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The Billboard Hot Latin Songs (formerly Hot Latin Tracks and Hot Latin 50) is a record chart in the United States for Latin songs, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Since October 2012, chart rankings are based on digital sales, radio airplay, and online streaming, and only predominantly Spanish-language songs are allowed to rank. The chart was established by the magazine on September 6, 1986, and was originally based on airplay on Latin music radio stations. Although the chart predominantly allows Spanish-language songs, songs in English and Portuguese have charted.

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The Billboard magazine logo

The first number one song of the Hot Latin Songs chart was "La Guirnalda" by Rocío Dúrcal on September 6, 1986. As of the issue dated December 21, 2024, the chart has had 464 different number one hits, while 192 artists have reached number one (as a lead or a featured act). The current number-one song on the chart is "Tu Boda" by Óscar Maydon and Fuerza Regida.[1]

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History

On September 6, 1986, Billboard premiered a Latin music singles chart, the Hot Latin 50. During the late 1980s, musical data was compiled by the Billboard magazine-affiliated chart and research department, with information from 70 Spanish-language radio stations in the United States and Puerto Rico.[2] Those radio stations were selected based on their number of listeners, being asked to report their playlists for the week. Since 1994, this data has been compiled by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems (BDS), which electronically monitors radio stations in more than 120 music markets across the United States.[3] Before The Hot Latin Songs chart's inception, the Latin music information on the magazine was presented only in the form of the biweekly album sales chart, or Top Latin Albums, which continues to be listed separately.[2] There were no language restrictions on the chart, since a few songs in English and Portuguese have charted (and even reached number one) on five occasions. Three genre-specific Latin "sub-charts" were introduced and were factored into the Hot Latin Songs chart, namely Latin Pop Airplay, Regional Mexican Airplay, and Latin Tropical Airplay. A fourth sub-chart, the Latin Rhythm Airplay chart, was established in 2005 in response to the growing popularity of Latin hip hop, urbano and reggaetón music.[4]

According to the Billboard electronic database, the first number one song on the Hot Latin 50 was "La Guirnalda", by Spanish singer Rocío Dúrcal, on September 6, 1986.[5] However, in the listings included in the first printed publication of the chart, on October 4, 1986, the first number-one song was "Yo No Sé Qué Me Pasó", by Mexican singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel.[6] In 2016, Billboard stated that the chart was introduced on the issue dated October 4, 1986, but the magazine's official website recognizes the previous issues from September 6, 1986, to September September 27, 1986, as well as Rocío Durcal's number one on the debut issue.[7][8][9][10][11]

Due to the increasing popularity of downloads sales and streaming data, Billboard updated the methodology for the Hot Latin Songs chart on October 11, 2012, to include digital sales and streaming activity in addition to airplay, as well as making only predominantly Spanish-language songs eligible for inclusion and increasing airplay data to more than 1,200 radio stations across the United States.[12] The chart's previous methodology was formatted to the Latin Airplay chart with the Latin genre-charts now being component charts of the Latin Airplay chart.

Component charts

There are several component charts that contribute to the overall calculation of Hot Latin Songs. These are:

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Compilation

The tracking week for sales and streaming begins on Friday and ends on Thursday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Monday to Sunday. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Tuesday. Each chart is post-dated with the "week-ending" issue date four days after the charts are refreshed online (i.e., the following Saturday).[20] For example:

  • Friday, January 1 – sales tracking-week begins, streaming tracking-week begins
  • Monday, January 4 – airplay tracking-week begins
  • Thursday, January 7 – sales tracking-week ends, streaming tracking-week ends
  • Sunday, January 10 – airplay tracking-week ends
  • Tuesday, January 12 – new chart released, with issue post-dated Saturday, January 16
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Hot Latin Songs policy changes

The methods and policies by which this data is obtained and compiled have changed many times throughout the chart's history.

