66 BILLBOARD • OCTOBER 12, 2019
LATIN POWER PLAYERS 2019
Alexandra Lioutikoff
President, Latin America and U.S. Latin
UNIVERSAL MUSIC PUBLISHING GROUP
Lioutikoff talks of “outstanding growth and
fantastic new signings” at UMPG, and her claim is
backed up by the publisher’s deals with J Balvin,
Anitta, Sebastian Yatra, Rosalía and others. She
signed a deal with Rich Music, home to Justin
Quiles, Sech, Dalex and Dimelo Flow, and struck
a new partnership with Brazilian executive and
creator Konrad Dantas and his entertainment
company, KondZilla, which counts 52 million
subscribers on its YouTube channel.
CHARITY I SUPPORT “She Is the Music, a global
nonprofit aimed at increasing and empowering
women of all walks of life working in music. The
organization, started by our global chairman,
Jody Gerson, and Alicia Keys, champions equali-
ty, inclusivity and opportunity for female creators
and industry professionals.”
Jorge Mejía
President/CEO, Latin America and U.S. Latin
SONY/ATV MUSIC PUBLISHING
With Mejía, 46, guiding a roster that in-
cludes Nicky Jam, Maluma, Farruko and
“Despacito” songwriters Luis Fonsi, Daddy
Yankee and Erika Ender, Sony/ATV won the 2019
Latin publisher of the year award from ASCAP,
BMI and SESAC — its third triple crown. “It’s a
great moment for all of us,” says Mejía, himself
a Latin Grammy-nominated composer. “It’s a
recognition to our writers.”
MOST PROMISING LATIN TREND “Collabs, features
[and] remixes. The cross-pollination of artists and
music genres is creating this global music climate,
of which Latin is very much a key part of.”
Gustavo Menéndez
President, U.S. Latin & Latin America
WARNER CHAPPELL MUSIC
Under Menéndez, Warner Chappell Music
subsidiary WB Music was named publisher of the
year at the 2019 Billboard Latin Music Awards
in April, while honors went to Warner Chappell
writers Gaby Music and Chris Jeday as songwrit-
er and producer of the year, respectively. As of
early September, the publisher has had a share in
15 No. 1 songs on Latin Airplay so far this year.
MOST PRESSING ISSUE “We must keep evolving to
maintain the global status Latin music has earned.”
PROs
Gabriela González
Vp, U.S. Latin and Latin America
ASCAP
Joey Mercado
Executive director, creative, Latin
BMI
Celeste Zendejas
Director, creative services
SESAC LATINA
“When you have people like Bad Bunny rapping
entirely in Spanish and topping [the Billboard
Hot 100 with “I Like It” alongside Cardi B and
J Balvin], that’s huge,” says González, 50, who
has seen Afro-Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés,
Venezuelan singer-songwriter Franco De Vita and
Puerto Rican trio Los Rivera Destino join ASCAP’s
roster. Mercado, 49, stepped up for BMI’s Latin
membership in September, working with senior
vp creative Alex Flores following the departure
of vp creative Delia Orjuela, who resigned after
a 22-year tenure with the PRO. BMI added salsa
legend Willie Colón, producer Sky and songwriter
Karen Sotomayor to a roster that already includes
J Balvin and Ozuna. Zendejas, 42, continued to
solidify SESAC Latina’s status in regional Mexican
music, with hitmaking members including Gussy
Lau and Calibre 50, whose frontman Edén Muñoz
was recently the genre’s only representative on
Billboard’s Latin Songwriters chart. “My success
is due to them,” says Zendejas.
STREAMING
Jennifer D’Cunha
Head of U.S. Latin music business
APPLE MUSIC
From reggaeton to Latin trap, salsa to merengue
and cumbia to bachata, D’Cunha and her team
have made Apple Music home to a staggering
diversity of sounds. “We literally have hundreds
of playlists,” says D’Cunha. “Latin is a culture,
not a genre.” She remains focused on expansion,
launching three new playlists this year: Norteño
Machín (Norteño music), La Fórmula (Latin trap
and reggaeton) and Suave (a multilingual, multi-
cultural R&B fusion of artists from the Spanish-,
Portuguese- and English-speaking worlds).
“We’re always looking for new trends,” she says.
“Our work never ends.”
MOST PRESSING ISSUE “Music moves at the pace of
culture, faster than it ever has.”
Sandra Jimenez
Head of music partnerships, Latin America
YOUTUBE
Jimenez helped launch YouTube Music and
YouTube Premium in 16 Latin American countries
in the past year and began monetizing music
content in 12 of those locations since March, cre-
ating a new revenue source for artists. YouTube
aims “to incentivize new talents such as Jão and
Vitão in Brazil, Rauw Alejandro in Puerto Rico or
Pedrina in Colombia through new artist programs
such as Foundry and NextUp,” says Jimenez.
