A Look Through the Billboard Archives

Streaming has taken Latin music to the top of the Billboard charts, but the magazine covered it for more than 100 years before Bad Bunny leapt to No. 1. From genre architects like Xavier Cugat to current hitmakers like Karol G, and from “Bésame Mucho” to “Despacito,” Latin music’s many subgenres have been adding flavor to America’s airwaves — and the pages of BillboardWhat is life without La Vida Loca?

Language duo

“Certainly a great artist,” the newspaper of August 24, 1926, cheered, Billboard about Raquel Meller, a Spanish-born Broadway headliner. “These are folk songs, street ballads of her Barcelona…. For all the talk about not having to know the language to understand it, there’s a frantic search for librettos to appreciate it.” Billboard was given the rhythm for the November 2, 1940, cover story on Cugat, which described the bandleader as “a supporter and instigator of the current craze for the conga and tango,” and credited him with “skillfully integrating Latin American syncopation into the daily life of the American public.”

‘Apple’ music

“The wax version of ‘Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White’ by Pérez Prado has passed the 1,000,000 sales mark,” the magazine reported on May 21, 1955. Billboard when the Cuban bandleader’s single was still at No. 1 on several charts before the Hot 100. (When the Hot 100 debuted on August 4, 1958, Prado’s hit “Patricia” was at No. 2.) By the August 18, 1956, issue, Tito Puente was big enough to Cuban Carnival was discussed alongside Frank Sinatra’s new album. It “should appeal to both jazz fans and the more conventional Latin American buyer.”

Latin calling

“The U.S. Latin American market was a vast field with radically different musical tastes,” the magazine reported on September 6, 1986. BillboardTo help you understand, the October 4 issue introduced a new chart to appeal to “the growing needs of the Latin American market.” That chart, now called Hot Latin Songs, was compiled by staffers by calling “the top 70 Latin American (Spanish-language) radio stations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.” (Don’t ask for the phone bills.)

Big ‘Mac’

A multi-page package in the August 17, 1996 issue, Billboard covered the “exploding regional Mexican market,” which was fueled by “down-to-earth, hard-gigging artists” such as Los Tigres del Norte and La Mafia. That same year, Los de Río’s “Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)” topped the Hot 100 for 14 weeks. “’Macarena’ was largely a Top 40 event, and a much-needed one at that,” the September 7 issue noted. An article the following week declared that the dance craze had become a fixture at “weddings, bar mitzvahs and family reunions across the country.”

New World

“English is not the only language of value,” J Balvin said Billboard in an April 29, 2017 cover story. Prophetic words: On May 27, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” began its 16-week run atop the Hot 100 — an unheard-of feat for a foreign-language song. Since then, many Latin artists have gone mainstream in Spanish. “When I got into this industry,” Bad Bunny said in a February 16, 2019, newspaper article, Billboard“I was never afraid to be myself.”