Pedro Tovar Signs Worldwide Publishing Deal with Kobalt Music

Posted on March 22, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Pedro Tovar has a new deal…

The 22-year-old Mexican American lead vocalist, founding member and primary songwriter for Eslabón Armado has signed a worldwide publishing deal with Kobalt Music.

The agreement was done via Tovar’s Armado Publishing; Kobalt will administer his future songs globally.

“I’m excited to join the Kobalt Music family in this new career stage,” Tovar said in a statement. “As a songwriter, I have always sought a company that values creativity and provides the necessary support to elevate my music to a global audience. I know that with Kobalt, I’ll continue growing and sharing my stories through my songs.”

Since having a major breakthrough in 2020, the sierreño act has been on a winning streak and fueling the música mexicana (Regional Mexican) movement along the way.

Over the course of four years, Eslabon Armado released six consecutive chart-topping albums — all of which hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Albums chart. In 2022, the group made history, with Nostalgia becoming the first top 10-charting regional Mexican album ever on the Billboard 200.

A year later, Eslabon Armado released its blockbuster hit “Ella Baila Sola” with Peso Pluma. The song was a runaway success and made history when it entered the Billboard Hot 100‘s top five.

Last week, Eslabon Armado released its eight studio album, Vibras de Noche II, a follow-up to the band’s 2020 set Vibras de Noche.

“Pedro Tovar is one of the most exciting artists and songwriters making music today,” added Nestor Casonu, president of Kobalt Music Latin America. “Through this partnership, we’ve had the privilege of understanding the values of an extraordinary family, led by Doña Nelly, with whom we’ve built both a professional and personal bond. I’m excited about the great things we’ll achieve together in the future.”

“At Kobalt, we want to sign songwriters who have singular voices that resonate with a wide audience,” said Teresa Romo, Kobalt’s senior creative director for Latin America. “Our partnership with Pedro Tovar represents an exciting new phase in his songwriting career, and we’re honored to support his creative independence and nurture new opportunities.”

Bruno Mars’ Lady Gaga-Collaboration “Die With a Smile” Returns to No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Bruno Mars is on the rebound….

The 39-year-old part-Puerto Rican Grammy-winning superstar and Lady Gaga’s smash “Die With a Smile” has returned to the No. 1 for a fifth total week atop the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.

“Die With a Smile,” released via Streamline/Interscope/Atlantic/ICLG, totaled 62.5 million radio airplay audience impressions (essentially even week-over-week), 28.6 million official streams (up 3%) and 10,000 sold (up 96%) in the United States during the week of January 31-February 6.

The ballad became Gaga’s sixth Hot 100 leader and Mars’ ninth.

Gaga moves to within one week of tying her longest No. 1 stay – she dominated for six weeks in 2011 with “Born This Way.” Mars logs his third reign of five or more weeks.

“Die With a Smile” also ascends to its first week at No. 1 on the Radio Songs chart, marking Gaga’s third leader – and first since “Born This Way” – and Mars’ milestone 10th.

The ballad won the Grammy for best pop duo/group performance, while Gaga and Mars performed a cover of the Mamas & the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” as a tribute to Los Angeles during the Grammys.

“Die With a Smile” rises 2-1 for its first week atop Radio Songs; dips to No. 2 after three weeks leading Streaming Songs; and keeps at No. 4 on Digital Song Sales, which it led for two weeks.

Gaga claims her third Radio Songs leader – and first since “Born This Way,” which led for a week in April 2011. Before that, “Paparazzi” spent a week on top in November 2009. She sets two records in her return to No. 1 on the chart: She ends the longest gap between time on top (13 years, 10 months and two weeks) and now boasts the longest span of leading the list (15 years, two months and three weeks; Chris Brown previously held both marks).

Mars earns his 10th Radio Songs No. 1, the third-most since the chart began in December 1990. Rihanna leads with 13, followed by Mariah Carey with 11.

“Die With a Smile” halts the record 27-week Radio Songs reign of Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”

The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations.

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Cardi B & Pardison Fontaine Release Highly Anticipated Collaboration “Toot It Up”

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Cardi B is tootin’ it up…

The 32-year-old half-Dominican American Grammy-winning rap superstar has joined voices with Pardison Fontaine to release “Toot It Up.”

Cardi B and Fontaine’s highly anticipated collaboration dropped on Friday (February 7) via Hitmaker Music Group.

