A decade before Brat summer, Charli XCX roared to No. 1 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart with “Boom Clap.”

The song began a three-week reign on the list dated Sept. 13, 2014, and marked her first No. 1 on her own and second overall. She first led as featured on Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” for three weeks beginning that June.

Powered by their explosive choruses, the songs became Charli XCX’s second and third Pop Airplay top 10s, after Icona Pop’s fellow anthemic hit “I Love It,” on which she’s also featured, rose to No. 3 in June 2013.

On the multimetric Billboard Hot 100, “I Love It” hit No. 7; “Fancy” dominated for seven weeks – and earned top honors on the season-ending 2014 Songs of the Summer chart; and “Boom Clap” stormed to No. 8.

Notably, “Boom Clap” marked the fourth consecutive Pop Airplay No. 1 by an artist in a first chart visit as a lead act, following three fellow enduring hits: Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me,” Magic!’s “Rude” and Nico & Vinz’s “Am I Wrong.”

“Discovering new artists is one of the many things that keeps radio great,” Tommy Chuck, senior vice president of programming for iHeartMedia’s Tampa and Sarasota, Fla., stations, told Billboard upon the chart coronation of “Boom Clap.”

New acts or not, “great songs win,” said Erik Bradley, Audacy brand manager. “And hits like ‘Rude’ and ‘Boom Clap’ are incredible songs.”

“Boom Clap” was released from Charli XCX’s album Sucker, which reached No. 28 on the Billboard 200 in January 2015. The song was also fueled by its synch in the hit film The Fault in Our Stars.

In 2016, the Cambridge, England-born artist hit the Hot 100’s top 10 as a co-writer of Selena Gomez’s “Same Old Love,” while in 2019, her co-write “Senorita,” recorded by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, spent a week at No. 1, marking Charli XCX’s second leader as a writer, after “Fancy.”

In 2022, Crash became Charli XCX’s first Billboard 200 top 10, peaking at No. 7. This June, Brat bounded in at its No. 3 best. The Atlantic Records release has yet to depart the chart’s top 15 and has earned 585,000 equivalent albums in the United States through Sept. 5, according to Luminate. (Meta moment, especially for this post: “I used to never think about Billboard/ But now, I’ve started thinking again, wondering about whether I think I deserve commercial success,” she muses on the set’s reflective track “Rewind.”)

Meanwhile, Brat single “360” becomes Charli XCX’s first Pop Airplay top 10 since “Boom Clap,” rising a spot to No. 10 on the Sept. 21-dated chart. In addition to notching her fourth top 10 on the tally, she scores the list’s highest new entry, as fellow Brat track “Apple” debuts at No. 36.

Looking back for Billboard’s July cover story, Charli XCX called Sucker “an attempt at what Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour was able to do much better. My vision wasn’t fully realized. I was 19 years old. Whilst I think a lot of the songs that I was doing then were good songs, I wouldn’t necessarily have listened to them if it was another artist releasing them. I think I knew that at the time, but I also think I knew that that was OK. At that time, I was writing for a lot of other people, and I wanted to be doing that. I knew I probably wouldn’t have been in those [writing rooms] had ‘Boom Clap’ and those songs not happened the way they happened.”

Ludwig Göransson, who won an Oscar in March for best original score for Oppenheimer, and Billie Eilish and Finneas, who won an Oscar for best original song for “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie, could add to their considerable award collections at the 24th World Soundtrack Awards (WSA), which will be held on Wednesday Oct. 16 in Ghent, Belgium.

The awards are organized by Film Fest Gent, Belgium’s biggest international film festival.

Nominees in three categories – film composer of the year, television composer of the year and best original song – were announced and posted on Billboard.com on Aug. 7. A second wave of nominations were announced on Friday (Sept. 13).

Two of the nominees for the discovery of the year award – Jerskin Fendrix (Poor Things) and Anthony Willis (Saltburn) are also nominated for film composer of the year, where they will compete with veterans Göransson, Laura Karpman and Hans Zimmer.

Three of the five nominees for film composer of the year are represented with multiple works. Fendrix’s entry includes both Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness, director Yorgos Lanthimos’ follow-up to Poor Things. Karpman’s entry includes her Oscar-nominated score for American Fiction, her score for the 2023 film The Marvels and her Emmy-nominated score for Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed. Zimmer’s entry includes his scores for the 2023 film The Creator and the 2024 film Dune: Part Two.

Veteran composer Elliot Goldenthal is set to receive the WSA lifetime achievement award for his contribution to film and television music. Goldenthal won an Oscar for best original score in 2003 for Frida and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy the following year – outstanding music composition for a miniseries, movie or a special (dramatic underscore) for Dance in America: Lar Lubovitch’s Othello (Great Performances).

Here’s a complete list of nominees in all categories.

