“Your song plays and you’re not here by my side / I know I shouldn’t, although I think about you too much.” The verses, more raw than profound, open the chorus of BbY WOW (with that exact combination of uppercase and lowercase, yes), and if you haven’t hummed them over the past four weeks, there must be some young person accusing you of being out of touch. Because this track by Colombian Karol G, in collaboration with Spaniards Judeline and Rusowsky, has become number 1 on Spotify’s Global Top since August 31, with nearly 61 million streams at the time of writing. A figure doomed to rapid obsolescence: every day, this huge Latin pop hit with reggaeton touches adds about four million new streams.
Read more This is how DNA shapes our personality: more than 1,200 genetic variants help determine personality
The Spanish music industry has joyfully celebrated the phenomenon of BbY WOW, especially because it is the first time a female artist has reached the digital crown. Before, only a couple of number 1s with the Spanish flag had arrived. Quevedo achieved it alongside Argentine producer Bzrp (Bizarrap, for those not familiar with contemporary spellings) with the famous Quédate from 2022. Even more unexpected was the case of Si no estás (2022) by the melodic Galician singer-songwriter Íñigo Quintero, who reached the top even as an independent artist, and in March this year joined the very exclusive Billions Club, the list of compositions surpassing 1 billion streams. Not even the goddess Rosalía has reached the top of the streaming platform so far: La noche de anoche, a duet with Bad Bunny, peaked at number 2, and her most successful solo tracks, Despechá and La perla, did not climb beyond fifth place.
What must a song contain to deserve the fervor of the general public? The president of Universal Music in Spain, Luis Fernández, is the first to deflate expectations of a single answer. “From the offices, you can’t expect anything, because you never know what will happen,” he confesses. “Success right now is a conjunction of stars, a perfect storm. Judeline and Rusowsky are two very evident talents who have helped renew the sound and give a twist to Karol G’s music, an artist already very recognized worldwide. But you can never say: it was predictable.” In this case, in his opinion, factors such as the track being part of the artist from Medellín’s latest album, No me arrepiento de sentir tanto, released in mid-August, a month with very few record releases, may influence. Or that it went viral through TikTok and other social networks, an almost uncontrollable factor.
In any case, Fernández is a particularly authoritative voice to analyze Judeline’s trajectory, since he was the one who first discovered and signed the singer from Barbate (Cádiz) for the record label he founded, Sonido Muchacho, the same label for which Carolina Durante, Sen Senra, Hinds, or Alba Morena record. “Actually,” he recalls, “it was Luichi, the guitarist of the group Cupido, who first told me about her and insisted I meet her. He arranged a lunch to which I arrived very late. Lara [Fernández, Judeline’s real name] could have thought: I don’t want to work with someone who arrives at lunch already at coffee time. But at 18, she was already impressive, for her voice and her way of telling the most basic things in life. It took me less than five minutes to realize her aura, now that term is so overused.”
Until this Wednesday, the now crowned song had been used in 3.1 million TikTok videos, a factor that explains its prominence ahead of other much more international collaborations on Karol G’s album, such as those by artists as influential as Bruno Mars or Drake. And this exponential reach fostered by the platform was also decisive in the case of Si no estás, which appears in 330 million tiktoker videos and even now, four years later, provides the soundtrack to about 349,000 reels each month.
“The beautiful thing about this phenomenon is that it confirms that music is the element that connects most with people, the factor thanks to which virality flows like a river,” warns Esteve Lombarte, director of the Catalan promoter Acqustic, responsible for the Quintero miracle. “There is no magic recipe,” he emphasizes, “but on TikTok it’s worth paying as long as you detect that a song is connecting. It’s a process that takes time: many factors have to converge. But nothing can be achieved artificially. If it were just a matter of money, all multinationals would chain number 1s every day.”
The curious thing is that, although BbY WOW unites a Colombian from Paisa, a woman from Los Caños de Meca in Cádiz, and a man from Valladolid raised in Fuenlabrada (Madrid), it was forged far from those three geographical points. Its genesis takes place at the headquarters of the all-powerful record label Interscope (Elton John, Lady Gaga, Eminem…) in Miami. Luis Fernández himself accompanied Judeline on the trip that ended with the signing of the woman from Cádiz by the American label, which already had Karol G in its catalog. And the producer of this song of romantic nostalgia, Puerto Rican Tainy, is the same one working alongside the Spanish artist on her upcoming songs.