“You guys keep asking for ‘Toot It.’ Where’s ‘Toot It’? Where’s ‘Toot It’ at? Can we get ‘Toot It’? Here go the song, here go ‘Toot It.’ Take it, play it, do whatever y’all gon’ do with it, shake ass. Here go the song, don’t ask for that sh– no more,” Fontaine said in an Instagram video earlier this week with the caption “it’s BEEN 8 YEARS @iamcardib GET THIS SONG OFF MY HARD DRIVE!!! N THEY KEEP ASKING FOR THIS !!! IM DROPPIN IT 2/7!!!!”

The last time the two properly collaborated on a song was in 2018 with “Backin’ It Up,” and they performed it together at the 2018 BET Hip Hop Awards.

It reached No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top 20 of Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (No. 18) and Rhythmic Airplay (No. 11).

Pardi has co-written several hits for Cardi, including her 2017 breakthrough smash “Bodak Yellow,” her other Hot 100 No. 1s “I Like It,” featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin, “WAP” with his ex Megan Thee Stallion and “Up,” and much of her 2018 Grammy-winning debut album Invasion of Privacy.

He teased them being back in the studio together last April on Instagram.

“Toot It Up” isn’t the only new music Cardi B has on the way.

On Thursday (Feb. 6), the trailer for the new Smurfs movie film teased the “Higher Love” track by Desi Trill featuring DJ Khaled, Cardi B, Natania and Subhi.

FloyyMenor Signs with Independent Artist Group for Booking

Posted on January 29, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

FloyyMenor has a new booking agent…

The 19-year-old Chilean singer and songwriter has signed with Independent Artist Group for booking.

The signing follows the huge success of FloyyMenor’s reggaeton hit “Gata Only” with Cris MJ, which was named TikTok’s Global Song of the Summer and Global Song of the Year in 2024.

According to a press release, the track saw 50 million creations on TikTok, generating more than 74 billion streams on the platform and 1.3 billion streams on Spotify; it also reached No. 2 on Spotify’s Global Chart.

“Gata Only” also had great success in the U.S., where it hit No. 27 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 and topped Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart for 14 weeks. It finished at No. 1 on the year-end Hot Latin Songs list.

FloyyMenor’s breakthrough came in 2023 with the single “Pa la Europa.” That was followed by the August release of his debut EP El Comienzo, on which he partnered with UnitedMasters.

According to the release, the EP became the most-listened-to Chilean project in Spotify’s history and ranked among the top Spanish albums globally in 2024. In December, Spotify also named “Gata Only” the most-streamed Latin song of the year, while that same month, FloyyMenor was named one of VEVO’s DSCVR Artists to Watch 2025. “Gata Only” was also featured on former U.S. President Barack Obama’s “Favorite Music of 2024” list.

In October, FloyyMenor became the first Chilean artist to win a Billboard Latin Music Award, where he took home the Global 200 Latin song of the year. He also won top Latin song at the Billboard Music Awards for “Gata Only.”

FloyyMenor is set to release his debut album YTSQS later this year.

Bruno Mars Becomes First Artist to Reach 150 Million Monthly Listeners on Spotify

Posted on January 27, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Bruno Mars is officially a Spotify superstar…

The 39-year-old part-Puerto Rican Grammy-winning singer’s is officially the first artist in Spotify history to reach 150 million monthly listeners, the streaming platform has announced.

Mars is currently the number one artist on Spotify.

The accomplishment comes shortly after he broke another Spotify record with his Lady Gaga collaboration, “Die With a Smile,” which became the fastest song to hit one billion streams in the platforms history.

Shortly after, his ROSÉ collaboration “APT.” also hit one billion streams, giving Mars the top two fastest songs to reach the milestone.

Overall, Mars has 17 songs with more than one billion Spotify streams, including “That’s What I Like,” “Locked Out of Heaven,” “Just the Way You Are” and more.

It’s been an exciting few months for Mars on the Billboard charts as well. “Die With a Smile” spends four weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, a full five months after the two pop superstars teamed up to drop the duet on August 16.

The track soon reached No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200, where it proceeded to spend eight weeks in the top spot. The swoon-worthy ballad is Gaga’s sixth Hot 100 leader and Mars’ ninth.

Meanwhile, “APT.” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100, becoming the first song by a Western act to rule the Japan song chart in more than 11 years.

The song also spent 11 weeks atop both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts. It also becomes the first No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart by an act prominent in K-pop.

Bad Bunny’s “DTMF” Debuts at No. 1 on TikTok Billboard Top 50 Chart

Posted on January 17, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Bad Bunny is making major moved on TikTok…

The 30-year-old Puerto Rican Grammy-winning rapper, singer, actor and record producer’s “DTMF” becomes the first song to debut at No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart since August 2024, bowing atop the January 18-dated survey.