Film composer of the year

    Jerskin Fendrix | Kinds of Kindness; Poor Things

    Ludwig Göransson | Oppenheimer

    Laura Karpman | American Fiction; The Marvels; Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed

    Anthony Willis | Saltburn

    Hans Zimmer | Dune: Part Two; The Creator

Television composer of the year

    Nick Chuba, Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross | Shōgun

    Natalie Holt | Loki

    James Newton Howard | All the Light We Cannot See

    Martin Phipps | The Crown

    Carlos Rafael Rivera | Griselda; Lessons in Chemistry; Monsieur Spade

    Jeff Russo | Fargo; Ripley

Best original song

    “Dance the Night” from Barbie | written by Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt, Caroline Ailin, Dua Lipa | performed by: Dua Lipa

    “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie | written by Andrew Wyatt, Mark Ronson | performed by: Ryan Gosling

    “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony | written by Dan Wilson, Jon Batiste | performed by: Jon Batiste

    “Road to Freedom” from Rustin | written and performed by Lenny Kravitz

    “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon | written by Scott George | performed by Osage Tribal Singers

    “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie | written by Finneas O’Connell, Billie Eilish | performed by Billie Eilish

    “You’ve Never Had Chocolate Like This” from Wonka | written by Neil Hannon, Paul King, Simon Farnaby | performed by Timothée Chalamet, The Cast of Wonka

Discovery of the year award

    In the Land of Saints and Sinners | Diego Baldenweg with Nora Baldenweg and Lionel Baldenweg

    Poor Things | Jerskin Fendrix

    Ezra | Carlos Rafael Rivera

    Julie Keeps Quiet (Julie zwijgt) | Caroline Shaw

    Saltburn | Anthony Wills

Public choice award

    Dune: Part Two | Hans Zimmer

    In the Land of Saints and Sinners | Diego Baldenweg with Nora Baldenweg and Lionel Baldenweg

    La Guerra dei Nonni | Umberto Scipione

    Saltburn | Anthony Willis

    Young Woman and the Sea | Amelia Warner

WSA game music award

    “Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure” | Maclaine Diemer, Bryan Atkinson, Bobby Brader, Jarryd Elias, Jaimee Jimin Park, Michael Paraskevas, Bobby Rose

    “Jagged Alliance 3” | George Strezov

    “Slay the Princess” | Brandon Boone

    “Tales of Kenzera: Zau” | Nainita Desai

    “The Outlast Trials” | Tom Salta

Best original score for a Belgian production

    Skunk | Amenra

    When it Melts | Bjorn Eriksson

    Wil | Geert Hellings

Sabam award for best original composition by a young composer

    Alex Mansour

    Georg Mausolf

    Florian van der Reijden

Chappell Roan rules Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart with her first entry on the survey as “Good Luck, Babe!” ascends to the top of the list dated Sept. 21.

The track, released on KRA/Amusement/Island Records and promoted to radio by Republic, gained by 9% in plays Sept. 6-12. (The Pop Airplay chart ranks songs by weekly plays on over 150 mainstream top 40 radio stations monitored by Mediabase, with data provided to Billboard by Luminate.)

The singer-songwriter, who first reached Billboard’s charts in October 2023, when she entered Emerging Artists and her album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess debuted on the Billboard 200, among other rankings, lands her first leader on an airplay chart with “Good Luck, Babe!” (a stand-alone single).

The song has additionally risen to No. 6 on the all-genre, multimetric Billboard Hot 100. It has drawn 404 million in radio audience and 357 million official on-demand streams and sold 48,000 through Sept. 5.

“Good Luck, Babe!” also marks a first for Island Records: As the song supplants Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” after two weeks at No. 1, the label links back-to-back leaders for the first time in the Pop Airplay chart’s 32-year history.

Plus, Island boasts four Pop Airplay No. 1s in 2024; prior to “Good Luck, Babe!” and “Please Please Please,” Carpenter led with “Espresso” for three weeks in July and “Feather” for a week in April. Island had previously logged as many as two No. 1s in a single year (in 2005 and 2017).

Meanwhile, Republic has promoted seven Pop Airplay No. 1s this year, the most among all labels; in addition to Chappell Roan and Carpenter’s hits, it led via Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen (two weeks, August); Ariana Grande’s “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” (two weeks, May-June); and Taylor Swift’s “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) [From the Vault]” (one week, March).

Chappell Roan is concurrently scaling Pop Airplay with “Hot To Go!” The track, from The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, jumps 22-17 (up 15% in plays).

All charts dated Sept. 21 will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Sept. 17.

