New Music Latin is a compilation of the best new Latin songs and albums recommended by Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors. Check out this week’s picks below.

Rauw Alejandro & Mr. NaisGai, “Pasaporte” (Sony Music Latin/Duars Entertainment)

On the heels of making his MTV debut, Rauw Alejandro delivers the third single off of his upcoming fifth studio album Cosa Nuestra. “Pasaporte” in collaboration with his longtime producer Mr. NaisGai is a groovy, funk-infused dance track that best captures the carefree and adventurous era that Rauw’s in. “If I don’t answer/ I’m doing my own thing, send me a text/ My life is a movie, everyday I post photos and videos,” he smoothly chants. Honoring the title, which means passport, the music video captures Rauw dancing in a private jet and hanging out with his celebrity friends David Guetta and The Martinez Brothers in Ibiza. “Pasaporte” follows his singles “Déjame Entrar” and “Touching the Sky,” all part of his forthcoming set out November 15. — JESSICA ROIZ

Rosalía feat. Ralphie Choo, “Omega” (Columbia Records)

From its first steely guitar strums to Rosalía’s unmistakable vocal timbre with occasional flamenco-styled claps, “Omega,” featuring Ralphie Choo, captures vulnerability and strength. The texture, reminiscent of ‘70s power ballads, is both pristine and piercing. The song evokes nostalgia and delivers goosebumps, especially when the Spanish superstar intones “Sentimental” with raw emotion. “The more you move away/ Everything about you reminds me of you,” she sings poignantly. Released on her birthday, “Omega” is a celebration of completeness and true connection — captured in the line, “Tú eres mi omega,” signaling “you are my end-all.”  — ISABELA RAYGOZA

Shakira, “Soltera” (Ace Entertainment/Sony Music Latin)

Shakira is unapologetically reveling in single life bliss, and isn’t any accepting any sort of negativity surrounding her newfound independence. Powered by a joyful tropical pop tune fused with afrobeats, “Soltera,” which translates to single in English, is really a celebration of life. “I have the right to misbehave. To have a good time. I’m on my own and now I can do what I want to do. It’s good to be single,” the Colombian hitmaker declares. Penned by Shakira and her go-to songwriters, Keityn and Edgar Barrera, the credits also list Bizarrap as a songwriter, making this song an almost certified hit. “Soltera” follows the theme of independence and self-liberation that Shakira showcased in her latest album, Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran, which scored a Latin Grammy album of the year nomination. — GRISELDA FLORES

Ryan Castro & Hamilton, “A Poca Luz” (AWOO Corp.)

In a first collaborative effort, Ryan Castro reeled in newcomer Hamilton for “A Poca Luz.” Produced by The Prodigiez, the track steers away from Castro’s signature Medellín perreo sound and navigates through the chill rhythms of Amapiano Afrobeat with suave house beats. The track introduces the blissful musica proposal by Hamilton — a Cartagena-based emerging act — to a wider scale. Lyrically, it’s a love letter: “I promised the moon that before the sun comes out, she was going to be mine […] my beautiful flower that drives me crazy,” chants Castro. The music video was filmed in El Pozón, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Cartagena that best captures the port city’s rich culture and vibrant people. — J.R.

Daddy Yankee, “Bailando en la Lluvia” (El Cartel Records)

Reggaeton legend Daddy Yankee sends a message of resilience and faith in his new single “Bailando en la Lluvia” (“Dancing in the Rain”). In the song, the reggaetón icon fuses his signature style with a vibrant tropical pop melody, transmitting an invitation to face adversity with optimism and trust in God. “I learned that it’s one day at a time/ One battles or gives up/ You cry in the storm, or you dance in the rain,” goes part of the lyrics. On his social media, the artist shared: “I hope this song fills you with encouragement, strength and invites you to dance in the rain, which means ‘changing your attitude’ in the middle of the storm.” — LUISA CALLE

Listen to more editors’ Latin recommendations in the playlist below:

For the four devout Midwesterners that make up Minnesota indie pop-rock band Hippo Campus, touring through major cities like New York wasn’t always as comfortable as it is for them now more than 10 years into their careers — but they’ve always had their ways of coping.

