The First Time in History: No English Lyrics in YouTube’s Top 5

Urban Klancnik

Dec 6, 2019

YouTube is gaining popularity in South America and Asia, as quite a lot of artists from those regions were among the most popular ones in the last couple of years. However, 2019 is the first year ever with almost complete dominance by Latin artists. There are no songs with English lyrics among the Top 5; actually, only three made it into the Top 10, discounting the few English lines in the song "Con Calma" – delivered by Snow (known by his hit "Informer"), by the way, so you’ll have to concentrate to actually understand the words in any case. 

The most popular music video of 2019

Reggaeton rules the Top 5 of 2019. And don’t forget, globally, it all started with Daddy Yankee’s "Gasolina" in 2004. It’s therefore quite fitting that the seasoned hitmaker is on top with his song "Con Calma", which has gotten over 1.6B views since 23 January, when it was released on YouTube. Viberate data shows an immediate spike in YouTube views on his channel, with monthly views jumping from 150M in January to 340M in March. 

Rosalía and J Balvin take second place

Spanish singer Rosalía collaborated with Colombian superstar J Balvin and her fellow Spaniard El Guincho, and the trio made a monster hit. The video for the song "Con Altura" was released on 28 March and has gotten over 1.1B views since then. Monthly views of her YouTube channel went up from 16M in March 2019 to 105M in April 2019. In November 2019, “Con Altura” also won in the Best Collaboration category at the 2019 MTV European Music Awards.

Third and fourth place go to Anuel AA

Puerto Rico's favorite jailbird Anuel AA is another Reggaeton performer who's had a fantastic year. His hit "Secreto", a collab with Karol G, has gotten over 900M views since January and landed in third place. Our data shows that after its release, monthly YouTube views on Anuel AA's channel jumped from 211M in December 2018 to 343M in January 2019 (and even higher – 361M – in the following month). 

"Secreto" is followed by another Anuel AA songs, "China", a collab with Daddy Yankee, Karol G, Ozuna, and J Balvin. Anuel AA sampled Shaggy's song "Wasn't Me", because he wanted to "revive an old classic". The video for the song, released on 19 July, already has over 890M YouTube views, which puts the song in fourth place at the time of publishing, but it could still climb higher by the end of the year. Some of the biggest music stars in the world are following Anuel AA on social media, too many to list them all. You can check them out here!

Further down the line, we have the remix of the song "No Me Conoce" (0.81B views) by Jhay Cortez, J Balvin, and Bad Bunny. Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello made a collab called "Señorita" (0.8B) – the first song on the list that's in English – which has climbed to #6. In #7 we find the Indian song "Rowdy Baby" (0.71B), performed by Dhanush, Sai Pallavi, Krishna, and Varalakshmi Sarathkumar. South Korean K-pop girl group BLACKPINK took #8 with the song "Kill This Love" (0.67B), while at #9 and #10, it's Billie Eilish with "Bad Guy" (0.66B), and Ariana Grande with "7 Rings" (0.64B).

Old vs. new

The huge South American and Asian market is mostly the reason that Latin and Asian artists are at the top when it comes to the most-played videos. Very high on the list are songs that incorporate old classics, like "Informer" in "Con Calma" and "Wasn't Me" in "China". Latin artists are experts in giving fans a perfect combination of familiar sounds and elements of something new and exciting.

Thumb: Mauricio Granados (Daddy Yankee at the Latin American Music Awards). 

Cover: Sara Kurfess (Unsplash)

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