Welcome to a jacked edition of Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music. While you’re catching up on a busy week of moves-and-shakes, check out Billboard’s fresh list of top R&B and Hip-Hop executives leading the genres forward, plus our weekly interview series spotlighting a single executive, our helpful calendar of notable events across the biz, and a regularly updated gallery honoring many of the industry figures we’ve lost throughout the year.

Industry veteran Jamie Younger joined The Core Records as the Nashville-based label’s new vp of artist development, effective immediately. Younger is coming off a 12-year tenure at Warner Music Nashville, where she created marketing strategies to help boost the careers of Bailey Zimmerman, Gabby Barrett, Zac Brown Band and Ashley McBryde, among others. “Younger’s ability to navigate the evolving music landscape has consistently resulted in history-making projects,” said Core co-founders Chief Zaruk and Simon Tikhman. “We are excited to have such a visionary joining our team.” Prior to WMN, Younger held roles at Thirty Tigers and American Songwriter. Younger has also served on the Recording Academy Nashville Chapter’s MusiCares Fundraising Committee and has mentored through GrammyU.

Warner Chappell Music made key updates to its European A&R team with two promotions in the Nordics and a major appointment in Germany. In the Nordics, Marion Skogseth has been promoted to A&R manager, while Leslie Tay steps into the role of senior A&R manager. Meanwhile, in Germany, Jost Kaiser has rejoined the company as head of A&R dance. Skogseth will report to Petter Walther Walthinsen, the head of A&R in Norway, and Tay will beeline to Lars Karlsson, managing director of WCM Scandinavia. Kaiser will report to Natascha Augustin, the MD of WCM Germany, and Shani Gonzales, head of international A&R. Tay, based in Sweden, joined WCM in 2022 and has played a crucial role in signing top talent like Bolaget and MONZA. Skogseth, based in Norway, has been with the WCM A&R team since 2021 (after interning a year), helping to secure deals with artists like Moyka and SKAAR. Berliner Kaiser previously worked with WCM from 2020 to 2022 and now returns — following a sojourn at Stefan Dabruck Management as senior creative & repertoire manager — to strengthen the dance music division. WCM’s co-chairs, Guy Moot and Carianne Marshall, had nothing but good things to say: “Marion and Leslie are brilliant members of the team, and we are really happy to have Jost returning to us. We’re delighted to be strengthening our A&R teams in such an exciting time for music across Europe and for us as a company at Warner Chappell Music.”

The Mechanical Licensing Collective unveiled significant leadership changes to bolster its outreach, education, member services and internal operations. Ellen Truley was elevated to chief marketing and external affairs officer, overseeing the org’s advertising, marketing and communications efforts, while also coordinating its educational activities, industry partnerships, government relations and all other external affairs. Lindsey Major is now chief member experience officer, responsible for designing, implementing and coordinating the MLC’s suite of tools that help members to register works, claim their shares of previously registered works, submit proposed matches of their works to unmatched usage and more. Andrew Mitchell‘s new title at the MLC is chief analytics and automation officer, a role that will see him continue leading the org’s matching efforts as well as designing strategies to harness MLC’s data and bolster fraud prevention. Joya Carmichael, who has led every royalty distribution since the first one in April 2021, has been elevated to chief administration officer. She’ll continue leading the team while also managing other key internal processes. Finally, Rick Marshall can add general counsel to his business cards. In this new role, Marshall will lead The MLC’s in-house legal team and coordinate all of the organization’s legal matters, including its interactions with the U.S. Copyright Office. Since its inception, the MLC has distributed over $2 billion in royalties to its 45,000 members, achieving a 90% match rate for royalties processed.

High Rise PR welcomed Lily Golightly to the crew. Golightly was most recently senior vp of publicity at Universal’s Verve Label Group, where she crafted press campaigns and worked closely with Jon Batiste, Samara Joy and other artist across VLG’s storied labels (including Decca, Impulse! And Deutsche Grammophon). Prior to Verve, she spent seven years at 300 Entertainment, handling campaigns for Megan Thee Stallion, Young Thug and Gunna. She also founded No Big Deal PR, where she developed emerging talent, and earlier in her career was head of press at Wind-up Records. High Rise PR’s roster includes major acts like Billie Eilish, Finneas, Cage The Elephant, Duran Duran, Travis Scott, Bryan Ferry, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Tove Lo and Yungblud. “I have admired Lily’s work for close to a decade now,” remarked High Rise founder Alexandra Baker. “She’s thoughtful, strategic, and is highly respected in our field. Her experience in, knowledge of, and relationships in pop, rock, indie and rap are next to none, as is her understanding and passion within the business and corporate world.”

