Eslabon Armado’s “Desvelado” Makes History on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums Chart with No. 1 Debut

Eslabon Armado is making history…

The Regional Mexican group has earned a place in the Latin music history books with the No. 1 debut of their full-length album Desvelado on Billboard’Top Latin Albums chart dated May 13.

Eslabon Armado,With 44,000 equivalent album units earned in its opening week, the set scores the largest week for a regional Mexican album since the survey started measuring titles by units in February 2017. 

“It means a lot being No. 1 on Top Latin Albums,” Pedro Tovar tells Billboard. “It’s probably our favorite album, but we didn’t expect it to go that high! Mainly because I know that people don’t like something at first, but when four, five, six months or a whole year pass by, there’s always that one song that hits, and then everybody is like, ‘Oh, this is my favorite album!’”

Desvelado was released April 27 via DEL Records. The 16-track effort starts with 44,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. during the April 28-May 4 tracking week, according to Luminate.

As its predecessor (Nostalgia, 2022), nearly all of Desvelado’s first-week total was fueled by streaming-equivalent album units, with 43,000 stemming from the metric. In total, its songs drew 63.51 million official U.S. streams – the most in a week ever for a regional Mexican album.

The set also boasts the fifth biggest streaming opening week among Latin albums, after Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti (365.55 million official streams, May 2022), YHLQMDLG (201.37 million, March 2020) and El Último Tour del Mundo (145.94 million, Dec. 2020), as well as Karol G’s Mañana Sera Bonito (118.73 million streams, March 11-dated list).

On the all-genre Billboard 200, Desvelado opens at No. 6, becoming the highest rank ever for a regional Mexican album, since the ranking started measuring by units in December 2014. It also becomes the second album to hit the top 10, surpassing Eslabon Armado’s No. 9-peaking Nostalgia in May 2022.

“The hardest challenge producing and recording this album was the timing,” Tovar remembers. “We wanted to release it on the 27th and we had such a short time to record everything. Plus, I didn’t really get much time to put in the final touches, so I put it on God’s hands. The result was amazing.”

As Desvelado arrives at the summit on Top Latin Albums, Eslabon Armado maintain their perfect run of six straight top 10s among six chart appearances. Out of those, one other album took the quartet up the penthouse: the one-week ruler VIbras de Noche in August 2020. Plus, Eslabon’s sixth studio effort sends Benito’s Un Verano Sin Ti to No. 2 after its 46-nonconsecutive-week domination. (Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito crowned for five weeks in between.)

Desvelado was preceded by the No. 1 viral hit “Ella Baila Sola” with Peso Pluma — in its fourth week in charge on the multimetric Hot Latin Songs chart. It concurrently reaches No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart, with 34.6 million official U.S. streams, up 2%. It’s the first regional Mexican song to lead the list and the first No. 1 on the chart for both acts. Elsewhere, “Ella Baila Sola” rises 20-9 on the all-Latin-genre Latin Airplay tally with 6.7 million in audience impressions earned during the same tracking week, a first top 10 for Peso Pluma there.

Meanwhile, among the new recruits on Hot Latin Songs, “Así Lo Quiso Dios,” with Luis R. Conriquez, bows at No. 24. “Quédate Conmigo,” with Grupo Frontera, follows at No. 25, while “Quiés Es El?” starts at No. 33.

“Honestly, ‘Quédate Conmigo,’ with Grupo Frontera, is the song I relate to with the most,” Tovar muses. “It’s super romantic and it fits me perfectly because now I am in love. In a way, I am kind of dedicating that song to a special someone.”

About Desvelado’s eight collaborations, Tovar concludes: “I think the best one is with Peso Pluma, mainly because it’s the No. 1 song. Everywhere I go I hear it… everywhere! I don’t get tired of singing that song at all.”

Ivan Cornejo Scores First No. 1 on Regional Mexican Albums Chart with “Dañado”

Ivan Cornejo has a first No. 1… 

The 18-year-old Mexican American singer has secured his first chart-topper on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Albums chart as his sophomore album, Dañado, debuts atop the chart dated June 18.

Ivan Cornejo,The set concurrently starts at No. 4 on the Top Latin Albums chart.

The seven-track set arrives just eight months after Cornejo scored his first entry with the No. 2 debut and peaking album Alma Vacía (6,000 equivalent album units earned in its first week in the U.S., according to Luminate).

Dañado bests its predecessor with 8,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the latest tracking week ending June 9. As with most releases by Regional Mexican newcomers, streaming provides most of the album’s opening sum. That equates to 11.9 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks.

