O
N A BALMY FEBRUARY NIGHT ON
Mexico’s La Ropa Beach, the Pacific
Ocean laps in the background as
Gabriela Quintero addresses the
audience at her dinner/concert fundraiser for the
local conservation organization Whales of Guerrero.
“I heard a whale song while swimming underwater,
and it inspired me to write this,” says the musician,
half of the Grammy-winning
rock duo Rodrigo y Gabriela.
“I hope this song connects you
with us and them.”
But Quintero hasn’t just writ-
ten a song about a whale — she
adopted one in 2015 through
Whales of Guerrero in the name
of Cooperativa EcoVegana (Eco
Vegan Cooperative), the food
co-op she co-founded in 2011 in
the coastal town of Zihuatanejo
that she calls home.
“I am inspired by nature, the
wild animals and all the beautiful
things that exist in Zihuatanejo,”
says Quintero. “It also means
community, family — it’s home.
Zihuatanejo means all of that.”
Five years after adopting the
whale, Quintero continues to support the conserva-
tion organization. Her dinner/concert event raised
$10,000 from ticket and raffle sales. It’s one of many
ways Quintero gives back to her community and
educates people about two of her biggest nonmusi-
cal passions: environmental sustainability and eco-
friendly nutrition.
Quintero’s fundraising events also provide a little
beauty for an embattled community. Zihuatanejo is in
Guerrero, one of Mexico’s poorer states; the Mexican
government estimates that over half its population
lives in poverty. But it’s also where, some 20 years
ago, Quintero and her creative counterpart, Rodrigo
Sánchez, launched their music career, busking out-
side local restaurants.
Rodrigo y Gabriela left town and brought a novel
hybrid of flamenco guitars and rock to audiences
around the world, including one at the Obama White
House. Quintero and Sánchez eventually returned
to Zihuatanejo, where they wrote their most recent
album,Mettavolution, which won the Grammy for
best contemporary instrumental
album this year. When they’re
not in the studio, they each run
their own vegan restaurant.
“This is where I chose to live,
so I’m going to do anything
that I can to contribute,” says
Quintero. Her eatery, La Casita
Ecovegana (The Eco-Vegan
Cottage), serves squash-blos-
som quesadillas and enchiladas
filled with spicy potatoes.
Sánchez’s restaurant, La Raíz
de la Tierra (The Root of the
Earth), includes vegan versions
of Mexico’s famedpastor (pork)
andsuadero (beef) tacos.
“Many people don’t under-
stand the environmental impact
that you can have by eating less
meat,” says Sánchez. He hopes to expand La Raíz de
la Tierra into a national franchise so he can spread
that message to more communities.
At least one week every month, Quintero’s sister,
Maria Luisa, hosts nutrition workshops at their food
co-op and around town (Quintero joins when she’s
not on tour) teaching people how to make a vegan
meal as another form of empowerment and activism.
“Your diet is one of few things that you have control
over,” says Quintero over breakfast at her restaurant.
“For many people, socioeconomic factors play a role
in what foods they can access, but I want to show
people that eating eco-friendly is within reach.”
GOOD WORKS
Green Food And Guitars
When they’re not recording Grammy-winning music,
acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela run vegan restaurants
in one of Mexico’s more impoverished states
BY ADAM WILLIAMS
JAZZ PIANIST MCCOY TYNER, THE LAST SURVIVING MEMBER OF THE JOHN COLTRANE QUARTET, DIED AT 81. ORIGINAL SUPREMES MEMBER BARBARA MARTIN DIED AT 76.
Rodrigo y
Gabriela
Whales of Guerrero charity event dinner
in Mexico on Feb. 21.
Sony’s
Bunny Bump
Small hop for Bad Bunny, big leap
for foreign-language albums
B
AD BUNNY’S ALBUM
YHLQMDLG debuted on the
March 14-dated Billboard
200 at No. 2 with nearly
179,000 album consumption units for
the week ending March 5, according to
Nielsen Music/MRC Data, making it
the highest-placing Spanish-language
album in the chart’s history.
The album’s unprecedented success
shows the U.S. market’s growing appetite
for Latin music, and also boosts Sony
Music Entertainment’s industry-leading
Latin music distribution market share to
nearly half of the overall pie — to 49.13%
year to date, up from the previous week’s
47.59% year-to-date total. Within that,
The Orchard, which retail sources say
distributes Bad Bunny’s music, also saw
its market share jump — to 23.75% year
to date from 20.99% in the prior week.
If Bunny’s dominance is a sign of what’s
to come, The Orchard is poised for more
wins: It owns the premium Latin music
indie label, Fania Records, and has a dis-
tribution deal with emerging Puerto Rican
rapper Anuel AA.
Bunny’s album arrives after another
major non-English-language album suc-
cess: BTS, the Korean-speaking K-pop
band, hit No. 1 withMap of the Soul: 7,
which topped the Billboard 200 with
422,000 album consumption units for
the week ending Feb. 27. Of that total,
347,000 came from album sales.
In the same week that Bunny
came in No. 2, BTS occupied the
No. 3 spot with 84,000 album
consumption units. Since BTS
is also distributed by The
Orchard, according to retail-
ers, that means the distribu-
tor’s overall market share for all
genres is 6.33%, if the market
share parked under the Columbia
label, including the latter label’s
acts distributed by The Orchard
and some former RED distributed
labels, is added into The Orchard’s
share. That’s up from 6.11% year to
date for the prior week
ending Feb. 27.
—ED CHRISTMAN
Bad
Bunny
18 BILLBOARD • MARCH 14, 2020
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