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GRAMMYs

Lila Downs

Photo:  Doug Gifford/Getty Images

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The Many Faces Of "La Llorona" many-faces-la-llorona

The Many Faces Of "La Llorona"

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The Latin folk tale has taken root in Spanish-language songs and, most recently, Hollywood, in the horror movie 'The Curse Of La Llorona." But who is behind the "weeping woman," and why do we keep telling her story?
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Apr 25, 2019 - 1:55 pm

The tale of La Llorona—or, the "weeping woman"—is one of betrayal. She can be heard at night, wandering the streets wailing, “¡Ay, mis hijos, mis hijos!” or "Oh, my children, my children!"

La Llorona has killed her children and is condemned to cry forever looking for them.

Or, at least that's what Ana R. Alonso-Minutti, associate professor of music and affiliate of the Latin American and Iberian Institute at the University of New Mexico, grew up hearing in Puebla, Mexico. Truth is, no one really knows La Llorona's exact story. Instead, there are many versions, many of which have worked their way into popular culture. 

"There are many variants of La Llorona's story, so in fact, there are many Lloronas," Alonso-Minutti tells the Recording Academy. The academic has done extensive research on La Llorona, including analysis and lectures on the late singer Chavela Vargas' sung version of the tale that appears on the soundtrack to 2002's drama about Frida Kahlo, Frida. 

According to Alonso-Minutti, La Llorona goes back to the pre-Columbian era and is linked to an Aztec goddess, Cihuacóatl, who would appear at night and cry out for her own dead children. "While there are many variants of the myth, all stories share the existence of a female figure, the Weeping Woman, who has been betrayed by her (assumed male) lover," she says.

In some versions of the story, her paramour is from a higher social class, while others note that he is from Spain. Many versions say that she became angered with him after he'd been unfaithful and thus kills their children. Depending on who is telling the story, she is either wearing all black or all white.

In Mexico, her tale was used to scare people from being where they shouldn't, mostly children from wandering outside of their houses at night. But her story has also come to frighten people in the U.S. and even Hollywood has taken her story to the big screen, most recently with The Curse Of La Llorona.

Alonso-Minutti says La Llorona's story has had a presence in areas near the U.S-Mexico border where Mexican communities have lived. Accounts of her song date back to the 19th century, and in Alonso-Minutti's home state of New Mexico, the song has had a significant presence. "Many Nuevomexicanos have their own personal stories of hearing La Llorona’s wails while walking alongside the Rio Grande, and some report having seen her," she says. 

Dr. Jacqueline Avila, Associate Professor in Musicology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who has studied and written about La Llorona in films like Disney's Coco, says the tale of La Llorona has only become more popular in the U.S. thanks to the rise in interest of the Dia De Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead festivities that happen in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

"La Llorona has been synthesized with the Día de Muertos because it does have those themes of death attached to it," she says. 

La Llorona's Song

Musically, La Llorona's story has taken life, and, just like the oral tale, it has different versions. "La Llorona" is a song that derives from the Isthmus region of Tehuantepec, Mexico Dr. Alonso-Minutti notes. Songs from the region "are performed in social gatherings and religious festivities by a small group of musicians playing guitar, requinto, and bajoquinto, and singing in both Spanish and Zapoteco, the local indigenous language," she says. "Singers are free to choose among hundreds of documented verses, or to create or improvise their own lines on the spot." 

Several versions are sung as rancheras. Why? Dr. Avila's guess is that these musical styles and La Llorona's story are a natural pair. " The canción ranchera in particular, it is about kind of this love lost in a way and they are melancholic and they do feature songs of love and songs of pain," she says. "I think, a love ranchera would transfer quite easily with these types of lyrics."

While lyrics vary, they roughly keep the themes of romance and heartbreak, which are at the center of La Llorona's story. Musical versions by iconic Mexican rock band Caifanes, as well as Beirut's polka-inspired take, show how different genres have brought the song to life.

The sonic version of La Llorona's story show a side to the character that some horror films do not, notes Alonso-Minutti. "The figure to whom the song, 'La Llorona' is addressed is a strong, independent, beautiful woman that resembles the Virgin [Mary]," she says.

Angela Aguilar, Aida Cuevas and Natalia Lafourcade, each of whom sing a version of "La Llorona," came together to sing about the weeping woman at the 61st GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony earlier this year.