The Regional Mexican Albums chart ranks the most popular regional Mexican albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, comprising album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.

Cornejo gives Manzana Records its first No. 1 on any Billboard albums chart. Dañado is the Riverside, Calif.-born singer-songwriter’s second effort under Manzana, which was released June 2. Alma Vacía, his debut album, remained in the Regional Mexican Albums chart’s top 10 during its 35-week run.

Elsewhere, Dañado opens at No. 4 on the overall-Latin Top Latin Albums chart. It concurrently succeeds Alma Vacía, which reached No. 7 in October 2021. The set becomes just the fourth Regional Mexican album to debut in the ranking’s top 10 in 2022, behind Junior H’s Mi Vida En Un Cigarro 2 (No. 4, Feb. 26-dated tally), Yahritza y Su Esencia’s Obsessed (EP) (No. 7, May 7-dated ranking) and Eslabon Armado’s Nostalgia (No. 2, recap dated May 21).

Dañado grants Cornejo his second entry on the all-genre Billboard 200, starting at No. 149. It also bests Alma Vacía’s start (No. 156, Oct. 23). Cornejo becomes the fourth act to secure an entry there in 2022, trailing Junior H, Yahritza y Su Esencia and Eslabon Armado.

Dañado also becomes the eighth Spanish-language effort to debut on Billboard 200 this year. Here’s the scoreboard:

Debut/Peak Position, Title, Artist, Date
No. 39, Anniversary Trilogy, Bad Bunny, Jan. 15
No. 138, Mi Vida En Un Cigarro 2, Junior H, Feb. 26
No. 33, Motomami, Rosalía, April 2
No. 8, Legendaddy, Daddy Yankee, April 9
No. 173, Obsessed (EP), Yahritza y Su Esencia, May 7
No. 1, Un Verano Sin Ti, Bad Bunny, May 21
No. 5, Nostalgia, Eslabon Armado, May 21
No. 149, Dañado, Ivan Cornejo, June 18

Bad Bunny Helps Propel Streaming of Latin Music Past Country for First Time Ever in U.S.

Bad Bunny is helping push Latin music to new heights…

In a week where the 28-year-old Puerto Rican superstar’s Un Verano Sin Ti dominated the charts, the new album accounted for 18% of all U.S. Latin on-demand streams and pushed the genre’s streaming market share past country for the first time ever.

Bad Bunny

According to Luminate, last week (the week ending May 12) was the Latin genre’s highest streaming week to date with over 1.8 billion weekly ODA streams, largely driven by Bad Bunny’s new set.

It’s also greater than any weekly total for the country genre to date, according to the data company, making Latin the fourth most on-demand streamed genre, currently, in the U.S. (after hip-hop, rock and pop).

Additionally, of the top 50 streaming markets, cities like Orlando, Milwaukee and San Diego experienced significant Latin streaming increases.

On the Billboard charts, Bad Bunny’s 23-track set debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200Top Latin Albums and Latin Rhythm Albums charts.

Furthermore, every song from the album lands on the Hot Latin Songs chart, and 22 of those songs also debut on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100. With Un Verano Sin Ti released on May 6, Bad Bunny breaks a record with 274,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S., marking the biggest week for any Latin music album by equivalent album units earned.

Un Verano Sin Ti becomes the second all-Spanish album to rule the Billboard 200 — the first one to sit atop the chart was Bad Bunny’s El Último Tour del Mundo in 2020.

Moreover, Bad Bunny’s new album isn’t the only Spanish set to enter the Billboard 200 this week. For the first time ever, two all-Spanish-language albums have placed in the top 10 simultaneously as Eslabon Armado’s Nostalgia debuts at No. 9 on the tally. The teenage group’s 14-track album makes history as the first top 10-charting regional Mexican album ever on the Billboard 200.

Bad Bunny and Eslabon Armado’s notable achievements reflect an enduring genre growth trend.

According to Luminate, Latin gained more than any other genre last year, growing its market share to 5.39% — up 9% from 4.95% of the market in 2019. Meanwhile, Country had a minor bump in the market share from 7.91% in 2019 to 8.09% in 2021. It’s worth noting that Latin’s growth is driven by streaming, which accounts for 97.2% of Latin music’s consumption activity, whereas Country’s streaming growth has been slower.

