Women in Latin music are poised for a breakthrough
COLOMBIAN singer Karol G is a rare force in Latin urban music. While the 27-year-old is as sleek and glossy as a beauty queen, she wields an unapologetic toughness that comes out when she’s sparring against reggaeton’s most ruthless male artistees.
But 10 years ago, Karol G was just Carolina Giraldo, a newcomer earnestly peddling reggaeton and R&B mix tapes from one radio station to the next in her native Medellin. The reactions she received were a depressing combination of confusion, disdain and lewd propositions that would have discouraged a more fainthearted artiste.
“There were no opportunities,” she said. “Zero. The door was closed. They wouldn’t even listen to my music because they would say the genre I was doing was for men.”
But tenacity is something Karol G has in endless supply. She didn’t give up on urban music and now, after years of hearing no, the Spanish-speaking music industry is catching up to her. Last year, her debut album, “Unstoppable,” made it to No. 2 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, and “Ahora Me Llama,” her collaboration with trap wunderkind Bad Bunny, cracked Spotify’s Global 200. In January, she inched toward a worldwide smash when Major Lazer tapped her for a remix of “En La Cara.”
Karol G is one of many women making ripples in the Latin industry, particularly in the urban space. Dominican artiste Natti Natasha reached No. 6 on the Hot Latin charts with “Criminal,” her duo with reggaeton star Ozuna; MexicanAmerican singer Becky G peaked at No. 3 with her Bad Bunny-assisted hit “Mayores”; and Brazilian superstar Anitta nabbed a No. 14 spot thanks to “Downtown” with J Balvin.
A handful of well-performing singles may seem unremarkable, especially when so many have been collaborations with male artistes. But it’s very notable considering how rarely Latina artistes have affected the charts in recent years.
In 2015, a staggering 22 weeks passed without a single female artiste appearing on the Hot Latin Songs charts, and a Billboard review showed that only two women reached the No. 1 spot between 2012 and 2016. During the same period, just seven women (compared with 33 men) reached the top of the Top Latin Albums chart. The women who did thrive tended to be legacy acts such as Shakira, Jennifer Lopez and Paulina Rubio, who have been in the business for decades.
And when it comes to Latin music awards, the numbers are just as bad. The feminist advocacy group Ruidosa recently analysed the 2017 Latin Grammys, Latin Billboards and Premios 40 Principales and found that of 117 total winners, only 14 were women.
The Latin music industry — which usually refers to Spanishlanguage music made and sold in the United States and Latin America — is a notoriously patriarchal machine, exacerbated by widespread machismo entrenched in many Latin cultures. And although some of the most important Latin music icons have been women — Chavela Vargas, Celia Cruz and Mercedes Sosa, just to name a few — the industry has been a particularly unfriendly arena for emerging female artistes.
Latin music’s gender gap became painfully conspicuous last year, when Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” overtook the global music landscape. Male artistes such as J Balvin, Maluma and Bad Bunny were touted as the torchbearers who would throttle Latin music forward. Women were hardly considered in the conversation.
But 2018 could mark a longawaited change. The end of 2017 showed that despite its maledominated roots, Latin urban music is rife with women eager to add their voices to trap, rap and reggaeton. A breakthrough year for women in Latin music would be well timed, as the calls for more female representation are amplified throughout the music industry.
Although some women have shared experiences of abuse and harassment, a full #MeToo reckoning hasn’t quite taken over Latin music. Still, an empowered energy has been trickling into the market. Latina artistes are seizing the need for gender inclusivity and fighting harder not just to be seen, but also to spark complex and pointed conversations around diversity and nuance in the industry.
“In America, there’s a Nicki Minaj, there’s a Katy Perry, there’s an Ariana Grande, there’s a Taylor Swift, and they each represent something different,” Karol G said. “That doesn’t happen in the Latin industry. There are so many men and you can count the women on your fingers, and it’s not because we’re not here. There’s tonnes of talent.”
Conversations around gender inclusivity in Latin music have been unspooling for years — slowly, no doubt, but now there’s buy-in from major music services. Rocao Guerrero, Spotify’s head of global cultures and content, has unofficially heralded 2018 as the year of Latinas, and her team plans to highlight female artistes by adding more voices to their playlists, which include “Mujeronas” and “Latin Divas,” and inviting female acts on their recently launched podcast, “A Viva Latino!”
Additionally, domestic charttoppers such as singer Camila Cabello (an American who was born in Cuba) and Cardi B, the “Bodak Yellow” rapper who is of Dominican and Trinidadian heritage, have made massive splashes in the US market. Although they are signed to major American labels, both have experimented with songs en espanol. Their mere mainstream presence helps raise the profile of Latin culture and sounds, and their breakthroughs bode well for Spanish-speaking artistes trying to knock down barriers of their own.
“I think Latina artistes are going to prove they can stay this year — they’re not a onehit wonder or only a feature for someone else’s song. They’re going to stick around,” Guerrero said.
Diana Rodriguez is an industry veteran who made history when she became the first woman to head a US Latin label as the vice president of Capitol Latin in 2010. She says that change can start at the top and emphasises the importance of women in A&R, supervisor and music production roles. Today, Rodriguez runs her own firm and manages several artistes who offer a fresh take on Latina musicians. There’s the brassy tattooed guitarist Mon Laferte and Marisol “La Marisoul” Hernandez, the commanding lead singer of the band La Santa Cecilia, whose songs exalt immigrant communities. Rodriguez has observed that young fans starved for new role models in music connect to these women intimately, especially on social media.
“The girls standing out don’t represent your standard mould,” Rodriguez said. “People are relating to the girl with the tattoos who got her heart broken and the girl who is not afraid to wear a tutu and talk about immigration.”
Still, more diversity continues to be a demand all around. Latino identity is pluralistic and complex, encompassing nearly 33 countries, multiple races and cultural conditions. More women are defying the stereotypes around Latina artistes, but the physical image portrayed in the Spanish-speaking entertainment industry remains woefully homogenous. Latinas on TV or on magazine covers tend to be lightskinned celebrities who adhere to limited standards of beauty.
Dana Danelys De Los Santos, an Afro-Dominican singer who goes by Amara La Negra, raised this issue when she appeared on VH1’s “Love & Hip Hop Miami.” After a producer insinuated that Santos’ Afro hairstyle wasn’t “elegant,” her retort was both ferocious and heartbreaking: “Not all Latinas look like J. Lo or Sofia Vergara or Shakira, so where are the women that look like myself?” “Celia Cruz was one of the few artistes that made it worldwide as an
Afro-Latina. After that, I’ll sit and wait for you to tell me what other AfroLatinas have made it worldwide,” she said. “I don’t think it’s fair because it’s not that we’re not talented — the standards are just different for us.”
Santos has become a fierce advocate and symbol for the Afro-Latino community, initiating a conversation that could inspire generations of underrepresented girls to enter the scene. Leila Cobo, Billboard’s executive director of content and programming for Latin music, says this is the unmistakable power of having women in the spotlight.
“When it starts to work for one person, you have other people who come and say, ‘This could work for me, too,’” Cobo said. “We’re going to see a whole bunch more we haven’t seen yet.”
In other genres, artistes say they have seen attitudes shifting among their male counterparts. Becky G, whose real name is Rebbeca Gomez, started as a YouTube sensation when she was barely 14 years old.
In America, there’s a Nicki Minaj, there’s a Katy Perry, there’s an Ariana Grande, there’s a Taylor Swift, and they each represent something different. That doesn’t happen in the Latin industry. There are so many men and you can count the women on your fingers, and it’s not because we’re not here. There’s tonnes of talent. Karol G, Colombian singer