Alonso-Minutti notes that in the performance, Aguilar sings a verse that highlights how La Llorona was mistaken for the Virgin Mary, a very strong female figure in the culture, because of the huipil, a garment she was wearing typically worn by indigenous women.

"You were coming out of the temple one day, Llorona/ When in passing, I saw you/ You were wearing such a beautiful huipil, Llorona/ That I thought you were the Virgin," Aguilar sings.

The overall performance had the three singing together at one point, making it a captivating moment for Avila. "They have different voice types and they represented three different interpretations of the song ... it was a very compelling synthesis," she says. 

Alonso-Minutti also adds that in other common verses, La Llorona is portrayed as warm, motherly figure. "Oh woe is me! Llorona/ Llorona, take me to the river/ Cover me with your shawl, Llorona/ Because I’m dying of cold," the verse says.

Lila Downs, who released a version of the song in her 1999 album La Sanduna, says performing the song is a "spiritual experience."

"For me, it’s a very important expression of the human voice," she tells the Recording Academy about singing La Llorona's tale outside of Mexico. "I think both sublime and earthy, angry and sweet. It captures the duality of indigenous vision, and musically carries our heritage of flamenco roots."

RELATED: Lila Downs Announces New Album Paying Tribute To The Chile Pepper, 'Al Chile'

Downs, whose mother identifies La Llorona as having "turkey-webbed feet," will once again honor the weeping woman through her version of the song in her latest album, Al Chile, which is slated for release on May 3.

"I began singing it because people started asking for it," she says of why she decided to cover the song. "At first, I thought it wouldn’t be so attractive a piece, but it turned into something I didn’t recognize in myself. It’s as if some spiritual and mysterious force was behind it, and chose me to sing it."  

A version of La Llorona's song also made it to Disney's 2017 Coco film, which is about a fictional land of the dead. That version, which features a more upbeat sound (the go-to style tends to be a melancholic waltz), has only helped make La Llorona a more noticable figure outside of the Latin community. 

"Coco made it much more recognizable, especially to audiences who are not familiar with Mexican culture or Día de Muertos," Alonso-Minutt says. "It serves as a learning tool so then they were able to hear and see what La Llorona actually is. And so you have people who now have that reference."

The Changing Symbolism Behind La Llorona

Though she used to incite fear, both Alonso-Minutti and Avila agree that La Llorona is now more than just a symbol of terror. 

For Chicana feminists, Alonso-Minutti states, La Llorona is a dominant female figure who symbolizes a voice of resistance against patriarchy, heteronormative expectations and gender roles, such as motherhood. "La Llorona, by contrast, reacts against these expectations and carries out an act of utmost defiance [against her lover]," she says. "Killing his children becomes an act of resistance and liberation. She becomes motherless; a solitary defiant figure whose weeps and yells are to resound for eternity." 

"She was used for fear, but at the same time she was also a woman who was scorned, she was abandoned and so she was in pain and she was heartbroken and her actions have left her motherless and then in the end," Avila adds. "Maybe she's regretting her decision and that's why she's crying out for her children," she says. "But she's also seen as a resistance character and she's acting in a role of defiance as well. So there's different interpretations that you can have towards her."

Angela Aguilar, Aida Cuevas & Natalia Lafourcade Sang A Powerful Rendition Of "La Llorona" At The 2019 GRAMMY Premiere Ceremony

GRAMMYs

Malu Trevejo

Photo: Jacklyn Krol

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Malu Trevejo On Her 'Una Vez Mas' EP malu-trevejo-her-una-vez-mas-ep-playing-lollapalooza-first-time-more

Malu Trevejo On Her 'Una Vez Mas' EP, Playing Lollapalooza For The First Time & More

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"It's my first time at Lollapalooza, so I'm so proud 'cause I'm Cuban and I'm Spanish and there's not too many Latin people singing," she tells the Recording Academy
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Aug 7, 2019 - 3:11 pm

Fresh off releasing her Una Vez Mas EP, pop singer Malu Trevejo stepped onto the Lollapalooza stage for the very first time this summer. The moment was a scary one for the 16-year-old Cuban-Spanish singer, but it was one that made her feel proud. 