“While Bad Bunny’s new album was certainly a primary driver behind Latin’s record-setting numbers this week, we’ve been tracking the genre’s significant audio streaming growth since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020,” says Luminate CEO Rob Jonas. “Since then, Latin has cemented itself as one of the major genres in the US, alongside R&B/HipHop, Rock, Pop, and Country. We’re interested to see how it will continue to grow globally and how it will impact cultural trends and Latin music’s influence across markets.”

Eslabon Armado Makes History on Billboard 200 Chart

Eslabon Armado is making history on the Billboard charts…

The California-based Regional Mexican group’s fifth studio album Nostalgia has stormed to No. 1 on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Albums chart, as well as the top 10 on the Top Latin Albums and all-genre Billboard 200 charts (all dated May 21).

Eslabon ArmadoEslabon Armado — comprised of brothers Brian and Pedro Tovar (18 and 19, respectively), Ulises Gonzalez (20) and Damian Fidel Pacheco (20) — arrives at a new career achievement, scoring the first top 10-charting regional Mexican album ever on the Billboard 200. (Regional Mexican albums are defined as those that have hit Billboard’s Regional Mexican Albums chart.)

Debuting at No. 9, Nostalgia bests the group’s previous three entries there, including a top 20 appearance (Vibras de Noche, No. 18, August 2020).

“We never expected to debut so high, it’s truly a blessing,” Pedro Tovar tells Billboard. “We hope this becomes our best project; we really love it.”

Further, Eslabon is the first group to score a top 10 with a Latin album on the Billboard 200 since Santana’s Africa Speaks arrived and peaked at No. 3 in June 2019.

Over on the Latin charts, Nostalgia, released May 6 via DEL Records, starts at No. 1 on Regional Mexican Albums with 29,500 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending May 12, according to Luminate.

The chart ranks the most popular regional Mexican albums of the week in the U.S. based on multimetric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, comprising album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.

Nearly all of Nostalgia’s starting sum was driven by SEA units, which equates to 42.82 million on-demand official streams of the album’s 14 songs. That’s the biggest streaming week for a regional Mexican album.

The set’s arrival at the summit of Regional Mexican Albums marks the group’s fifth consecutive No. 1 — the entirety of its charting efforts.

The act previously topped the chart, which launched in 1985, with Tu Veneno Mortal, Vol. 2 (No. 1 for three weeks), Corta Venas (54 weeks), Vibras de Noche (11) and Tu Veneno Mortal (eight).

Corta Venas continues to have the third-most weeks at No. 1 on the chart, behind Christian Nodal’s Me Dejé Llevar (73 weeks) and Selena’s Amor Prohibido (97).

“The most challenging aspect of the creative process of the album was putting everything together, the guitars, the bass, the vocals,” Tovar continues. “Putting it all together with new band members made the magic.”

Nostalgia concurrently debuts at No. 2 on Top Latin Albums, the band’s best start, in terms of rank, since Vibras de Noche arrived at No. 1 with 23,000 equivalent album units in August 2020. The former arrives in the runner-up slot behind Bad Bunny’s monster start of 274,000 units with Un Verano Sin Ti.

As Nostalgia arrives, nine of its songs dot the all-metric Hot Latin Songs chart.

Here’s a recap:

No. 27, “Si Supieras” with DannyLux
No. 28, “Dos Morritas,” with Junior H
No. 31, “Vete a la Fregada”
No. 32, ‘Modo Depre :(”
No. 35, “Hasta La Muerte,” with Iván Cornejo
No. 38, “La Perrie,” with Fuerza Regida
No. 39, “Luces Rojas”
No. 42, “Mente en Alto”
No. 43, “Solo,” with Erre

Yahritza y Su Esencia Among the Latinx Acts Named to Billboard’s 21 Under 21 List

Yahritza Martinez has proven she is one to watch…

The 15-year-old Mexican American singer and her brothers, who make up the act Yahritza y Su Esencia, have been named to Billboard’s 21 Under 21 list, Billboard’s annual celebration of some of the most exciting and successful young artists in the music industry including Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish and more.

Last month, Yahritza became the youngest Latin performer to enter the Billboard Hot 100 chart with “Soy El Unico.”

To date, Yahritza and her brothers have notched 52.9 million streams.

But Yahritza y Su Esencia aren’t the only Latinx act to make this year’s list.

Eslabon Armado, consisting of Brian Tovar, Pedro Tovar, Ulises Gonzalez and Damian Fidel Pacheco, have released four consecutive chart-topping albums over the past two years — all of which hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Albums chart.