Digital downloads, linguistic requirement, and online streaming

Since October 11, 2012, the Billboard Hot Latin Songs tracks paid digital downloads and streaming activity.[12] Billboard initially started tracking downloads since January 10, 2010, with the Latin Digital Songs chart.[21] However, these downloads did not count towards Hot Latin Songs. In addition, Billboard imposed a linguistic requirement; a song must be predominantly sung in Spanish to be eligible to rank on the chart. A component Latin Streaming Songs chart was introduced on April 20, 2013, which ranks web radio streams from services such as Spotify, as well as on-demand audio titles.[22]

Recurrents

Billboard, in an effort to allow the chart to remain as current as possible and to give proper representation to new and developing artists and tracks, has removed titles that have reached certain criteria regarding its current rank and number of weeks on the chart. A song is permanently moved to "recurrent status" if it has spent 20 weeks on Hot Latin Songs and fallen below position number 25.[23] Additionally, descending songs are removed from the chart if ranking below number 10 after 26 weeks or below number five after 52 weeks.[24]

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Records

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Enrique Iglesias has the most number-one songs, with 27 between 1995 and 2016.
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"Despacito" by Luis Fonsi (pictured), Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber is the longest-running number one, with 56 non-consecutive weeks from February 2017 to September 2018.

Songs

Top 10 songs of All-Time (1986–2021)

In 2016, for the 30th anniversary of Hot Latin Songs, Billboard magazine compiled a ranking of the 50 best-performing songs on the chart over the 30 years, along with the best-performing artists.[25] Billboard has stated that "due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted differently to account for chart turnover rates over various periods."[26] The top 20 was updated in 2018,[27] while the most current update of the list was published in September 2021.[28]

More information Rank, Single ...
Rank Single Artist(s) Year released Peak and duration Ref.
1. "Despacito" Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber 2017 #1 for 56 weeks[29] [28]
2. "Propuesta Indecente" Romeo Santos 2013 #1 for 4 weeks[29]
3. "A Puro Dolor" Son by Four 2000 #1 for 20 weeks[30]
4. "Si Tú Supieras" Alejandro Fernández 1997 #1 for 6 weeks[31]
5. "La Tortura" Shakira featuring Alejandro Sanz 2005 #1 for 25 weeks[32]
6. "Te Quiero" Flex 2007 #1 for 20 weeks[33]
7. "No Me Doy por Vencido" Luis Fonsi 2008 #1 for 19 weeks[34]
8. "El Perdón" Nicky Jam and Enrique Iglesias 2015 #1 for 30 weeks[35]
9. "Bailando" Enrique Iglesias featuring Descemer Bueno and Gente De Zona 2014 #1 for 41 weeks
10. "Me Enamora" Juanes 2007 #1 for 20 weeks
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Most weeks at number one

  • 56 weeks – Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, featuring Justin Bieber – "Despacito" (2017)[a][37][38][39]
  • 41 weeks – Enrique Iglesias featuring Descemer Bueno and Gente de Zona – "Bailando" (2014)[40]
  • 30 weeks – Nicky Jam and Enrique Iglesias – "El Perdón" (2015)[35]
  • 27 weeks – Bad Bunny and Jhay Cortez – "Dakiti" (2021)[41]
  • 25 weeks – Shakira featuring Alejandro Sanz – "La Tortura" (2005)[32]

Most total weeks

  • 125 weeks – Romeo Santos – "Propuesta Indecente" (2013)[25][29]
  • 110 weeks – Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, featuring Justin Bieber – "Despacito" (2017)[37]
  • 78 weeks – Bad Bunny and Jhay Cortez – "Dakiti" (2020)[42]
  • 62 weeks – Prince Royce – "Incondicional" (2012)[43]
  • 61 weeks – Son by Four – "A Puro Dolor" (2000)[30]

Artists

Most number-one singles

Most top 10 singles

Most chart entries

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Year-End

Most years at number one

  • 3 – Ana Gabriel, Enrique Iglesias, Juan Gabriel, Bad Bunny
  • 2 – Daddy Yankee, Justin Bieber, Luis Fonsi, Nicky Jam, Selena

Most years in the top 10

See also

Notes

  1. The original version of "Despacito" by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee remained at number one for 12 weeks before the remix version featuring Justin Bieber was combined to the chart entry on May 6, 2017.[36]

References

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