Malu Trevejo On Her 'Una Vez Mas' EP

"It's my first time at Lollapalooza, so I'm so proud 'cause I'm Cuban and I'm Spanish and there's not too many Latin people singing," she told the Recording Academy after her set. "I was scared when I was about to jump on stage because I didn't know what the reaction would be, I was really scared, but then when I got off of it, I was like, yeah, I got it."

The "Hasta Luego" singer also shared details on her EP, advice for staying focused and more. Check out her full interview above. 

The Revivalists On 'Take Good Care' & How New Orleans Music "Seeps Into Your Bones"

GRAMMYs

The Joy Formidable 

Courtesy of Corona Capital

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The Joy Formidable To Release Anniversary Welsh EP exclusive-joy-formidable-celebrate-10th-anniversary-debut-ep-welsh-version

Exclusive: The Joy Formidable To Celebrate 10th Anniversary Of Debut EP With Welsh Version

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The Welsh trio sit down with the Recording Academy in Mexico to talk 10th anniversary of 'A Balloon Called Moaning' and more
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
May 16, 2019 - 4:46 pm

It's been 10 years since Welsh alt-rock band The Joy Formidable released their first EP A Balloon Called Moaning. No small feat, the band is celebrating with a project unlike any other they've done before.

"Instead of re-releasing [the album,] we recorded it in Welsh," Vocalist/guitarist Ritzy Bryan told the Recording Academy.  "We're excited, it sounds beautiful and it brings back a lot of memories."

The band, whose latest album is Aaarth, says their love of music and frienship is what has kept them strong this long.

"It's actual friendship, and caring about each other and also the music, absolutely the music," bassist/vocalist Rhydian Davies said. "I think when we get on stage and we're playing what we're playing, we forget about everything and enjoy the moment and it's not because of business."

The Recording Academy talked with the charming trio after their set at Corona Capital Guadalajara in Mexico about more details of their Welsh release, how important personal songwriting is to them, what's next for them and more. 

Tell me, how does it feel to be in Mexico?

Rhydian: Hot.

Ritzy: It's been a little while. I think we were here in 2012. It's been seven years and we had a really lovely time last time that we visited. So I think we've been just excited to come back and hoping and kind of, I feel a little bit torn, I wish we'd been back more but, no point in having regrets. Hopefully we can come back more regularly from now on.

Rhydian: There are so many things that get in the way unfortunately, you know? We'd like to go everywhere on every album cycle but, certain things come in the way; logistics or whatever it is, personal circumstances, but, It's just nice to be here we've not been to Guadalajara before.

You're celebrating 10 years together this year. What is the glue that keeps you together?

Ritzy: I think a lot of respect for each other, good communication and, I think, all of us have got quite different personalities, and just over time you learn how to I suppose just build, inspire each other, how to still have a sense of humor, how to still be really good friends but, we're all quite different people. Over time we've just created this dynamic that feels very intuitive and very, I don't want to say easy, 'cause we fight as well you know.

Rhydian: It's friendship and love isn't it?

Ritzy: Yeah.

Rhydian: Friendship, love and respect comes from that because you spend 24/7 with someone, you're bound to have some arguments and how'd you get over that? It's love isn't it? It's actual friendship, and caring about each other and also the music, absolutely the music. I think when we get on stage and we're playing what we're playing, we forget about everything and enjoy the moment and it's not because of business. We are not doing it just because we want to be famous or it's like I'm getting paid at the end of this so those are pretty major things I think. Don't do music if you doing it for those reasons, that's my opinion. 

Matt: Rhydian Davies with his opinions (all laugh)

Where do you get your inspiration from? I mean you have made music for so long, where does it come from constantly?

Ritzy: It comes from the smallest little thing that happens, maybe. Just you see something that triggers or it makes you feel something and it can go from there, something as simple as nature or just a moment in time watching something through the window, walking down the street to something much more expansive, where you just feel like you need to get something out, you have a story to tell, or you feel like you need to share something that has happened to you good or bad. I think it could be—

Matt: Could be anything—

Rhydian: It could be very personal.

Ritzy: Yeah very.

