merican mainstream. Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, and Shakira were the era's standard-bearers - but crucially, their biggest international hits were performed in English. The industry's logic at the time was simple: English was the price of admission to global success. Abud pointed to Ricky Martin's performance of  The Cup of Life  at the 1999 Grammys as the first real breakthrough for Latin music in the United States.

The third and most consequential stage began with streaming and social media - and with a single song. Luis Fonsi's  Despacito  in 2017, performed entirely in Spanish and rooted in Puerto Rican musical identity, proved that authenticity, not linguistic compromise, could drive global success. It changed the rules of the game. Today, no artist better embodies that shift than Bad Bunny. From opening the 65th Grammy Awards in 2023 to winning Album of the Year in 2026 with a fully Spanish-language record and performing at the recent Super Bowl, his trajectory - celebrated by Abud as the clearest proof of Latin music's transformation - was decades in the making, even if it appears sudden from the outside.

 Traditionally Latin music growth has been driven by the diaspora in markets like the U.S. with Puerto Ricans arriving in New York and Cubans to Miami. In recent times, streaming has opened growth in Europe,  he said.  At The Latin Recording Academy, we are pleased to see our creators at the top of global music charts; we feel this reflects the collaborative efforts over the last decades. 

Looking ahead, he believes collaboration will define the genre's next phase.  Music is dynamic, and the landscape continues to change with the lines between genres becoming less defined as creators develop a fusion of sounds,  he said.  As such, the next chapter of Latin music's international expansion will be marked by collaborations; we have seen that as a huge driver. 

Language, once seen as the greatest barrier to international reach, is no longer the obstacle it once was. What moves audiences now is honest storytelling, cross-cultural collaboration, and artistic authenticity.

 For decades, the global music industry operated under a simple assumption: if you wanted to reach the world, you had to do it in English. Latin music and K-pop have challenged that assumption,  he said.