DEFINING CROSSOVER “Content without limits. If you
are collaborating across genres, you are creating
something new and expanding your audiences.”
Marcos Juárez
Head of Latin music
PANDORA
Juárez, 40, oversaw the launch of the Pandora
station El Pulso in April 2018, working with fellow
Latin programmer Leticia Ramirez to focus on art-
ists who are pushing the limits of the Latin genre.
He reports that El Pulso has reached more than
1 million Pandora users. Juárez next is focusing on
the regional Mexican genre with another station,
RMX, while El Detour will show the diversity of
Latin music, from electro-pop to tropical fusion.
MOST PROMISING LATIN TREND “Promoting young
creators from regions that are not hyper-
represented in mainstream Latin music. That’s the
key to keeping the industry vibrant.”
I
n 2013, Robert Fernandez — CEO and
co-founder of Pitbull’s Mr. 305 label —
laid out a vision for Latin music’s future.
The “perfect artist,” he told Billboard that year,
would be “of Spanish descent but [have] the
possibility of crossing over into the general
market without having it be forced — mean-
ing, [without] having to teach them English.”
He was hardly alone in his assessment.
For years, achieving success as a Latin artist
often meant “crossing over” into English,
and the media and marketers have long
called attention to the demise of Spanish as
the language of choice among U.S. Hispan-
ics. As recently as 2015, the Pew Research
Center’s Hispanic Trends project reported
that Spanish-language dominance was on the
decline among second- and third-generation
Latinos, while English-language dominance
was on the rise across all generations.
But today, as second- and third-
generation U.S. Hispanics embrace
Spanish on their own terms, the language
is experiencing a resurgence across
media, including music. In its August
La Oportunidad Latinx report, Nielsen
revealed that even though 95% of Hispanics
under 18 are U.S.-born, younger Hispanics
still speak Spanish at an all-time high: 71%
of all Hispanics speak Spanish at home.
That likely has contributed to a greater
presence of Spanish on the charts. In 2016,
only four Spanish-language tracks appeared
on the Billboard Hot 100. So far in 2019, 19
have, and only two (Bad Bunny and Drake’s
“MIA” and DJ Snake’s “Taki Taki” with Selena
Gomez, Ozuna and Cardi B) are bilingual.
“There is a fluidity of language in the home,”
says Nielsen vp strategic initiatives Stacie de
Armas. “Hispanics today feel that continuing
their cultural tradition is incredibly important.
One of the ways to do it is via the language.”
Spanish was not “cool” to young Hispanics
before, says Ismar SantaCruz, vp/managing
director of radio strategy for Univision. “But
music has permeated the coolness factor
with this explosion of rhythmic artists.
Historically, an English contemporary hit
radio station would have never touched
Spanish. But over the last five years, stations
that played just one song in Spanish now
are playing Spanish songs every hour.”
And where Spanish-language media once
consisted of only Telemundo, Univision and
local radio, today, says de Armas, consumers
have “frictionless access” to a wealth of
content at the click of a button.
“It’s a beautiful thing,” says SBS executive
vp programming Jesús Salas. “There was a
point when we were all concerned: Will the
kids of English-dominant Hispanics forget
about the music? But there has been a resur-
gence, and it’s continuing to grow.”
Menéndez
D’Cunha
González
Jimenez
Juárez
Mejía
Lioutikoff
Zendejas
Mercado
WHAT DO YOUNG
LATINX LISTENERS
WANT? SPANISH
B Y L E I L A C OB O
L
IOUTIK
O
F
F:AL
E
X
A
N
D
E
R
TA
M
AR
G
O
/GE
T
T
Y^IMA
G
E
S.^ M
E
JÍA
:^ CHA
R
L
Z^
A
CH
A
L
ME
R
S.^ M
ENÉND
E
Z:CO
U
R
T
E
S
Y
OF
WMG.^ G
O
NZÁLEZ
:^ SA
L
OC
HO
A.^ M
E
R
C
A
D
O
:^
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
OF
BM
I.
ZE
N
D
E
J
A
S
:^ AY
ME^
ALCAR
A
Z.^ D
’CU
N
H
A
:^
K
Y
L
E^C
A
M
E
R
E
R.^
JI
M
E
N
E
Z
:^ CO
U
R
T
E
S
Y^O
F^G
O
O
G
L
E.^ J
U
A
R
E
Z
:^ RY
A
N
POS
TAS
.