Meet Karol G, Colombia’s Taylor Swift

We have now 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 really the 33-year-old Latin American pop star whose movies are probably the most watched on-line.

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

This yr, Karol G’s Vevo movies have been watched 3.5 billion times, 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 wished to be a singer from an early age, and when she was 14 she appeared on the Colombian model of the expertise present X Think about 2005.

Success didn’t instantly observe, and as an alternative by 2014 she had moved to the US to reside along with her aunt in New York Metropolis to study English and do menial work. She nearly gave up pursuing a profession in music at the moment, however her father satisfied her that she might 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 trade labored.

She received 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 solely Spanish-language launch by a feminine artist to top the US album chart.

Karol G’s model of music is extra typically described as “reggaeton”. This combines hip-hop with Latin American and Jamaican music, with the singing and rapping normally executed in Spanish.

Whereas she is extensively reported to be each hardworking and impressive, Rocío Guerrero, head of Latin music at Amazon Music, says that the singer – and Latin music on the whole – have been significantly 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 have 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.”

Immediately 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 genre, hitting a document $1.4bn (£1.1bn) in venues final yr, in response to the Recording Trade 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 streamedglobally on Spotify.

This helped to spice up curiosity in her 2023-24 sell-out, international 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 have been the very best for a feminine Latin artist.

Carlos Balado, a professor at OBS Enterprise College in Barcelona, analyses the financial impression of music live shows. He says that each Karol G and Taylor Swift have benefited from the elevated reputation of going to such a giant reside occasion.

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

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

“I feel music is the largest 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 wished somebody relatable, enjoyable, horny, had cool songs, however wasn’t utterly excessive.

“And reggaeton is tremendous danceable, it is tremendous consumable, it is tremendous youth oriented,” provides Ms Cobo, who’s the creator of a guide 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 goal at her for calling one in all her songs “Bichota”. This can be a slang time period which means large shot or boss, and infrequently related to medication and criminality.

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

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

Exterior 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 seeking 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 Lady Energy Inc, which additionally oversees her charity Con Cora Basis.

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

In the meantime, Karol G launched her personal document 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 large Common Music Group.

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

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