time, in November 2016, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio was an ordinary young man from Puerto Rico who worked in a supermarket and dreamed of becoming a musician. He promised to build a wall and to send the “undesirables” back to their country of origin. They’re rapists,” he railed during the campaign that brought him to the White House. “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. To understand the impact of the phenomenon, we should go back to 9 November 2016, when Donald Trump became president of the United States. The global revolution in Latino sounds is generating a profound change in contemporary society. Who would have thought that a Puerto Rican singer would be capable of challenging the leader of the most powerful country in the world? Or that reggaeton would play a major role in the marches that shook Latin America in late 2019? What might have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago is now a reality.
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