The Recording Academy has appointed Taymoor Marmarchi as executive director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Marmarchi will spearhead efforts to broaden the Academy’s presence and its support of music creators across the region. He will work to forge strategic partnerships and oversee event and content production and talent relations, and implement long-term strategies to advance the Academy’s global mission expansion. In June, the Academy announced its plans to extend its efforts to support music creators on an international scale. Prior to joining the Academy, Marmarchi amassed more than 25 years of experience across music, film, television, live events, content production, communications, marketing, government relations and national projects. He launched his career as executive director of Quincy Jones’ Global Gumbo Group in Dubai. –Paul Grein

Universal Music Sweden selected Mattias Caliste to lead the newly launched Def Jam Recordings Sweden. The label’s opening roster includes Asme x Sarettii, Sebastian Stakset and Zikai. His team will include Hamid Jamshidi and Hermon Alemseghed, plus UMG’s regional and global network. Caliste is a former member of Swedish hip-hop group Fjärde Världen (Fourth World) and was most recently in charge of Virgin Music Sweden, where he worked with artists including 23 and Asme. “Def Jam raised me!” Caliste said. “I grew up on artists like Public Enemy, EPMD, LL Cool J, Redman & Method Man, Warren G and many others who all released some of their most outstanding albums under Def Jam. The label has a legacy that is incredibly important for hip hop as both a genre and a subculture.” The label said to stay tuned for announcements on new signings and other projects.

Josh Deane, Shannon Corsi and Josh Tangney are the newest members of the Position Music A&R team. They’ll support Position Music’s existing roster while expanding it with new talent. Deane boasts a decade of label A&R experience, dating back to his A&R coordinator days at Atlantic before putting in four years as director — and then senior director — at Interscope. Prior to joining Position earlier this year he served as vp of A&R at Live Nation. Corsi, meanwhile, spent the past five years building up Facet, the Warner Chappell-backed publishing company of hit songwriter Justin Tranter, where she oversaw a roster including Skyler Stonestreet and Russ Chell. Tangney’s bonafides include a lengthy stretch as day-to-day manager of Andy Grammar while at Small Giant Management + Records. He is also credited with helping grow Rachel Platten’s career and is a CMT and CCMA-nominated songwriter who has collaborated with numerous Grammy Award-winning artists. Deane, Corsi and Tangney will all report to Position Music’s partner and head of A&R Mark Chipello, who described the trio as “talented and dynamic creative executives who will play significant roles in our next phase of growth.”

Audoo, a music tech company that provides data allowing artists, songwriters and PROs to see in real-time where their music is played, appointed three senior music executives as board advisors: Steve Clark, COO of Round Hill Music; Isabel Garvey, COO of Warner Music UK; and Sean O’Malley, CEO and founder of Regard Music. They join existing advisors Cliff Fluet and Alistair Macdonald to provide strategic guidance alongside music executives Chris Herbert and chair Nigel Elderton. Clark’s experience at Round Hill Music brings valuable expertise in copyright and royalties. Garvey, known for her leadership in digital transformation, previously launched Europe’s first music tech incubator, Abbey Road Red. O’Malley, a co-founder of Global Music Rights alongside Irving Azoff and Randy Grimmett, has deep experience in royalty collection, distribution and publishing. “The combined experience of Steve, Isabel and Sean brings a powerful wealth of knowledge across labels, publishers, rightsholders and creators – to have such revered executives join our existing world-class group of board members and advisors demonstrates the strength of belief in the business as we continue to build and refine the Audoo offering,” said Audio founder and CEO Ryan Edwards.

The Royalty Network appointed Daniel Abowd as its new president and general counsel. In his role, Abowd will collaborate closely with chief executive Frank Liwall to uphold the company’s ethos of being an independent, culturally-focused publishing firm. He will also provide in-house legal counsel, ensuring the company navigates the complexities of today’s music publishing landscape. This is Abowd’s second go-round at The Royalty Network following an eight-year run beginning in 2013 that saw him rise to vp before leaving in 2021. In the ensuing years he clerked in federal courts and most recently practiced law as litigator at Quinn Emanuel. “Danny understands our company’s mission and the importance that plays in the protection, collection, and further utilization of our catalog, with the quality and care that we strive to achieve,” said Liwall. “He personifies the exact balance required to be President.”

Shane Tarleton, former Sony and Warner Music Nashville executive vp of artist development, joined Morris Higham Management, management home to artists including WMN artist Kenny Chesney and Sony Music’s Old Dominion. Though no title has yet been revealed, Tarleton’s role will include creative and content as management firms oversee more of these needs for their rosters. “It’s the Wild West out there and having Shane’s expertise both in management and label services is invaluable,” said Clint Higham, president of MHM. –Jessica Nicholson

BOARD SHORTS: The National Independent Talent Organization, which represents more than 150 independent U.S. management companies and booking agencies, announced its new board of directors. Former member Stormy Shepherd (Leave Home Booking) is back on the board and is joined by newly elected members Amy Butterer (outer/most), David Gottlieb (Death Or Glory) and Maria Matias (Maria Matias Music). Returning for another two-year term are Tom Chauncey (Partisan Arts), Wayne Forte (Entourage Talent Associates), Jon Grau (This Is Management), Fielding Logan (Q Prime), Paul Lohr (New Frontier Touring) and Jack Randall (The Kurland Agency) … NPR elected four new member directors to the board: Debbie Hiott (KUT News, Austin), Maria O’Mara (KUER, Salt Lake City), Tina Pamintuan (St. Louis Public Radio) and Shawn Turner (WKAR, East Lansing) will serve three-year terms.