Rhydian: Because it's been something cathartic for us as well, trying to get over things. You know, there's been things, traumas and fear and into sometimes, what would you call it, mental problems, mental issues, which is obviously something that affects so many people, and we don't like to talk about it but, I think whatever you talk about, you can't help but put your personal element on it because it is obviously how you see the world, isn't it? The personal is always, I think, a really big part of this band. It's not like trying to fit in lyrics to go "DA DA DA" so it sounds nice at the end. "In the air, we're gonna fly, I feel so high," and that's fine. There's a place for everything isn't it? But, I do feel like it's also been a benefit for us to also talk about something that actually means something personal you know?

Matt: We've also got a song about a cactus.

Corona Capital's mission is to bring more international music to Mexico, what does it feel, for you, to play in a new city? To get your music in a new place?

Ritzy: I don't think we ever get in a place all weary. It's not like we wake up in the morning and we're like, "Uh, Where are we? It's fucking ground hog day". That isn't what drives our band or us as individuals, we still are hungry to play music, we are still excited to wake up in a new city but—

Rhydian: You know, we love to play anywhere. New city, old city, we are always excited to go back.

Matt: The key thing is your message is in there, you ask about lyrics and I don't think it's just the lyrics as well as what your message [is], I think.

White Lies Talk Touring Mexico, 'FIVE' & Why Friendship Is The Key Ingredient To Band Longevity

GRAMMYs

Christine And The Queens 

Courtesy of Corona Capital Guadalajara

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Christine And The Queens On "Being Too Much" christine-and-queens-chris-record-talks-about-being-too-much

Christine And The Queens On 'Chris': "This Is A Record That Talks About Being Too Much"

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"I want an album that talks about excess and carnal desires like men can talk about," the French singer tells the Recording Academy
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
May 14, 2019 - 4:47 pm

Chris, or, as she's known onstage, Christine And The Queens, is a disrupter. "Blasting Peaches in cis men's cars," she recently tweeted. 

Energetic, expressive and stimulating, Christine's electro-pop paired with her visuals can be equally destabilizing. "Some of us just had to fight/For even being looked at right," she sings in the video for "5 dollars," which portrays her walking around topless, then strapping on BDSM gear and a men's suit. Toying with both masculine and feminine expression, her latest album Chris embodies a growth in Christine's female identity. 

"I wanted to tell the complexity of where I was. I was stronger than I used to be, more powerful also with what happened to me as a woman," Chris told the Recording Academy. "I was lustful, frustrated, but full of that eagerness to live things fully. I was also joking when I was making the record, I was like, 'This is a record that talks about being too much.' It's easy to be too much when you're a woman and you're easily told to shut up or maybe be less loud or maybe keep your composure."

The Recording Academy spoke with Chris after her set at Corona Capital in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she share more about Chris, how dancing helps connect with international audiences, how female artists are forming a sisterhood and more. 

This is your first time in Mexico. How has it been?

It's too short. I will come back because I just arrived yesterday, performed today for like 15 minutes, which was lovely. Great crowd, really embracing and warm, but it's already done, so I want to do more. I wish I could come back. I was really eager to come here, actually. I was intrigued by Mexico. I wish I had more time to just properly explore. Some of my dancers actually stayed longer than me to explore a bit before the gig.

What intrigues you about it?

I've been here only like a day, but I think it's really vibe-y and spiritual. I don't know if I'm fantasizing it or not, but I feel like some things are connected and people have this relationship to spirituality that feels uplifting and celebratory and I think it's a really great feeling. Also when you're on stage, you can feel there is, I don't know, people project something that was quite different than other countries to me.

Your latest album is called Chris. What was the inspiration behind it?

Second album, second chapter. I'm saying "chapter" on purpose because hopefully there'll be a whole novel. [Laughs.]

That record came out like four years after the debut album, which was kind of life-changing to me. [The first album] was unexpectedly successful, and in Chris I wanted to tell the complexity of where I was. I was stronger than I used to be, more powerful also with what happened to me as a woman. I was lustful, frustrated, but full of that eagerness to live things fully. I was also joking when I was making the record, I was like, "This is a record that talks about being too much." It's easy to be too much when you're a woman and you're easily told to shut up or maybe be less loud or maybe keep your composure. I was like, "I want an album that talks about excess and carnal desires like men can talk about." It would be like a rock star album. 

In the U.S. there's a study out that women are very underrepresented musically at festivals and on charts. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Yeah, it's fascinating also because there are lots of great female musicians out like ... Grimes, Rihanna, there are tons of fantastic female performers, but we are weirdly underrepresented in the statistics and I was actually really surprised to learn that. Also, in a way it doesn't surprise me, unfortunately though. It's not even just in music, it's everywhere. Even in the technical jobs, women are not there. I never worked with a female sound engineer. Never. Ever.