“I love coming here now,” 30-year-old guitarist Nathan Stocker tells Billboard backstage at the Bowery Ballroom in lower Manhattan, where he and his bandmates were hours away from performing an album-release show Tuesday (Sept. 24). “It used to scare me until I was well into the night, a couple beers deep, just chain smoking. And then it was like ‘Yeah, I love New York!’”

After years of heavy drinking on show nights, Stocker is sober now – and so is the rest of the band, for the most part. There’s still room for some balance; at one point in the show later that night, 29-year-old frontman Jake Luppen asks the crowd to send a shot of whisky to the stage, and when two arrive at the same time, he downs them both as 28-year-old bassist Zach Sutton shakes his head with gentle disapproval. But the quartet’s overall tamer approach to life on the road is just one of many things that’s different about the cult-favorite group in the age of their latest album, Flood, which dropped Sept. 20 via new label Psychic Hotline, having departed Grand Jury Records after their original record deal expired.

Luppen and 29-year-old drummer Whistler Allen, for instance, both own homes back in their home state, and all four members are in committed relationships (Luppen got engaged over the summer). The group is far from the early 20-somethings who dropped Billboard 200-charting debut album Landmark in 2017 and slept on dirty van floors on tour, and even farther from the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists classmates who first started releasing music together in 2013. Now all pushing 30, Hippo Campus is finally coming out on the other side of years of growing pains, spawned by the natural push and pull of four people who’ve been best friends, bandmates and business partners for more than a decade.

Early in the writing sessions for Flood, they started going to therapy as a group to help parse the big questions – around the same time as which Stocker quit drinking – and a lot of that introspection bleeds into the 13 tracks on the finished product. On the thrashing ode to anxiety “Paranoid,” Luppen sings, “I wanna give this life all that I havе in me,” and on optimistic album closer “I Got Time,” he muses, “If this is as good as it gets I’ll be more than fine.”

But even as they were each evolving in their personal lives, they found that it was difficult to let go of the songs they were making in the two-year period between their last album, 2022’s LP3, and now. On a self-designated mission to make the best Hippo Campus record ever, they got stuck in an endless loop — writing more than 100 songs, recording them over and over, and arranging multiple versions of their fourth album just to scrap them soon afterward. They thought they might’ve cracked it last summer while on the road, until Luppen declared to the rest of the group that, again, it simply wasn’t good enough.

Realizing they couldn’t keep going as they had been, Hippo Campus left Minnesota to record yet another version of the album, this time at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo, Tex. They set a 10-day deadline and, with the help of producers Caleb Wright and Brad Cook — and using everyone from Phoenix to Big Thief, Tom Petty and the Red Hot Chili Peppers as reference points — forced themselves to record their parts simultaneously as they would on stage. No listening back to takes. No repeated attempts. Only forward motion.

The result was a set of existential, self-conscious tracks with the same luminous energy and unpredictable melodies Hippo is known for, reinvigorated by the ease with which the analog instrumentation they adhered to in the studio translates to the stage. As much was evident at their New York show Tuesday night, where they played Flood front to back for a palpably excited audience that was already screaming along to the words of songs that had come out just four days prior. At one point, Luppen stops singing to cough — he recovered from COVID-19 last week, but not before having to cancel the band’s scheduled hometown release shows — but their passionate fans have no trouble taking over lead vocals in his place on anthemic single “Everything at Once.”

With touring serving as their main source of income, the group will stay on the road through February, playing theaters and auditoriums across North America and the U.K. along with one festival show in Bangkok. And their fans will follow. One 22-year-old listener, Abby, was camped outside the 9:00 p.m. Bowery performance since the early afternoon to get as close as possible to the stage for what would be her 52nd Hippo Campus show; the next day, she said she’d be traveling to Washington, D.C. to catch her 53rd.