Brilliant Corners Artist Management, the San Francisco-based agency representing acts like Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service, Perfume Genius and more, is launching a new producer management division led by manager Nicole Ficenec. Ficenec, who previously worked at Chrysalis Music and THREEE before launching her own producer management business at NYC’s Electric Lady Studios, will head the division from Brilliant Corners’ newly opened Los Angeles office. Ficenec’s client roster includes Jonathan Rado (Foxygen, The Killers, Weyes Blood), Paul Butler (The Teskey Brothers, The Bees), Noah Georgeson (Devendra Banhart, Johanna Newsom) and Dave Cerminara (Father John Misty, Phosphorescent). Her division will also absorb existing BCAM creatives including Dan “The Automator” Nakamura (Gorillaz, Deltron 3030), Chaz Bear (Toro Y Moi) and Benjamin Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service).

The International Music Publishers Forum appointed Nicole Schulze as its first secretary general. This newly created role responds to the significant growth IMPF has experienced in recent years. Schulze, a seasoned public policy professional with nearly 20 years of experience, previously served as IP policy lead for Europe at Meta and has worked extensively within the creative industries. In her new position, Schulze will report directly to the president of IMPF’s board of directors, Annette Barrett, who emphasized the importance of this role in supporting IMPF’s expanding membership. Former IMPF advisor Ger Hatton will also join the Board as a Senior Advisor.

Apple Music‘s director, editorial operations & audio production Michael Bryan was promoted to global head of country music, where he will also be supporting Apple Music’s Christian and Gospel teams. Bryan joined Apple Music in 2020. He previously worked as a talent agent/artist development lead at CAA, and was iHeartMedia’s senior vp of programming from 2012-2016. –J.N.

The Oriel Company welcomed Grace Jones as vp and Kaeleah Isaac as manager to the PR agency’s growing team. Both will be based in the Los Angeles office. Since its founding three years ago by veteran music publicists Carleen Donovan, Chloë Walsh and Jen Appel, The Oriel has expanded with offices in New York, LA and Nashville, representing a wide range of clients across music, film, television, fashion, and more. Jones, originally from Australia, has two decades of experience in the music industry, most recently at Grandstand Media, handling PR for artists like Courtney Barnett, MUNA and others. Isaac joins from JONESWORKS, having worked on press campaigns for artists like Lainey Wilson and The Chainsmokers. The Oriel’s co-founders praised both new hires, noting Jones’ leadership and Isaac’s rising star status in the PR world.

Breakaway Music Festival, the annual multi-city event featuring a healthy dose of EDM, hip-hop and pop, hired former Sony vp of corporate development Adam Wright as CFO/managing partner and Gap alum Kay Brown as head of content. The festival also elevated Jarrod Fucci from GM to festival president. This year’s BMF tour has three more dates left: Sept. 27-28 in Charlotte, Oct. 11-12 in Nashville and Oct. 25-26 in San Francisco.

Amuse expanded its suite of services to include in-house sync for self-releasing and independent artists, appointing Daniel Copleston as head of synchronisation. The London-based exec was most recently head of synchronization at [PIAS], where he managed placements across TV, films, video games and ads. Prior to that, he held senior roles at Cooking Vinyl Records and Wipe Out Music Publishing. “The growth of our licensed catalog shows that people are resonating with these tracks, and our vast access to demographics and streaming data creates great synergies for sync opportunities,” said Sean Staranka, head of artist marketing. “Daniel’s experience and eagerness to spearhead our move into sync services will bring great value to Amuse’s roster.”

Outback Presents promoted Emily Scerri from director of touring to vp of entertainment strategy, where she will continue to expand the company’s special events and music initiatives. The Australia native began her career working in the box office for music festivals including CMC Rocks, and later assisted with operations/artist liaison for Bondi Beachfest and The Big Pineapple Music Festival, before relocating to Los Angeles and working roles at Dick Clark Productions and AEG Presents before joining Outback Presents. –J.N.

Select Management Group, a top management firm for next-gen digital creators, promoted Caroline Nardilla to partner. Nardilla joined the company in 2015 and has led its New York office since 2022, and will now expand her leadership across the firm while continuing to drive growth on the East Coast.