The band took a longer-than-usual break before releasing its latest album, Nostalgia, on May 5. During that time, the group added new members Gonzalez and Pacheco.

“Releasing back-to-back albums was good for our career, but we decided to take a break writing new music so that we could come back stronger,” the Mexican-American sierreño group says. “Our biggest challenge as young artists is staying relevant and creating music that connects with our fans.”

Ángela Aguilar is being heralded for logging 240.1 million streams in her young career.

The 18-year-old Mexican American singer, the daughter of Pepe Aguilar, says she “had been working with my parents’ record label all my life,” having signed to Machín Récords herself in 2012.

Nearly a decade later, in 2020, she scored her first No. 1 on Billboard’Regional Mexican Airplay chart with the Christian Nodal-assisted single “Dime Cómo Quieres.”

Aguilar says the biggest benefit of being a young artist is “the ability to DM someone about a collaboration.”

Earlier this year, she scored her second No. 1 on the chart with “Ahí Donde Me Ven.”

The Latin Grammy nominee is eager to explore acting, like her father has, and says some of his best career advice includes being “respectful of your craft and the public — to keep your roots well-embedded in your heart.”

Tiago PZK has notched 7.1 million streams.

The 20-year-old Argentine singer and rapper was only 6 years old when he discovered his passion for music, thanks to Daddy Yankee’s 2007 song “Impacto (Remix)” (featuring Fergie).

Tiago PZK (who also cites Justin Bieber as inspiration) has since created his own fusion of R&B, reggaetón and alternative rock, best heard on his five Billboard Global 200 hits: “Además de Mi,” “No Me Conocen,” “Entre Nosotros,” “Salimo de Noche” and “Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 48.

In 2021, the artist born Tiago Uriel Pacheco signed a worldwide publishing agreement with Sony Music Publishing U.S. Latin and, this year, a record deal with Warner Music Latina (through a partnership with indie Grand Move Records). Looking ahead, he says he’s most excited to tour: “It will make me travel the world and strengthen me mentally.”

DannyLux has garnered 4.8 million streams.

The 18-year-old Chicano alt-rocker is a self-taught musician who hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Latin Songwriters chart at just 17 years old thanks to his work on Eslabon Armado’s “Jugaste y Sufrí” (off the band’s third album, Corta Venas).

The sierreño artist has since signed a record deal with Warner Music Latina (in partnership with his indie label, VSP Music) and released his ultra-melancholic album, Perdido Sin Ti. He’s already working on new music because, as he says, consistency is key. “Since I’m young, I have so much time to grow up to be the best artist I can be,” he says, citing Bad Bunny’s career as an inspiration because “he never gave up.”

The Linda Lindas, comprised of Mila de la Garza, Eloise Wong, Lucia de la Garza and Bela Salazar, have logged 6.9 million streams.

The all-girl group broke out onto the scene with their viral hit “Racist, Sexist Boy,” which they performed live from the L.A. Public Library.

Eslabon Armado Releases New Album “Nostalgia”

Eslabon Armado is waxin’ nostalgic…

The California-based Regional Mexican brother duo has released its new album Nostalgia, the band’s fifth studio album in only two years.

Eslabon ArmadoAcross the album’s 14 tracks about love, hardships and heartache, Eslabon Armado stays true to its sierreño essence while not shying away from incorporating other instrumental elements like the piano and ukelele.

Luces Rojas” in particular stands out for how the members play with reggaeton undertones and lyricism.

Collaborations on the set include Junior H, Fuerza Regida, DannyLux, Ivan Cornejo and newcomers Sarah Silva and Erre.

Eslabon Armado is nominated for two 2022 Billboard Music Awards.

 

John Ortiz to Star in Transformers Spinoff “Bumblebee”

John Ortiz is transforming his resume…

The 49-year-old Puerto Rican actor is set to star opposite Hailee Steinfeld and Jon Cena in Paramount Pictures’ Bumblebee, the first spinoff of the Transformers franchise.

John Ortiz

It’s set in 1987, where Bumblebee, who is refuged in a junkyard, is discovered and revived by Charlie (Steinfeld) who, on the cusp of turning 18, is trying to find her place in the world.

The blockbuster film, which will open in theaters on December 21, 2018, has Travis Knight directing from a script by Christina Hodson.

Lorenzo Di Bonaventura, Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg are producing with Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Stephen Davis.

Ortiz’s upcoming film slate includes Paramount’s God Particle, produced by JJ Abrams and starring David OyelowoReplicas opposite Keanu Reeves, and Nostalgia with Jon Hamm.