“It’s so rad,” Luppen says of their fans’ devotion. “It always surprises me that anyone would be down to do that for us. That’s a big reason why we keep going, you know? Those people really believe in it, and that allows us to believe in it.”

Below, Billboard catches up with Stocker and Sutton backstage before their show at the Bowery — followed by Luppen and Allen on Zoom the next day – about growing up, ditching bad habits and the messy beauty of starting over:

What were your initial reactions to Jake saying you needed to scrap years of work and start over on Flood?

Sutton: He was the first to verbalize an emotion we were all feeling. We had to be honest about where we were in the process and where we wanted to go from there. But there was a lot of arguing about what to throw away.

Stocker: Jake’s expression of that concern is valid … once that’s brought to our attention, it’s our job to attend to it. But also, it’s like, “God dammit dude — can’t we just say goodbye to this thing and move on?”

Allen: I remember listening to it and feeling excited for the songs, but deep down, I was like, ‘It just needs to get mixed right or something.’ Which tends to be an excuse for something else that’s lacking.

What was missing?

Luppen: It just didn’t sound like we were having fun playing music. We went into the record wanting to make the best Hippo Campus record ever. It immediately put a lot of pressure on the thing. The stakes were so high that, personally, I was stressed out the entire time — second-guessing songs, second-guessing the performances.

Sutton: We were too zoomed in. We’d been chasing these 100 songs for a year in a half. We were like, “We have lost the f–king plot.”

What needed to change for Flood to finally come together?

Allen: We were just so separated most of the time at home. It was rare at a certain point that we were all in the same room. At Sonic Ranch, we were all there — we had to be there. We had to make ourselves experience it, whether we wanted to or not.

Luppen: Hippo Campus, when it’s at its best, is us playing music together in a room. To make the best Hippo Campus record is to capture the feeling that our live shows capture. The best way to do that was to track all together at the same time.

Allen: Doing what we did at Sonic Ranch is proof that [recording live] is a crucial thing for us, to make ourselves be in an isolated space and just get s–t done. Otherwise, we just get too relaxed or comfortable or lazy.

Will fans ever hear those other 100 songs?

Sutton: I f–king hope so. Those are some of my favorite songs.

Stocker: The large majority of them, probably not.

Sutton: Once a song is considered so heavily and inevitably shelved, it’s hard to go back to that shelf. It’s shouldered with all the disagreements that we had about the song.

Stocker: “You used to f–king hate this one, you want to release it now?” [Laughs.] All the songs we have in the back room collecting dust, those tear at us in a lot of different ways. Because they’re still ours.

What is Flood about for you personally?

Stocker: It’s a line of simple questioning: Am I good enough? Do I love you? Am I a phony?

Sutton: The motif seems like redefining where you are, especially as a group. This is our fourth record: Who are we now? Where do we want to go?

Luppen: Flood is like being naked in a lit room with a mirror held up to you, and being like, “Embrace this.” It’s a testament to all the things we need to be doing to take care of ourselves and live better. Now that we’re into our 30s, we wanted Flood to be the start of the music we make in those years, where you’re not driven by this youthful crazy energy.

How does touring look different for you as you get older?

Stocker: We usually cap it at three weeks now. It’s the longest we’ll go out without a break, just so we can maintain a level of sanity.

Allen: It’s chilled out so much. With [Nathan’s] new sobriety over the last couple of years, that was a big shift on the whole group. 2022 was the grand finale of what it used to be for us on the big LP3 tour. I just remember being at the end of that tour feeling f–king wiped. That was definitely a wakeup call.

Sutton: At our worst, we’d get up at noon, have a beer, then not eat anything until the show. You do what you think you’re supposed to do – “Oh, it’s a party!” — there was a culture that was set by all of us.

Luppen: It was like partying in a Midwestern way, where we’d just get wasted on the bus and watch Harry Potter.

Allen: Now everybody’s chilling, getting in their bus bunk by 11:00 p.m.

Why was sobriety important for the band?

Luppen: We were using alcohol, I think, to numb fatigue or nerves. I have the life that I’ve always dreamed of, and I want to be present and there for it, even if that means I’m riding the waves a little deeper on the ups and the downs. It’s better than just sleepwalking your way through life.