When you're a female artist, it's twice as hard. You're sexualized immediately. You are questioned five times more, and if you try to navigate the complicated waters of the mainstream, you have to find a way to be a woman that is appealing and not threatening. It's complicated, but I think with everything that happens now, hopefully it's going to stretch a bit what it means to be a woman in this industry. There are lots of fantastic female performers that should be topping the charts. Rosalia, lots of inspiring females around.

I also think what changes in a good way is solidarity and that becomes a real thing, like a sisterhood. I noticed, even myself as a performer, that women are exchanging way more, talking way more to each other, building strong friendships that can help them along the way. I think solidarity comes to be a real thing, which is a good thing.

The festival's mission is to bring international artists that have not been here before. What is it like for you to be able to bring your music to a new place?

It's always reallly interesting because you get to discover if there is a relationship or not with your music and people over there and what is the relationship. So it's really a great moment when you can discover exactly how you exist as an artist for them. It was quite soothing [here] because I saw people mouthing the words of an English record made by a French woman.

How is it for you to play a French song in front of an audience that doesn't speak French?

This is where music is also great. [It's] this weird universal language. I think even though people don't really get it, they kind of get it, which is good. As French people, we listen to lots of English pop music when we're young and you get the emotion anyway. You don't even have to understand and sometimes when you do understand you go, "Ohhh, ohhh." I think with music you can also connect the physicality of my performances every time with the dancing. The body also speaks hopefully. So there is also a way to convey the emotion with the body, so people get if I'm sad or happy. 

You dance, you sing. Do you have a favorite form of expression?

Sometimes it shifts. Sometimes I feel more like dancing and sometimes the singing's the only thing I can do, which is why I do love this weird job of mine. I can do everything at once. It's shifting constantly. It's also cool because I have cycles. Like, I need to come back to the studio. Oh no wait, I need to be on stage. Oh no wait, I need to shut up. Oh wait. Yeah, all over the place.

What's next for you after Corona Capital? What are you doing?

 I'm touring a bit with Florence and the Machine, actually. She's inviting me on her tour, which is a great, great thing to be in because she's touring the U.S. in huge venues. She's huge as a performer there. So I'm like, "Thank you for inviting me."

Then I'm doing all the summer festivals. Then I think I'm going to stop to write some more because I started to write already and I want to release music sooner than four years in between records.
 

Boy Pablo On Growing Up Bicultural & Why Writing About Love Comes Easily To Him

GRAMMYs

Karol G

Photo: Gio Alma Miami August

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Where Are Urban Music's Latinas? closing-gap-how-latina-artists-are-combating-gender-inequality-urban-music

Closing The Gap: How Latina Artists Are Combating Gender Inequality In Urban Music

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Karol G, Natti Natasha and other female urban artists are winning awards and topping streaming lists, but that wasn't always the case
Jennifer Velez
GRAMMYs
Apr 3, 2019 - 7:19 am

Karol G is "200 percent" sure that women are gaining visibility in reggaeton.

An urban Latin artist, the 28-year-old is undeniably one of the brightest stars in her genre, with more than 15 million followers on Instagram, four million followers on Spotify, 600k-plus followers (and 183 million lifetime streams) on Pandora, and placement on Apple Music's Dale Play! Latin urban playlist for International Women's Day. And that’s not counting her three No.1 hits on the Latin Airplay Chart and a Best New Artist award at the 19th Annual Latin GRAMMYs in 2018.

There’s little doubt that Karol G is thriving. Her take on reggaeton, a genre that generally borrows from dancehall, reggae and hip-hop, features a pop fusion and empowering lyrics directed toward a female audience. But her success didn’t happen overnight; it’s been years in the making.

"A lot of people may know me for my music now," Karol G says during a stop in Mexico for the tour she's doing with fellow urban artist and boyfriend, Anuel AA. "It took me almost 14 years to get where I am, and it was really hard."

