Latin Music Week Day One: Quevedo, Grupo Frontera, Kany García and Tommy Mottola on Where the Sound Is Going

Billboard Latin Music Week opened Monday (Oct. 19) at the Faena Forum in Miami Beach, and the first day’s panels doubled as a map of how Latin music went global: an island chain, a Texas quinceañera circuit, a Grammys standoff and a salsa veteran who still plays two-and-a-half-hour shows. It leads into Thursday’s (Oct. 22) Billboard Latin Music Awards.

Quevedo and Kidd Voodoo: where you’re from

On The New Urban Movement panel, Quevedo said growing up in the Canary Islands shaped Buenas Noches (2024) and El Baifo (2026), an urban album that also folds in merengue and salsa. “One of the things that makes us unique is where we come from,” he said. Of his 2022 Bizarrap collaboration, which became his first Hot 100 entry, he said: “It’s the song that changed my life, and I’ll always have that affection for it.” Kidd Voodoo described moving from rock to reggaetón: “I’m nothing without reggaetón now.”

Grupo Frontera: from quinceañeras to a label

The group told its story as an independent success. Juan Javier Cantú said it began in McAllen, Texas, playing quinceañeras and weddings, until the viral cover “No Se Va” changed everything. Adelaido “Payo” Solís III said the group isn’t trying to start something new: “Our [genre of] music isn’t exactly new, but through the sound, the feeling and the messages — even if you don’t understand the language — people still get it.” Frontera launched a label, BorderTown Records, with The Orchard this year.

Kany García: the hook that arrived in a makeup chair

In a “Superstar Q&A” with her guitar, Kany García explained how “Te Lo Agradezco,” her 2023 duet with Carín León, got its title line while she was getting her makeup done at 9 a.m. in a Las Vegas suite during Latin Grammy week. When they met, León said he had a song he had written with Camilo to play for her.

He said, ‘You go first.’ I sat down, played my song on the guitar, and he was stunned. I told him, ‘Now show me your song.’ And he said, ‘No, not anymore.’ I never found out what it was

Kany García, on a songwriting session with Carín León, Billboard

She also spoke about “A La Niña Que Fui,” the song to her childhood self that has become an anthem on her Puerta Abierta tour. Asked whether writing it made her cry, she said she is “bad at crying.”

Mottola and Gallardo: break the mold

Tommy Mottola and Sony’s Alex Gallardo traced the climb from Ricky Martin’s Grammys breakthrough, which Mottola said Sony forced by threatening to pull its artists from the broadcast, to a moment when, by Gallardo’s count, U.S. Latin would rank around sixth among the world’s music markets if it counted as a country. The challenge now, Gallardo said, is standing out.

Is the artist’s artistic proposition something truly original, unique, that is worth paying attention to — or is it the 10th copycat of something we’ve heard multiple times?

Alex Gallardo, president of Sony Music U.S. Latin, Billboard

Mottola’s advice was blunter: “Breaking through is going to require change and breaking out of the mold.” They pointed to Rosalía’s Lux as proof, and to 19-year-old Milo J reconnecting young listeners with Argentine folklore. In the salsa panel, Tito Nieves put the case for stamina: “I still perform two-and-a-half-hour shows, and I enjoy them from beginning to end.” Luis Figueroa, the younger voice, warned that “the numbers we see on social media or streaming platforms don’t necessarily mean tickets sold.”

The awards are Thursday

The Billboard Latin Music Awards air live Oct. 22 on Telemundo and Peacock. Peso Pluma leads the finalists with 17 nominations, followed by Tito Double P with 15, Fuerza Regida with 12, Karol G with nine, Prince Royce with eight and Bad Bunny with seven. Fuerza Regida will receive the Vanguard Award, Rosalía the Hall of Fame Award and Rubén Blades the Icon Award.