ICYMI:

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BMG expats Dominique Casimir, Maximilian Kolb and Justus Haerder formed a new rights company called umn (pronounced “human”) … A newly combined Concord Records and Fantasy Records will be headed by co-presidents Margi Cheske and Mark Williams … and go on, meet the four women leading behind the scenes across the male artist-dominated world of regional Mexican music.

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Last Week’s Turntable: Erika Savage Joins King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano

As the California sunset paints the sky bright orange on a scorching August day, a caravan of luxury SUVs makes its way across the dirt roads outside Los Angeles that lead to Pico Rivera Sports Arena. When they arrive, the door of one pristine white Mercedes-Benz G-Class opens and 28-year-old Luis R Conriquez emerges. Clad in black jeans; a white, black and yellow-patterned button-down shirt; black boots; and a suede tejana adorned with feathers, he fits right in with the Instagram-ready aesthetic of the largely millennial crowd gathered here. The heavy silver chain resting on his chest is the only obvious signifier that Conriquez isn’t just another attendee of the inaugural Belicolandia: The singer-songwriter is one of today’s biggest corridos bélicos stars, and the thousands assembled here will soon see him close out the festival-like event produced by his label, Kartel Music.

As Conriquez makes his way to his trailer just behind the stage, an intimidating security detail follows — but the musician himself offers friendly smiles to everyone he encounters. Once settled inside the trailer, where he’ll spend the next hour or so, Conriquez really lets down his guard, cracking jokes with good friend Tony Aguirre about how early his fellow corridos singer (another Kartel signee) had performed that day. “That’s how we get along; it’s all jokes,” Conriquez says. “We like to have a good time.” The trailer becomes a revolving door as emerging and established regional Mexican artists alike pop in and out to say hello and snap a quick photo with, as Conriquez’s fans anointed him early in his career, the King of Corridos Bélicos. The moniker isn’t an overstatement: Since debuting in 2019, Conriquez has pioneered the Mexican subgenre that has gone global in the past couple of years thanks to him and peers like Peso Pluma.

It’s been two years since Conriquez last performed at Pico Rivera, the ranch-like, 6,000-­capacity multipurpose venue just 15 miles west of L.A. that has catered for decades to música mexicana fans. But even in that short time, much has changed for the Sonora, Mexico-born artist — who catapulted to stardom with his breakthrough hit, “El Buho” — as regional Mexican music has become the largest Latin subgenre in the United States, according to Luminate. Conriquez, who the then-new Kartel signed in 2019 at an audition in Mexicali, Baja California, is known for his corridos bélicos — a term he says he coined himself to describe the subgenre’s sound (not its lyrics, which often name-check Mexican drug kingpins or cartel figures, but are “less violent” than other corridos, Conriquez points out). “ ‘Bélico’ means that something has a lot of presence, and this music stands out thanks to instruments like the tololoche and charchetas,” he explains. “Now, it’s joined forces with corridos tumbados [which fuse the bélicos sound with trap and hip-hop], and that has made this movement even stronger.”

Conriquez, whose raw vocals and in-your-face delivery often sound closer to rapping than singing, has become a go-to collaborator for both regional Mexican acts and other Latin artists, including Nicky Jam, Ryan Castro and Peso Pluma, while dominating the Billboard charts. With 1.42 billion on-demand official streams in the United States, according to Luminate, he has 20 tracks on the Hot Latin Songs chart, and most recently scored his first Hot 100 entry with “Si No Quieres No,” a collaboration with up-and-comer Neton Vega. His Corridos Bélicos, Vol. IV, released in January, earned him his first entry and top 10 on any albums chart, debuting at No. 5 on Top Latin Albums and No. 3 on Regional Mexican Albums. It also became Conriquez’s Billboard 200 entrée with a No. 36 debut.

“That album is like The Last Supper,” he says, beaming with pride. Hyperbolic, but only a little: The set is packed with Mexican music heavy-­hitters, bringing together two generations of corridos singers, from Gerardo Ortiz to Tito Double P (Peso Pluma’s cousin and go-to songwriter). “Everyone on that album is my friend,” Conriquez says confidently. “I had been planning this for a year because I wanted to bring artists from the past and current ones. Most of them I invited personally, others called me and asked to be a part of it. If I see you have talent and are a good person, I’ll give you a hand. I do it from my heart. It’s how I’ve always been.”

His journey to música mexicana’s top tier didn’t happen overnight. When Conriquez decided in his early 20s that he wanted to be a singer, he had no clue how to make that happen, since he didn’t come from a family of musicians or have a formal music education. But he let nothing stand in his way — not even the naysayers who told him he had no future in music. “I became my biggest fan,” he says. “I come from a family that knows how to have a good time. My mom and dad were always playing music. I grew up listening to corridos and reggaetón. I remember I’d put on my headphones when I was going to sleep and when I woke up, music was still playing in my ears,” he adds with a big smile.