The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity January 6-12. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.

“DTMF” starts at No. 1 after the release of its parent album, Debi Tirar Mas Fotos, on January 5. It’s the fifth song since the ranking’s inception to debut atop the tally, following FamousSally and YB’s “Wassup Gwayy” (September 23, 2023), Playboi Carti’s “Sky” (Oct. 7, 2023), Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do for Love” (February 24, 2024) and Clean Bandit’s “Symphony,” featuring Zara Larsson (August 31, 2024).

It’s also Bad Bunny’s first No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, which began in September 2023.

His previous best, “Monaco,” peaked at No. 5 in November 2023

“DTMF” benefits from uploads referencing the song’s lyrics (DTMF is an acronym for the album’s title), with users lamenting the losses of relatives, pets and relationships with photos and videos of their own. Bad Bunny himself posted a video on TikTok reacting to the trend.

“DTMF” concurrently debuts at No. 38 on the Billboard Hot 100 despite just five days of tracking (January 5-9), earning 11 million official U.S. streams in that span, according to Luminate. It’s expected to sport a sizable gain on the Billboard charts dated January 25 (Jan. 10-16), following its first full week of tracking.

Bruno Mars’ Lady Gaga-Collaboration “Die With a Smile” Notches Second Week at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Bruno Mars is still smiling…

The 39-year-old part-Puerto Rican Grammy-winning singer and songwriter’s Lady Gaga-collaboration “Die With a Smile”logs its second week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

A week earlier, the ballad became Mars’ ninth chart-topper on the Hot 100 and Gaga’s sixth.

“Die With a Smile,” on Streamline/Interscope/Atlantic/ICLG, totaled 61.8 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 4% week-over-week), 28 million official streams (up 3%) and 5,000 sold (down 8%) in the United States January 3-9.

The track tallies a second week at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart, holds at its No. 2 high on Radio Songs and lifts 4-3 on Digital Song Sales, which it led for two weeks.

Meanwhile, ROSÉ and Mars’ “APT.” keeps at its No. 5 Hot 100 high.

Grupo Frontera to Perform at This Year’s RodeoHouston

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Grupo Frontera is heading to Texas’ biggest rodeo…

The Regional Mexican band will perform at this year’s RodeoHouston as it takes over NRG Stadium in the Lone Star State’s biggest city on March 4-23, 2025.

Grupo Frontera will perform on Sunday, March 16 as part of Go Tejano Day.

This year’s lineup is packed with both country and Latino performers, with Carín León joining Grupo Frontera on the lineup alongside country music luminaries including Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn, as well as hot-shot newcomers like Zach Top and Warren Zeiders.

Also on the bill is the genre-fluid hitmaker Post Malone, who made an indelible foray into country music in 2024 with his Billboard 200 chart-topping collaborative country album F-1 Trillion, which included the six-week Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “I Had Some Help” with Morgan Wallen and “Pour Me a Drink” with Blake Shelton.

Beyond music, the longstanding festival will feature an array of activities for RodeoHouston attendees, including light shows, drone shows, a carnival, animal rides, a petting zoo, an array of food and beverage vendors and much more.

Tickets for RodeoHouston will go on sale starting January 16 at rodeohouston.com, in two waves through AXS. Wave 1 tickets for March 4 – March 13 performances go on sale at 10 a.m. (with the waiting room opening at 9:30 a.m.), and Wave 2 tickets for March 14 – 23 performances go on sale at 2 p.m. (with the waiting room opening at 1:30 p.m.).

Here’s the RodeoHouston concert lineup:

March 4: Reba McEntire – Opening Day
March 5: Riley Green – Armed Forces Appreciation Day
March 6: AJR
March 7: Bun B Birthday Bonanza – Black Heritage Day
March 8: Bailey Zimmerman
March 9: Carín León
March 10: Brad Paisley – First Responders Day
March 11: Zach Top
March 12: Lauren Daigle – Community Day
March 13: Jon Pardi – Volunteer Appreciation Day
March 14: Journey
March 15: Warren Zeiders
March 16: Groupo Frontera – Go Tejano Day
March 17: Charley Crockett
March 18: Post Malone
March 19: Old Dominion
March 20: Cody Jinks
March 21: Parker McCollum
March 22: Brooks & Dunn
March 23: Luke Bryan

Bruno Mars’ Lady Gaga-Collaboration “Die With a Smile” Rises to No. 1 on Billboard’s Streaming Songs Chart

Posted on January 7, 2025 by Tom Castaneda

Bruno Mars has yet another reason to smile…

In its 20th week on Billboard’s Streaming Songs chart, the 39-year-old part-Puerto Rican Grammy-winning singer’s Lady Gaga-collaboration “Die With a Smile” hits No. 1 for the first time, soaring 25-1 on the Jan. 11-dated tally.

