cousin.world is a regular newsletter on global music.

Each week, I’ll update one of the following playlists with 10 ascendant tracks from global markets and provide analysis to explain how they’re breaking:

• run ⇡ — club tracks from euro & UK dancefloors

• cherry soda ⚭ — breaking k/c/p-pop, city pop and indie

• the grid ✚ — sounds of urbano, reggaeton, funk

• magnitude △ — afrobeat, dancehall and amapiano rising

This week in the grid ✚, I ask an expert to explain why Brazil loves live albums so much. Plus new music from Bad Bunny, El Alfa, Becky G and a Latin girl group who I think should be bigger: ANGEL22.

This playlist serves to highlight tracks coming from LATAM markets. Next week, magnitude △ looks into the latest blockbuster releases from markets across Africa and the Caribbean, with a focus on dancehall, afrobeat and amapiano.

I’m making this resource to hopefully demystify how songs are getting big internationally and inspire any artists, labels or teams looking overseas for their next collaboration or new connection.

If you have any thoughts on today’s mailer, please shoot me a reply 💌

the grid ✚

1. Gusttavo Lima, Ana Castela — ‘Canudinho’ (Ao Vivo)

Live albums are huge business in Brazil. In fact, according to Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, the market is the biggest consumer of live music in the world.

Currently at the top of Spotify’s Top 50 Brazil playlist is this track from Gusttavo Lima and Ana Castela, ‘Canudinho (Ao Vivo)’. It’s one of seven live tracks in the top 20.

I wanted to understand why this is the case so I called an expert, Marcella Micelli, founder of the Brazilian marketing and promotions agency HQ Music, to explain…

Marcella: “Live versions indeed are very popular in Brazil, mostly in very mainstream genres such as sertanejo and forró. Based on Spotify Brasil's current chart, 6 of the top 10 songs are from those genres.

These artists attract millions of people to live concerts in stadiums and live versions are the best way to replicate the energy of the live experience to the fans. It's more intense, there's a connection, it feels more honest, so it resonates more with the audience. It's like they're singing directly to you. Brazilians are passionate, emotional!

Brazil has a free music platform called Sua Música, very popular in the Northeast of Brazil, specialised in streaming live shows and you can also download them. Some artists even add a clause in their contracts with labels to make sure the live versions of their songs will be available on Sua Música freely and the fans will be able to download them. On the business side, it's also a nice way for the artists to release new music constantly and keep them on consumers' minds!

Thank you Marcella! ❤️ 

2. ANGEL22 — ‘Anillo’ (Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Cuba, Colombia)

ANGEL22 are a four-piece girl group who debuted on X-Factor: Celebrity in 2019 under the name V5. The individual members are vocalists, dancers and social media influencers who each represent a different Latin market, forming something of a regional pop supergroup. Their latest single ‘Anillo’ came out 2 months ago.

One thing I was excited about with this newsletter was the potential for crossover points. Where cherry soda ⚭ and the grid ✚ intersect: a Latin girl group in the k-pop formula. ANGEL22 are great at content, fashion shoots, videos, brand tie-ins, get good publicity and have even had their own MTV documentary put into production with Becky G (per Deadline). They also have great songs! So it is a bit confusing why it isn’t popping off more…

I would be interested to hear if anyone has an alternative theory but here’s mine: although the group predominantly reps Spanish-speaking markets, the member with by far the biggest following is their Brazilian member Sofia Oliveira. Her following is a multiplier of 10 against the other members and yet all their music is catered to the hispanic markets. Brazil also has a much stronger domestic pop economy than the others, all of which have charts and airwaves dominated by reggaeton and urbano. Maybe they are burying the lede a bit here and should lean further into Brazil as a focus market and release a few tracks in Portuguese.

I am not counting ANGEL22 out yet and will be interested to see how things develop if and when the reality show drops.

3. El Alfa — ‘TE LLENASTE’ (Dominican Republic)

A lot has been written about the Dominican genre dembow. Here are a few things you can check out for background:

• The Dembow Rhythm Around The World — Bandcamp Daily 

• How Dembow Evolved Into the Hottest Thing in Latin Music — Billboard

• Dembow Took Over The Dominican Republic. Can it Take Over The World? — Rolling Stone

…and so on. Today, one of the biggest stars of the genre and indeed in the Dominican Republic is El Alfa El Jefe, AKA El Alfa, AKA “The King of Dembow”. He has been releasing music since his 2016 debut ‘Dema Ga Ge Gi Go Gu’ with Bad Bunny and his debut album Disciplina the following year.

