When Ricky Martin was livin’ la vida loca, Leila Cobo was there.
She saw Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine do the conga. She watched Shakira … whenever, wherever. And she knows all about what Bad Bunny put his poor titi through.
Leila Cobo is the vice president of Latin music at Billboard. She’s been watching Latin stars break into the U.S. market for more than two decades. First as a music writer, where she went from Los Angeles to the epicenter of the Latin Music world — Miami. It’s close to her home country of Colombia, where she grew up a classical pianist.
She went inside the world of chart-topping Latin music at Billboard. She tells the stories of Spanish language musicians taking off in the U.S. market to become global icons.
Leila leads the annual Billboard Latin Music Week conference in Miami, and the Billboard Latin Awards. She’s written books on the subject, including bios of Latin stars like Jenni Rivera. In her latest book, “Decoding Despacito,” she traces the explosion of some of Latin pop’s biggest hits.
On the June 29 episode of Sundial, Cobo joined us to talk to us about watching Latin music go global from her view here in Miami.
On Sundial's previous episode, Rachel Silverstein joined us to tell us about her plan to make Miami the water conservation model for the country to follow.
Listen to Sundial Monday through Thursday on WLRN, 91.3 FM, live at 1 p.m., rebroadcast at 8 p.m. Missed a show? Find every episode of Sundial on your favorite podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify.