Karol G Wins Best New Artist At 2018 Latin GRAMMYs

REGGAETON’S HISTORY OF GENDER IMBALANCE

Research supports that female artists in Latin music are scarce. According to Dr. Stacy Smith and USC's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, who analyzed the top 150 songs from the Billboard Hot Latin Songs Chart between 2015–2917, the ratio for every 10 male artists was one female artist. In 2015, six percent of artists were women in the top 150 songs of the chart, while 2017 saw a rise to 13 percent. In terms of songwriting, women represented 3.8 percent during the three years analyzed.  

"Female artists are few and far in between… I think that is a problem in Latin [that's] always been there," says Head of Latin Music at Pandora Marcos Juárez.

WOMEN DON’T SELL(?)

According to female reggaeton artists, the roadblocks they face have everything to do with gender.

“From the moment I decided to go by ‘Karol G,’ I began doing reggaeton or urban Latin music, and because there were no women, they would say [that] women couldn't do it or because ‘You're a woman,’ this or that,” says Karol. “Because you're a woman they think your values and your dignity, become interchangeable, and they offer you things at the cost of other things.”

Reggaeton has been a male-dominated genre for years. And Latin trap, the Spanish-language version of the South's trap music and another rising sub-genre of urban Latin music, is not much different.

In Puerto Rico, reggaeton began as an underground scene (many attribute the birth of reggaeton to Panama and artists like El General) in the early and mid-2000s. Eventually, what is now known as “classic reggaeton,” expanded outside of the island to other parts of Latin America and parts of the mainland U.S., where there were more young Latino-Americans.

But a recent resurgence of the genre, led by artists like J Balvin and Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's 2017 Latin-pop smash "Despacito," which reached No. 1 on the Billboard 100 with a version featuring Justin Bieber, has taken the genre to a new global level. And thanks to the viral nature of the internet, people in many more parts of the U.S. and world, English speaking or not, are listening to reggaeton's more "marketable" version of itself.

How powerful has the genre become? In 2018, only two of YouTube's top 10 most-watched videos were in English. The rest were in Spanish, and each had at least one urban music artist attached to it. With over 1.5 billion users, the platform is the most popular to stream music, according to Forbes. Only one of those eight songs featured women, "Sin Pijama" by Natti Natasha and Becky G.

As Remezcla points out, women have been instrumental in the Latin Urban genre, one of those artists being Puerto Rico's Ivy Queen who has been a trailblazer for women empowerment with anthems like "Quiero Bailar," which tackles women's rights and objectification. So why has it been so tricky for women to gain visibility in the market?

Natti Natasha, a Latin urban singer/songwriter who had her first hit alongside reggaeton icon Don Omar in 2012 with "Dutty Love," was initially told by label executives that women simply don’t sell in her genre.

"Any [female] artist that is trying to make it out there is probably struggling right now,” she says. “And then being a woman is like, I had to go places and show what I had and they were like, 'We like it. It's good music, but women don't sell. They're not going to listen to you. So us investing our time and investing all we have in you, it's probably not gonna come back.’”

While "Dutty Love" peaked at No. 1 on Billboard's Latin Pop Songs Chart, the success was short-lived for Natasha. But things turned around years later; Natti Natasha is YouTube's most watched female artist and overall one of the top ten most-watched acts on the platform of 2018.

BREAKING THE GLASS CEILING BY BANDING TOGETHER

With a growing interest in Latin urban music, labels are closing in on the imbalance. Universal, home to Karol G, and Sony, who distributes Natti Natasha and where Becky G and Jennifer Lopez are signed, recently told Billboard that things are beginning to look different for women in urban Latin.

“There was definitely an opening for women [in 2018], ”Executive Vice President Latin America/Iberian Peninsula for Universal Music Angel Kaminsky said. "There has been a surge like we’ve never seen before of female acts from many different countries with lots of attitude and potential. These girls are writing at a younger age, and the material reflects their stories and their lives, leading to bigger engagement.”

"We made a commitment to bring diversity to the Latin music landscape, and this year we’ve had a record number of hits by female acts,” says Nir Seroussi, President of Sony Music U.S. Latin also told Billboard.

While the industry may be more welcoming women now, there was a time where Natti Natasha says women felt pitted against each other.

"They used to want women to compete,” she says. “Don't know why, but it was just like an automatic thing. Once you understand that is not the way to go, you understand why that happens, why they do it. You do all the opposite, and you get together and you make this happen. You prove to people that it's not a competing thing. It's a collaborating situation.”