Stocker: With not drinking and having a newfound clarity within my personal life … I became obsessed with fulfilling this vision of myself that I had, which was, ‘If you are going to do this thing, you have to do it the best that you can.’ That meant showing up every day and writing a song if I could. I felt like I had to make up for lost time from being perpetually wasted for 10 years.

Other than sobriety, what did you need to discuss in band therapy?

Sutton: I couldn’t talk to anyone in the band without seeing all the f–king baggage. The biggest disagreement is defining what Hippo Campus is. We all have different answers about the music — mainly how the music’s made — and what the music’s saying.

Stocker: We needed to have conversations about how things had been and how not to go back there, because that was dark and harmful. It was really affirmative in, like, “Okay, yes, we’re still friends, we haven’t done anything to each other that’s irreparable damage or anything like that.” We can reestablish these healthy lines of communication so that, moving forward with this record as friends, individuals, human beings and business partners, we can do this in a healthy way.

Luppen: It was us paying to force ourselves to talk to each other. We all changed a lot over the pandemic in our personal lives, with our partners and everything. On top of that, we’ve been friends since we were 14. In a lot of ways, we were still communicating with each other like we were still in high school. Therapy allowed me to see everybody for where they’re at now.

Why did you change labels to Psychic Hotline when your deal with Grand Jury Records ended?

Luppen: We wanted to try something different this time around. We kind of shopped [Flood] around to a lot of different labels. We talked to majors, we talked to indies. Frankly, it was pretty disappointing. There were a lot of major labels that passed on it, which was confusing for us. We’ve spent 10 years working our asses off building a very organic, sustainable business.

Allen: We were told that they loved the record, but there’s just not enough “virality” in the band. It’s proof that they’re not interested in the actual success of a band, they’re just interested in the little spike in numbers that bring in royalties and syncs or whatever the f–k. Then as soon as that band doesn’t provide that same accidental moment, it’s all over.

Luppen: Psychic Hotline is run by our manager [Martin Anderson]. It was the option that allowed us the most freedom and cared the most about the project. It was clear they loved the music and they really understood us on a deep level. We were like, “Let’s just bet on ourselves like we’ve done our entire career and grassroots this motherf–ker.”

Stocker: Having the management side of things already taken care of and having them already be so close to us throughout that creative process, it made sense to bring them in on the label side as well.

What are your goals for the band? Are you actively trying to expand?

Sutton: It would be stupid to say, ‘Still not there yet.’ Like, this is it. To say I want anything more would be so ungrateful. I do always feel very competitive about being the best version of ourselves. I want to be in the same conversation as all the people that influenced me.

Allen: There are still some things we would like to do. We’ve never done a Tiny Desk, or some talk shows.

Stocker: We still have this idea that we want to be the biggest band in the world, but that is not something we’re interested in at the cost of our integrity and our friendships.

Luppen: It’s about preserving what we have at this point and not burning out. When I was younger, I was constantly trying to climb this hill that had no end. The biggest goal we could ever imagine was selling out Red Rocks [in Colorado] when we started the band, and we did that. Playing arenas … that doesn’t sound attractive to us. We’re happy with where we’re at. If more people come in, I’m always grateful for that.

I think there’s a record we have yet to make that really captures everything. We thought maybe it was going to be [Flood], and this one gets closer. But for me it’s about cracking a perfect Hippo record. Every Hippo record we’ve kind of had to learn to love.

But isn’t that kind of the same thought process that got you into the endless writing cycle with Flood?

Luppen: It’s a blessing and a curse. We’re always sort of hungry for something that’s just past what you’re capable of doing. But I do think that is a driving force of what makes Hippo rad. Maybe we’ll never make that record, or maybe we already made that record. Who the f–k knows?

You raise a good point, though. I’m gonna reflect on that.

