Recent BMI signings include superstars Anitta, Karol G, Latin trap/ reggaetón artist Anuel AA and salsa legend Willie Colón. “Mi Gente” was a global phenomenon, and J Balvin went on to make history by becoming the first Latin music headliner at the 2019 Lollapalooza festival. J Balvin and Beyoncé joined forces for the “Mi Gente” remix, which peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 while “Despacito” was also a chart topper at the time, marking the first time ever that two non-English language songs ranked in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart simultaneously. Fonsi went on to receive four Latin GRAMMY Awards for the reggaeton-pop track that has amassed over seven billion views on YouTube.Ĭross-genre collaborations have become prevalent in the Latin music world, from superstar Shakira teaming up with Rihanna for the 2014 hit “Can’t Remember to Forget You,” to Snoop Dogg partnering with Banda MS on “Que Maldición,” which landed at number four on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart, one of the highest debuts for a regional Mexican song. Breaking a Spanish-language song record is the 2017 massive hit by Luis Fonsi, “Despacito,” which spent 16 straight weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making it the longest-running Spanish-language hit of all time. Among other decorated BMI songwriters are reggaetón hitmakers Ozuna and Gaby Music, winners of the BMI Latin Contemporary Songwriter of the Year award in 20, respectively and 2020 Regional Mexican Songwriter of the Year, Geovani Cabrera, who have collectively penned groundbreaking hits like “A Través Del Vaso,” “Sin Pijama,” and “Taki Taki,” which has now surpassed two billion views on YouTube.
Reflecting that musical diversity, the BMI catalog spans numerous genres from Tejano, Latin pop, reggaetón, regional Mexican, bachata, norteño, ranchera, merengue and tango, among others.Ĭurrently, BMI represents hit compositions by various Latin artists including Shakira, Luis Fonsi, Los Tucanes de Tijuana and J Balvin, who took home the coveted BMI Contemporary Latin Songwriter of the Year award in 2018. Spanish music is diverse and comes in many different styles. BMI’s roster includes hit songs by such foreign-affiliated artist/writers as Rosalía, Horacio Palencia, Chino y Nacho and Cazzu, to name just a few.īMI has represented Latin composers, publishers and compositions since its earliest days, including classic popular songs from the 1940s like “Tico Tico” and “Besame Mucho,” to “Guantanamera,” popularized in 1967 by the “Queen of Salsa,” Celia Cruz. Members of foreign performing rights societies such as SACM (Mexico), SADAIC (Argentina), SACVEN (Venezuela) and SGAE (Spain) can select BMI for representation in the United States. The organization also later made reciprocal agreements with sister performing rights organizations around the world. BMI offered first-time representation to songwriters of blues, jazz, R&B, gospel, folk, country, concert, Spanish-language, and other types of American music. BMI was founded in 1939 as a non-profit-making organization to open the door to performing rights representation for songwriters and composers of all types of music, many of whom were not eligible under the membership guidelines of the other American performing rights societies of the time.