RELATED: Latin Pop Performer Natti Natasha Takes Center Stage On 'IlumiNATTI'

Collaboration among Latin urban women is absolutely on the rise, agrees Latin Curator at Pandora Leticia Ramirez, which has helped them gain visibility. "I think there is definitely a sense within the music community with female artists that there needs to be a level of support for one another versus a comparison of one another. I think that is allowing more experiences and opportunities with amongst themselves to do things."

Cross-promotion among Latin artists is already a widely utilized practice. During a tribute to Daddy Yankee at Premios Lo Nuestro this past year, the reggaeton figurehead thanked his male colleagues for supporting each other. According to Juárez, public support, like the sort offered by Yankee, is precisely what helps Puerto Rican performers be successful.

"I think what's really unique about Puerto Rican artists is the way they've all put each other on … Puerto Ricans have set the template for collaborating and co-signing artists, and helping bring people up. You see that over and over and over."

Dr. Stacy Smith found in her research that many Laitn chart-toppers are Puerto Rican.

COMBATING "MACHISMO" IN LATIN CULTURE

But, as Juarez points out, there may be more subtle, industry-wide obstacles that deter women’s success in this arena. He notes that listeners on Pandora, which allows users to thumb up or thumb down artists, are not always receptive to female artists.

"I think part of it is probably culture … machismo is real, and I think that is definitely part of it," he says. "I'll tell you what, on [the] Reggaeton de Hoy [station,] it's really hard to put women in there, because people just don't ... number one, there's not a ton of [female] artists [out there]. It's not to say that there is none, I mean, there definitely are some artists who are killing it. But there's not a ton, and people react adversely to it still."

Ramirez sees the industry's recent push for female artists and believes that it may be listeners who need to become more supportive of female artists.

"They are publicists. They're pushing. They're communicators. They're making s**t happen. So I don't think it's something that's dictated from the industry. I think it could be cultural, quite frankly," she says. "I think that for some reason the consumer isn't as easily supportive of a female artist as they are a man. There's still that negative comparison to women … With men, a lot of things are excused. You know?  … I do think there is that part of it. I think that that could kind of impact women and how far they can go in the music industry."

RELATED: Ozuna, J Balvin & More Pay Tribute To Daddy Yankee At Premio Lo Nuestro

MORE WOMEN IN THE STREAMING MIX

Juarez says digital streaming platforms, along with labels, could be doing more. Dr. Stacy Smith agrees. At a panel called Women In The Lead, held during Billboard Latin Week 2018, asserted that it’s ultimately up to streaming platforms to create desire for an audience. "It's not about what the audience wants, it’s what these companies are willing to supply to create the desire amongst listeners."

But what does that look like? An all-female playlist or radio station? Juarez says "all-female" content may not be the best solution.

"I think you run the risk of making [women] ‘other,’” he says. “It's much more beneficial to integrate [women] and have it seem natural as part of just a listening experience. I think more and more, we're getting to that," he says. 

“We have a station, an effort called El Pulso on Pandora, which we launched last year, sort of like a franchise Latin effort. The idea there was to really embrace this popular Latin movement that our listeners are showing us that is important and impactful for them. But then we're also trying to be predictive and trying to include up-and-coming artists, and a lot of those artists are females."

One thing streaming platforms can do, Juarez says, is keep women artists in front of audiences in an organic way.

"I think within that branded listening experience, there're opportunities to just keep ... Not force-feeding people, but just keep trying, you know? Keep putting it in front of people," he says. 

While Apple Music, Spotify and Pandora are all establishing ways to organically integrate women into their Latin music playlists and stations, Karol G says another way females need support is through the acceptance of their lyrics.

"The only limit I see at the moment is people accepting our lyrics … We have songs about love, about falling out of love … I want to be able to talk about anything and everything because I am human … I think there needs to be a little more equality in that aspect," say says.

But despite the challenges, Karol G believes this moment for women in reggaeton is more than a trend; it’s a genuine movement that’s showing no signs of slowing down.

"There was a time in which there weren’t feminine faces,” she says. “Now that door is open, and we're coming in. Not one, not two, but many of us. That makes people's curiosity grow. People now want to hear our side of the story. They want to know where we've been and how we did it.”

"On Location: Miami": Lary Over Talks About Latin Trap Origins 

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