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Summer may be over, but MAC Cosmetics is getting in the autumn spirit with a Fall Favourites Sale that’ll let you refresh your makeup routine with fresh mascara, eyeshadow and even MAC’s bestselling lipstick . Almost everything on the site is 30% off — including on the products previously worn on Chappell Roan. Or, you can head to the clearance section for up to 50% off last-chance products.

The 2024 VMAs saw the “Pink Pony Club” singer walk the red carpet showing off a Joan of Arc-inspired outfit while wearing a full face of MAC Cosmetics. Fans can now recreate the look or incorporate pieces worn by the 26-year-old into their makeup routines — with the added bonus of not having to pay full price.

MAC’s fall sale is only going on until Monday (Sept. 30), which means you’ll want to snag her look and more makeup essentials before the discounts end. Clearance deals are also quickly selling out (including the white mascara worn by Roan), so if you want to snag some beauty products under $15, you should head to checkout sooner rather than later.

Besides the “Casual” singer, other celebrities who have previously been seen wearing MAC makeup include Taylor Swift, Kim Petras and Madonna, further solidifying its Hollywood approval.

Keep reading to learn more and get some shopping inspiration.

What Are the Best MAC Cosmetics Deals?

To help you snag the biggest discounts on the most sought out makeup, ShopBillboard put together a list for you to quickly stock up on below.

For more product recommendations, check out ShopBillboard‘s roundups of the best makeup bags for travel, refillable lipsticks and travel-friendly beauty products.

NBA star Jaylen Brown has revealed his pick for the worst song of all-time, and Ice Spice should cover her ears. The Boston Celtics forward and A$AP Ferg sat down with Complex recently for an episode of GOAT Talk, where he begrudgingly disclosed that he’s not a fan of Ice Spice’s “Think U the Shit (Fart).”

Brown initially was apprehensive to speaking his mind, but the candid baller quickly caved. “I can’t … I’m not even gonna say it because they gonna think I’m hating,” he said. “First one that came to mind is the Ice Spice joint, ‘I’m not even the fart, you thought I was the s–t.’”

Ferg fired back, teasing JB about the poop-themed track: “Why you not jacking that? It don’t sound good coming from a woman you feel like? Cuz women is people too — they could fart and s–t.”

Ice Spice has yet to publicly respond to Brown’s critique. Billboard has reached out to her rep for comment.

“Think U the Shit (Fart)” was released in January and became Ice Spice’s highest charting solo single to date when it debuted inside the Billboard Hot 100’s top 40 at No. 37.

The RIOTUSA-produced song was thought to be a Latto diss track, and also served as the lead single for The Bronx native’s Y2K! debut album, which arrived in July.

While he’s not dominating the NBA courts, Brown picked up a new hobby this offseason, as he made his debut as a rapper in August. JB teamed up with A$AP Ferg for “Just Do It” — a jab at Nike’s signature tagline.

Watch Jaylen Brown and A$AP Ferg talk about Ice Spice’s song below.

Changes are coming to Montreal’s nightlife. Following public outcry over the closure of the popular venue La Tulipe, Mayor Valérie Plante announced this week (Sept. 25) that venues will now be exempt from the bylaw that led to its closure.

The venue announced this week it would cease operations due to a decision by the Quebec Court of Appeal, which mandated the venue to not emit sound that could be heard in an adjacent building.

Specifically, in the Plateau-Mont-Royal borough of Montreal (a popular area for live music), music venues will no longer be subject to Section 9 of the bylaw governing noise regulation, which specifies that amplified sound cannot be audible in a neighbouring building. Projet Montreal, Plante’s party, has also committed to improving the city’s soundproofing program and presenting a new nightlife policy in October.

Plante posted a video on Instagram, sharing her own dismay at the news that La Tulipe would be closing its doors for the foreseeable future. She expresses concern that one person could derail an entire music venue.

“Yes to neighbourliness, but no to the dictatorship of neighbours,” Plante says in the video.