Conriquez began writing corridos around 2017, given the subgenre’s popularity in Sonora, and offered one of his early compositions to a neighborhood camarada (friend) to sing. “Then I was like, ‘Wait, let me try singing it,’ ” he recalls. “I got excited about myself; I knew there was something there, so I kept writing.”

He recorded his first corridos with his guitarist friend Daniel “El Bocho” Ruiz (now a key member of Conriquez’s band), but he wasn’t sure where to go from there — until he came across the YouTube channel of a teen who uploaded videos by other artists. “I contacted him and he uploaded my music, and then people started asking who was singing,” Conriquez says. “It was working.”

Soon after, he started getting DMs on Instagram from an unlikely group of fans. “Some construction workers in the United States wrote me asking if I would write corridos for them,” he says. An unusual request, maybe, but not one Conriquez questioned; after all, it was a source of income. “I asked them to send me a short summary describing themselves so I could get inspired,” he continues. “I’d write, record and send it to them.” Initially, he charged $150 per corrido, but as demand grew, he tripled his fee. “I was my own manager at the time, my own distributor, collecting my own money,” he explains. “I did everything on my own for almost two years. Until I met Freddy and Leo from Kartel Music.”

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Alfredo “Freddy” Becerra and Leonardo Soto have known each other since childhood. Both grew up in a trailer park in Santa Maria, an agricultural hub in California’s Central Coast region, and their parents worked picking strawberries. “We became friends because we both had the same mission,” Soto says. “It was the mentality of ‘What are we going to do for our families?’ ”

A few years before they launched Kartel Music, Becerra and Soto started Los Compas, a labor contracting company for agriculture work. But the budding entrepreneurs were looking to venture into other businesses, and they had always shared a love of music. They wanted to be part of the industry, despite not even knowing how it worked. “We weren’t looking to start a label,” Becerra says. “We wanted to be promoters because we felt that the labor contracting company gave us enough experience to try that out first.” But their first event, in 2019, was a total flop, he confesses. They had hired a few local bands for a show in Tijuana, and Becerra explains how they had a stage, tables, chairs, cold beer — almost everything. “The fans were missing,” he says. “No one showed up. We went back home feeling sad, and we said we’d never try this again unless we could handle every single detail, including having artists of our own.”

So, afterward, Becerra and Soto asked the bands they knew to spread the word: They were holding auditions in Mexicali to find the first act for their just-founded label, Kartel Music — rather unconventional but fitting for their atypical approach to the industry. About 12 groups and soloists showed up — including Conriquez, who was then working at a Sonora gas station while writing and singing corridos on the side and had heard about the audition from a friend. “He was so confident onstage,” Soto remembers. He was also the only auditionee who performed originals — his bélico-flavored corridos. “Once he finished performing, we told him he had done a good job and that was pretty much it,” Soto adds. There wasn’t a formal pitch, he says, but both parties wanted to work with each other. Instead of signing a contract, they made a verbal pact to grow together.

Conriquez knew he’d stood out from the crowd. “Freddy and Leo were just starting but so was I,” he says. “It was all about trusting each other. They needed someone to help them grow and I knew I could help them. I would take care of the music; I understood how the business worked because I had been doing this for some time now. I just needed someone to support me.” His first ask of the duo: to buy him new clothes so he could record official videos.

“We took him a bunch of clothes that we bought at Ross [Dress for Less],” Soto says with a chuckle. “You’d be surprised how much we’ve evolved with him. We would go to Ross and Marshalls and show up with a stack of clothes and he’d get so excited because he didn’t have anything. He appreciated it.” Just a few weeks after the audition, they convened in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, to shoot their first music video — and Becerra and Soto also brought a contract for Conriquez to sign. “But he didn’t even want to see it,” Soto says. “He just said, ‘I’m with you guys.’ ” (Conriquez eventually signed a contract and then some: Today, he’s also co-CEO of Kartel alongside Becerra and Soto; the label now has six other artists on its roster.)

Though Los Compas had no direct connection to the music business, it had been an essential precursor to Kartel. “The story really starts with Los Compas because that provided the money for us to do all of this,” Becerra says, explaining how he and Soto were able to buy Conriquez new instruments and rent studios for him to record in. “Without that first business we wouldn’t have been able to do this. [The money] we made in the labor contracting business would go toward Luis. We didn’t even enjoy ourselves — we put it all toward Kartel.”

During the pandemic, Conriquez and Kartel doubled down on releasing new songs, knowing people were stuck at home and listening to music. “The strategy we implemented of releasing new music constantly, like every week, is what helped him grow in numbers,” Soto says. “The consistency plays a big part. Luis has released a song every Friday since we began working together. For his birthday month, we took a song out every single day. It seems crazy but it’s worked for us.”

