Chart Article
On Oct. 4, 1986, Mexican singer/songwriter Juan Gabriel ranked at No. 1 on Billboard's newly created Latin Songs chart with "Yo No Se Que Me Paso." It was a time when Latin music and Latin culture overall in the United States were still oddities, flanked on the East Coast by the predominantly Cuban Miami and on the West Coast by predominantly Mexican California and Texas. Although there were occasional flare-ups of Latin beats, Latin music was niche.
A quarter-century and 324 No. 1 songs later, we find a very different chart, one populated by a mix of traditional Mexican music, homegrown urban and pop tracks and some English-language hits, reflecting an increasingly diverse audience that includes younger, U.S.-born Latinos that are now tuning into what used to be only their parents' radio stations.To celebrate 25 years of inspired music on Latin Songs, have a look at the 25 top artists in the chart's history. Read further about how this chart was formulated by scrolling to the bottom of this page.
Hot Latin Songs Top 25, 1986-2011
text by Leila Cobo with additional reporting by Judy Cantor Navas, Justino Aguila, Gail Mitchell and Erika Ramirez.
Yet another romantic regional Mexican group, Bronco-known as EL Gigante de América (The Giant of America)-have landed 17 top 10s and a single No. 1, "Que no me Olvide," which spent eight weeks in the top spot. Founded in 1979 by José Guadalupe Esparza, Bronco has remained a fixture of Mexican music since.
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Mexican singer Emmanuel, winner of Billboard's 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award, was the second artist to hit No. 1 on the Latin Songs chart with "Toda la Vida." Throughout this career, Emmanuel placed two other No. 1s on the chart and a total of 17 top 10s. Born to a bullfighter-turned-businessman father and a mother who was an actress and a singer, Emmanuel grew up torn between music and the bullring. The former won after he was gored by a bull and was permanently sidelined from the profession. "Everyone at home used to sing, and every boy at home wanted to be a bullfighter," Emmanuel told Billboard last year. "But more than wanting to be a bullfighter, I wanted to study music."
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With pop and salsa, in English and Spanish, Marc Anthony has been a constant on the chart, placing 18 top 10s and six No. 1s. "No Me Ames," his duet with ex-wife Jennifer López spent seven weeks in the top spot. Anthony, raised in New York, has long known how to capture audiences in the world's of each of the two languages. "I am both," he says.
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The revolutionary bachata of the Dominican Republic's Juan Luis Guerra took an eminently regional genre to an international audience. A graduate of the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Guerra is a musician's musician who brings both sophistication and popular appeal to his music. His exquisite songs have won not only critical appeal but commercial success, resulting in 17 top 10s and five No. 1s. "The music I play is bachata and merengue," says Guerra. "And I feel bachata as if it were mine. Of course, there are many bachateros who've come before me. But my bachata is very specifically mine: With metaphors and R&B influences and other things.
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Together with the late Selena, La Mafia helped detonate the explosion of Tejano music that swept the country in the '80s and early '90s. The group notched 13 top 10s and four No. 1s, including "Me Estoy Enamorando," which spent nine weeks at the top of the chart.
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How This Chart Was Created
The 25th anniversary Latin Songs artists ranking is based on actual performance on the weekly Latin Songs chart dating to its inception in the Oct. 4, 1986, issue through Sept. 24, 2011. Rankings are based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at the lower end of the chart earning the least.
Due to various changes in chart rules, chart length and methodology throughout the years - including the implementation in 1994 of monitored airplay data from Nielsen BDS - songs had varying reigns at No. 1 and on the chart. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from all 25 years, time frames were each weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those periods.
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