“A clear demographic factor contributes to the success of BbY WOW,” notes a veteran executive of the Spanish independent industry, “because reggaeton is popular not only in Latin America, Spain, and Spanish speakers in the United States, but also in European territories without a strong local industry, like Greece, the Netherlands, Croatia…” “Also,” he continues, “Spotify cleverly plays the card that its number 1 equals ‘The most listened to in the world,’ and that doesn’t necessarily have to be true. It’s a reference, of course, but Apple Music is just as powerful in markets like Japan or the United States, with the difference that they don’t have a free version of their platform nor do they publish listening charts.”
Read more A judge summons Begoña Gómez to testify after a complaint by Vito Quiles for false accusation
According to statistics the Swedish giant itself released in August, its active users number around 777 million worldwide (a 31% market share), but only 300 million of them pay a monthly fee. Six out of ten still settle for the free version, which has limited functions and ads between streams. Specifically in Spain, according to data Promusicae (the major record labels’ association) released this Thursday, Spotify’s leadership is more dominant, with nearly 55 percent market share but a higher percentage of basic users than the global average. Digital music (streaming audio and YouTube) accounts for 88.5 percent of the sector’s business volume, although, curiously, physical format still shows signs of revitalization: vinyl sales grow by 28 percent and CDs by 4.3%.
“It’s true that Spotify is a significant yardstick, a unit to measure success, but not an absolute or definitive reference,” admits Luis Fernández. “If we accept that there are around 6 billion adults who consume music worldwide, it’s clear that we must also consider those who turn to CDs, vinyl, downloads, or other platforms.” Specifically, the Chinese Tencent holds 13.8% of the business (mostly concentrated in the Asian giant), while Apple grabs 12.6%, YouTube Music about 11%, and Amazon controls around 8%, according to the latest (July) MIDia Research report.
And both on the green circle platform and its competitors, a growing and unexpected phenomenon is being observed: the virality of great pop-rock classics that begin to compete with Karol G and other current musical hits. It happened with Running up that hill, the classic by Kate Bush (1985) that in 2022 drove a whole generation crazy after appearing in the series Stranger Things. And something very similar is happening right now with Psycho killer, a masterpiece by Talking Heads that will turn fifty next year and has revived during 2026 thanks to multiple tiktoker dances and playlists.
“Virality is right now an unpredictable lottery,” emphasizes the executive from the non-multinational record labels. “The public has empowered itself and trusts more what a friend tells them than what they hear on the radio or read in EL PAÍS. Some labels bet on investing several hundred euros in each influencer they commission videos from talking about a song, but the impact of those campaigns is uncertain or nonexistent. The only smart ones in this whole equation are Spotify executives, who effectively use the oldest marketing technique in the industry: the hit lists.”
How will the BbY WOW sensation affect Judeline’s career? The answer, like all in this article, is uncertain. “Lara’s future is inscrutable, like the paths of the Lord, but this is one more step,” summarizes Luis Fernández. Íñigo Quintero, the proud author of the billion-stream Si no estás, had to settle this spring for filling La Riviera in Madrid, a mid-sized venue for 2,000 spectators, and in Barcelona he will aim this October for Razzmatazz, a venue of similar size. “It’s normal,” adds Esteve Lombarte. “An episode like Si no estás helps and shortens the path, but artistic careers are long and must be built little by little, playing in small and medium venues and building that closeness with fans.”
In Íñigo Quintero’s case, he admits they rejected “several offers from very large international festivals to go step by step.” Not surprisingly, the sentimental artist from A Coruña triumphed enormously with the first song he ever wrote and published in his life. “A record had to be recorded, a band assembled, and a tour scheduled. That’s how a career has always been built,” summarizes his record mentor.
It is clear that both Íñigo and Judeline or Rusowsky are still very far from Karol G’s four consecutive sold-out shows a couple of summers ago at Santiago Bernabéu.
Read more The Andalusian left demands Moreno to take in migrant minors from Ceuta