El Alfa’s latest single ‘TE LLENASTE’ features Puerto Rican artist Yomel El Meloso and Dominican El Fother, and came out a few weeks ago. Like a lot of rising genres, dembow is served better by a third-party playlist ecosystem than headline editorial playlists on streaming services. Also, as with a lot of LATAM projects, consumption of his music is concentrated in free services like YouTube where El Alfa has amassed 4.5bn views since his page opened in 2015.

4. Bad Bunny, Feid — ‘PERRO NEGRO’ (Puerto Rico/Colombia)

Last week, Bad Bunny released his new album ‘nadie sabe lo que va a pasar mañana’. He is currently the 4th most-streamed artist on Spotify behind Drake (3), Taylor Swift (2) and The Weeknd (1).

On release day, the record became Spotify’s most-streamed album in a single day this year (per Hola). This adds to a pile of accolades and broken records for Bad Bunny, including most-streamed artist on Spotify 2020 & 2021, most-streamed album of all time with ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’, 12 tracks to break 1bn streams, etc. In addition to being inarguably the biggest star in both his native Puerto Rico and the wider LATAM region, he’s also now one of the biggest artists in the world.

Luminate — a data and insight company that serves the entertainment industry — just posted their latest report Latin Music and its Impact on Culture and Commerce in the US Marketplace (you need to sign up here for a download link). The report cites a massive 57.9bn streams in the US going to Latin artists in the first 34 weeks of this year. This is up 22.2% overall against a 13.3% industry wide rise. It is unclear exactly how many of these can be attributed to Bad Bunny but I think it’s a lot.

5. Becky G: Tiny Desk Concert (US)

For Latinx Heritage Month, Tiny Desk is hosting a month-long takeover by Latin artists and the latest session, published 4 days ago, is from Mexican-American artist Becky G.

Becky G has been releasing music since 2012. She has collaborated with artists like Pitbull, French Montana, Peso Pluma and many others across her three albums and many, many single releases and collaborations. Her latest album ESQUINAS came out three weeks ago via RCA and Kemosabe Records (Dr. Luke’s label).

Given that she started releasing music at 16 years old, I think it’s fair to say her fanbase have grown with her, following her from early pop co-writes for the Hotel Transylvania soundtrack through multiple genre callouts — R&B, reggaeton, even k-pop — to now releasing an album with some of the coolest collaborators in the region.

Speaking to Billboard about the new album, she said: “Music is a universal language. It feels limitless — it feels like I can create with intention, no matter the sound, no matter the language, si es en español, o si es en inglés (be it in Spanish, or be it in English.)”

+ Five More…

6. DJ GBR, IG, Ryan SP, PH, Davi, Luki, Don Juan, Kadum, GH do 7, GP, TrapLaudo — ‘LET’S GO 4’ (Brazil)

If you read last month’s the grid ✚, you’ll already be up to speed with the Brazilian indie label GR6. This is another release from them which is currently topping streaming charts all over the country.

7. Calle 24, Chino Pacas, Fuerza Regida — ‘Que Onda’ (Mexico)

Calle 24’s track ‘Que Onda’ has been climbing the Billboard Hot 100 and has peaked in their Hot Latin Songs chart at number 8. Lots more info about him and the featured artists over on Billboard.

8. Tokischa, NATTI NATASHA — ‘No Pare Remix’ (Dominican Republic)

Speaking of Dembow, two of the other biggest artists in the genre just collaborated: Tokischa and NATTI NATASHA. You can learn more about the former via this great New York Times profile and the latter over on Allure.

9. Yandel, Myke Towers — ‘Borracho y Loco’ (Puerto Rico)

This latest collaboration between two heavyweight Puerto Rican artists follows their 2020 hit collab ‘Mayor’. 6 months ago, Myke Towers did a great interview with Apple Music.

10. Bad Bunny — ‘MONACO’ (Puerto Rico)

I’m gonna go ahead and include a second track from this album since it has smashed so many records. Monaco Life, an English-language newspaper for the country, says that with this track, Bad Bunny “has singlehandedly made Monaco cool.” I will let you be the judge of that.

The Playlists