La Tulipe isn’t the only venue in the city to be affected by noise bylaws. Popular spots like Divan Orange and Diving Bell Social Club have previously closed down due to noise complaints.The outcry to the news about La Tulipe indicated a growing frustration amongst cultural laborers in the city, which has a reputation as a haven for arts production in Canada. – Rosie Long Decter

Newly Announced Rogers Stadium Will Become One of Canada’s Biggest Music Venues

On Thursday (Sept. 26), Live Nation and Northcrest Developments announced Rogers Stadium, the new 50,000 capacity outdoor venue in Toronto opening in June 2025. The venue will instantly become one of the biggest in Canada, with a slightly higher capacity than Toronto’s other stadium, Rogers Centre. It’s also one of the world’s few venues of the size that isn’t also home to a sports team.

The venue will be located at YZD, on the site of what used to be the Downsview Airport in North Toronto. Bombardier used the land for an air field, air force base and testing base for aircrafts. In 2018, Bombardier sold the facility to Northcrest Developments and will move its operations to Pearson Airport.

The company is redeveloping the land into mixed-use residential communities, a $30B plan that is slated to take 30 years. In the meantime, the 370-acre site, now called YZD, is being used for a variety of arts, community and other initiatives as part of “Meanwhile Use Strategy.”

After the announcement press conference, Billboard Canada spoke to Erik Hoffman, president of music at Live Nation Canada, about why they decided to open the venue and why now. Hoffman says the decision was inspired by a specific artist.

“The idea came from [working with] a major artist who we were very frustrated that we couldn’t find dates [for],” says Hoffman. “They were just going to bypass Toronto on their world tour.”

That act (unrevealed, but there’s plenty of room for speculation) will now play Rogers Stadium next summer, one of 12-15 shows on the 2025 slate. Hoffman says almost all of those shows are already booked. 

“It’ll be the biggest year we’ve ever had in stadium-level touring. By far,” he says. “It’s the kind of acts that you would traditionally see at an NFL stadium in the U.S. or the Rogers Centre here. The biggest acts in the world, and some of them setting up for multiple days.”

Stadium and festival-size shows are in high demand, he says, and Toronto is one of the top stops on any world tour. The city is also multicultural and multilingual, which makes it an ideal market for exploding genres from around the world including K-pop, Latin music and Punjabi music. Stadium shows from Indian star Diljit Dosanjh in Toronto and Vancouver this summer have shown there’s an appetite. 

“If the fans weren’t coming, [artists] wouldn’t stage shows that big,” Hoffman says. “Not to dumb it down too much, but if they keep selling out stadium shows you do more stadium shows.” – Richard Trapunski

Somali-Canadian Artist K’naan Charged with Sexual Assault

Canadian musician K’naan has been charged with sexual assault.

A charge sheet was filed this week (Sept. 26) in Quebec City for the musician and director, born Keinan Abdi Warsame, for a count of sexual assault dating back to 2010, The Canadian Press reports.

The arrest warrant alleges that the assault took place between July 16 and 17 in Quebec City, which coincides with a show he played at Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ) in 2010. CBC reports that the complaint was first filed in May of 2022 with the Montreal police, but was later transferred to Quebec City. The assault allegedly took place in a hotel room on territory covered by the Quebec City police force.

K’naan, who’s known for his 2009 hit “Wavin’ Flag” (later rerecorded as the global anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup), took an extended break after his 2012 album Troubadour and spent time in both Canada and the United States. Recently, he has recently returned to prominence.

The Somali-Canadian musician returned with “Refugee” in 2023, a song that he said was intended to feel “like a home for those of us made homeless by conflict.” K’naan won the Best Song for Social Change Award by the Recording Academy at this year’s Grammy Awards.

Just over two weeks ago, K’naan made his debut as a director, premiering his feature film Mother Mother at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. This week, on Sept. 24, K’naan attended the SOCAN Awards at History in Toronto and accepted the SOCAN Cultural Impact Award for the lasting global impact of his anthem, “Wavin’ Flag.”

Warsame was not in attendance for the proceedings in Quebec. The case has been set for April 2025. According to Radio-Canada, Warsame’s lawyer has requested he be tried in English in front of a jury. – R.T.