“Die With a Smile” earned 27.1 million official U.S. streams in the week ending January 2, up 11%, according to Luminate.

The song’s precipitous positional gain on the chart comes after the close of the 2024 holiday season, with seasonal tunes falling off the ranking; the entire top 24 of the January 4-dated list were such songs.

The song’s 20-week climb to No. 1 is the sixth longest since the chart began in 2013 and the lengthiest since Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” reigned in 2023 after 27 weeks.

Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” holds the all-time record at 43 weeks ending in 2023.

It’s the second No. 1 for Lady Gaga on Streaming Songs. Her previous, “Dope,” reigned for a week in November 2013.

Between “Dope” and “Die With a Smile,” Lady Gaga’s best rank had been the No. 2 debut and peak of “Rain On Me,” with Ariana Grande, in 2020.

As for Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile” marks his third leader, following the 12-week rule of Mark Ronson’s “Uptown Funk!,” on which he’s featured, in 2015, and then his Cardi B collaboration “Finesse” in 2018.

Between “Finesse” and “Die With a Smile,” Mars rose as high as No. 2 three times, via fellow Cardi B collaboration “Please Me” in 2019, Silk Sonic’s “Smokin Out the Window” in 2021 and his Rose duet “APT.” in 2024.

Though the Jan. 11 chart marks the first week at No. 1 for “Die With a Smile,” it’s not the song’s biggest streaming week; that came on the September 7-dated Billboard charts, its second week of release, when it accrued 30.8 million streams. It is, however, the song’s best week since the September 14, 2014, survey, toward which it earned 27.2 million streams.

Concurrently, “Die With a Smile” reaches No. 1 on the multimetric Billboard Hot 100 for the first time, also concluding a 20-week wait.

Mariah Carey Returns to No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 with “All I Want for Christmas Is You”

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

It’s December… And (no surprise) Mariah Carey‘ is back atop the Billboard charts.

The 55-year-old half-Venezuelan American Grammy-winning singer’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” dashes through all competition on the Billboard Hot 100 once again, surging nine spots to No. 1 for a 15th total week at the summit on the chart.

The carol reigns in a record-extending sixth holiday season.

It was originally released on Carey’s album Merry Christmas in November 1994 and, as streaming has grown and holiday music has become more prominent on streaming services’ playlists, it hit the Hot 100’s top 10 for the first time in December 2017, and the top five for the first time in the 2018 holiday season.

It led at last, prior to this week, over the holidays in 2019 (for three weeks), 2020 (two), 2021 (three), 2022 (four) and 2023 (two).

“When I wrote [it], I had absolutely no idea the impact the song would eventually have worldwide,” Carey marveled in 2021. “I’m so full of gratitude that so many people enjoy it with me every year.”

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” became Carey’s 19th Hot 100 No. 1, the most among soloists and one away from The Beatles’ overall record 20. It also made Carey the first artist to have ranked at No. 1 on the chart in four distinct decades (1990s, 2000s, ‘10s and ‘20s).

Carey’s insta-classic drew 38.2 million streams (up 42%) and 24.4 million radio airplay audience impressions (up 56%) and sold 3,000 downloads (up 81%) in the U.S. Nov. 29-Dec. 5, according to Luminate.

“All I Want for Christmas Is You” ties for the sixth-longest command among the 1,176 total No. 1s dating to the Hot 100’s Aug. 4, 1958. start. (All seven songs have led since the list adopted electronically-monitored Luminate data in November 1991, at which point longer commands than before subsequently became more common.)

Below is a recap of the seven longest-leading Hot 100 No. 1s – with Carey the only artist with two entries on the elite list:

19 weeks, “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Shaboozey, 2024
19, “Old Town Road,” Lil Nas X feat. Billy Ray Cyrus, 2019
16, “Last Night,” Morgan Wallen, 2023
16, “Despacito,” Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee feat. Justin Bieber, 2017
16, “One Sweet Day,” Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men, 1995-96
15, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Mariah Carey, 2019-24
15, “As It Was,” Harry Styles, 2022

The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations.

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Tag Archives: Billboard Hot 100