Meet Karol G, Colombia’s Taylor Swift

We’ve all heard of Taylor Swift, however what about Colombian singer Karol G?

Whereas Swift has dominated the headlines and live performance ticket gross sales over latest years, it’s truly the 33-year-old Latin American pop star whose movies are probably the most watched on-line.

That is in keeping with Vevo, which is the principle supplier of official music movies to YouTube. Karol G’s had been probably the most streamed all over the world for every of the previous 4 years, 2021 to 2024.

This yr, Karol G’s Vevo movies had been watched 3.5 billion occasions, with fellow Colombian Shakira in second place on 1.96 billion, and Swift on 1.95 billion.

So who’s Karol G, and what has fuelled the success that additionally noticed her promote out Madrid’s Bernabéu Stadium over 4 nights again in July, plus stadiums throughout the US final yr?

Born within the Colombian metropolis of Medellín in 1991 her full title is Carolina Giraldo Navarro. She needed to be a singer from an early age, and when she was 14 she appeared on the Colombian model of the expertise present X Consider 2005.

Success didn’t instantly comply with, and as an alternative by 2014 she had moved to the US to stay together with her aunt in New York Metropolis to be taught English and do menial work. She virtually gave up pursuing a profession in music at the moment, however her father satisfied her that she may make it.

Whereas within the US Karol G additionally attended a music enterprise convention in Boston, which she says was very useful in serving to her perceive how the business labored.

She acquired her breakthrough hit single in 2017, the track Ahora Me Llama, which was a collaboration with Puerto Rican male artist Dangerous Bunny. Her first album Unstoppable then adopted.

Since then the hits have simply saved on coming, and her 2023 album, Mañana Será Bonito, was the primary totally Spanish-language launch by a feminine artist to prime the US album chart.

Karol G’s type of music is extra usually described as “reggaeton”. This combines hip-hop with Latin American and Jamaican music, with the singing and rapping often achieved in Spanish.

Whereas she is broadly reported to be each hardworking and bold, Rocío Guerrero, head of Latin music at Amazon Music, says that the singer – and Latin music generally – have been tremendously helped by the rise of streaming, each the music and the accompanying movies.

“Streaming democratised the panorama,” says Ms Guerrero, explaining that it has allowed Latin music, which wasn’t being performed on mainstream radio stations to journey the world.

“Radio stations had been native, however with streaming we introduced collectively all of these audiences [around the globe]. It has given extra alternative to extra Latin songs and artist to be uncovered. Karol G is an ideal instance of this evolution.”

In the present day on Amazon Music greater than a 3rd of Latin music is now consumed exterior Latin America, and within the final three years alone the listenership for Karol G has grown by greater than 250%.

In the meantime, within the US, Latin music is now the fastest-growing style, hitting a file $1.4bn (£1.1bn) in venues final yr, in keeping with the Recording Business Affiliation of America (RIAA). Streaming accounted for 98% of this.

And this yr, Karol’s G’s Mañana Será Bonito album was the fourth most streamed globally on Spotify.

This helped to spice up curiosity in her 2023-24 sell-out, world Mañana Será Bonito Tour. This grossed $307m in ticket gross sales. And whereas that determine is dwarfed by the $2bn achieved by Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, Karol G’s earnings had been the very best for a feminine Latin artist.

Carlos Balado, a professor at OBS Enterprise College in Barcelona, analyses the financial influence of music concert events. He says that each Karol G and Taylor Swift have benefited from the elevated recognition of going to such an enormous stay occasion.

“There is a rising development the place the general public considers that a part of their regular spending has to go in the direction of concert events,” he provides.

Leila Cobo, chief content material officer for Latin/Español at US music journal Billboard, which can also be identified for its music charts, says Karol G has helped to place Colombian music on the map.

“I believe music is the most important ambassador for Colombia. I actually do,” she says. “And Karol G has tapped into this feminine Latin feminine fanbase who actually did not have somebody like her. They needed somebody relatable, enjoyable, attractive, had cool songs, however wasn’t fully excessive.

“And reggaeton is tremendous danceable, it is tremendous consumable, it is tremendous youth oriented,” provides Ms Cobo, who’s the writer of a e-book on Latin music.

Regardless of successful quite a few awards and important acclaim, Karol G has not been proof against criticism. Her lyrics have been slammed for being too raunchy, and critics have additionally taken intention at her for calling considered one of her songs “Bichota”. This can be a slang time period that means massive shot or boss, and infrequently related to medication and criminality.

She argues that she repurposed the phrase to suggest empowerment. As for her lyrics, her defenders say that relatively than singing about and objectifying girls, she sings on behalf of them.

Karol G’s estimated web value had skyrocketed to $25m by 2023 in keeping with Superstar Web Value – a determine that is probably elevated considerably since her latest tour.

Outdoors of music she earns cash by collaborations with shoemaker Crocs, sportswear model Kappa, Smirnoff vodka, and Spanish style label Loewe. Her title has additionally appeared on the entrance of FC Barcelona shirts as a part of the soccer membership’s partnership with music streamer Spotify.

Ms Cobo says: “She’s branching out. She’s a really vibrant, inquisitive particular person and at all times trying to develop. And she or he’s very conscious that it is not nearly music.”

Karol G’s enterprise ventures are managed by her firm Woman Energy Inc, which additionally oversees her charity Con Cora Basis.

This goals to assist enhance the lives of underprivileged girls and youngsters throughout Latin America by giving academic scholarships to teenage moms, supporting ladies who need to go into science, know-how, engineering, and arithmetic, offering monetary assist to children’ soccer groups, and society-reintegration initiatives for feminine inmates.

In the meantime, Karol G launched her personal file label in 2023, Bichota, to have extra management over her music, which is subsequently distributed and promoted by US firm Interscope, a part of the enormous Common Music Group.

But regardless of her world success, there are nonetheless markets she hasn’t but cracked – the UK, for instance, the place she’s nonetheless not broadly identified. Britain has a small, however fast-growing Hispanic diaspora.

Nonetheless, Amazon’s Ms Guerrero thinks it is just a matter of time earlier than Karol G does break the British market. “It’ll occur. It is only a matter of time,” she says.