In 2019, the same year Kartel officially launched, Raymond Tapia, vp of A&R, Latin at Downtown Artist and Label Services, called Soto and Becerra. “I remember hearing [Conriquez’s] song ‘El Buho’ and I was like, ‘Who is this?’ I looked at the song credits and it was Kartel Music. I had never heard of them,” Tapia says. “They had a phone number on their Instagram page so I just cold-called them, and Leo picked up and I told him that I was interested in distributing their music worldwide. That led to a very long work relationship.”

While Downtown doesn’t exclusively distribute Conriquez’s music — Kartel prefers to work with multiple distributors so it can build relationships — the company did distribute Conriquez’s Corridos Bélicos, Vol. IV, his biggest album to date.

“Luis is in a unique space because he came just before the big boom,” Tapia says. “He’s in between two spaces, where he’s not part of the new wave and caters to an older crowd but also brings in the young listeners because of all the collabs he’s done with Eslabon Armado, Junior H and Peso Pluma.”

“I think we both share the thought that collaborating together helps take our music and Mexican culture even further,” Peso says of Conriquez. “[Him] setting that standard from the beginning helped raise our flag to where it is now and will continue to help us grow even more.”

After a streaming boost from “El Buho” and his second big hit, “Me Metí en el Ruedo,” Conriquez began performing small shows in Tijuana, Mexicali and other Mexican cities. Today, he’s selling out back-to-back dates at venues like Guadalajara’s Auditorio Telmex, which holds more than 11,000 people. His touring career stateside and abroad has also taken off. Later this year, he’ll perform at venues including Chicago’s 18,000-capacity Allstate Arena, and he’s set to take his Trakas World Tour to Colombia in November.

One day, he hopes to perform in Spain and Canada. “I don’t see this as a challenge anymore — it’s more like a goal,” he says, nodding to Mexican music’s new global appeal. While changing trends, emerging subgenres and a new generation of hit-makers have rocked música mexicana these past few years, Conriquez is confident he’ll maintain his relevancy. “You have to innovate and, at the same time, not lose your essence, but you do have to jump on the train. It’s why I’m still here.” A corridos singer through and through, last year he dabbled in reggaetón and dembow, proving his versatility. “If I knew how to speak English, I’d be singing in English too,” he jokes but then quickly adds in a more serious tone, “I wanted to record in those styles because I’m a fan. It’s something that feels natural because I grew up listening to that, too. It’s always about adapting because you just never know in music — one day you’re here and the next day you’re not.”

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The video for Conriquez and Peso Pluma’s 2022 collaboration “Siempre Pendientes” has more than 40 million YouTube views. In it, the two carry semiautomatic rifles as they tell the story of a soldier who works for Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, founder of the Sinaloa drug cartel. But shortly after its release, the video’s future on YouTube — along with Kartel Music’s entire channel — hung in the balance. As “Siempre Pendientes” began gaining momentum, the clip and Kartel’s channel disappeared from the platform.

“Everything about corridos was stricter then — it was more censored [on digital service providers],” Conriquez says, still visibly shaken by the incident. “And it also happened at a time [when] I was really growing. It’s something that really lowers your morale; it’s like you have everything, but then they try to slow you down. It was frustrating.” (YouTube did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.)

After a few emails to YouTube, Kartel Music was able to get the video and its channel back on the platform. But Conriquez isn’t the first artist — and probably won’t be the last — to face censorship for singing these kinds of songs. Long considered controversial, corridos have been banned from public performance in some Mexican states as cartel violence in the country continues to spiral.

“This censorship has followed regional Mexican music for many years but in reality, it reflects what happens every day in our environment,” says Rafael Valle, programming director of Guadalajara radio station La Ke Buena. “If the song says some word that is not allowed on the radio, obviously we modify the song, but we don’t censor it because that would mean not playing songs that people are constantly requesting. It’s important to note that we’ve also modified Bad Bunny songs because of explicit lyrics. So, it’s not exclusive to regional, but it’s the genre that has been mainly impacted by this stigma.”

At his Pico Rivera show, Conriquez’s provocative corridos bélicos are what really get the crowd going — although his dembow and reggaetón tracks also had his fans perreando (twerking). “My show is like a roller coaster of emotions,” he says. “First you start with corridos and you get all riled up, then a romantic one that makes you fall in love, then a heartbreak one to make you remember your ex and then a dembow to get you dancing. I give the people what they want.”

He plans to keep doing just that — while also inspiring a new generation of regional Mexican singers and songwriters. “I tell the artists we’ve signed to Kartel to not be lazy, to release music constantly and to collaborate because it’ll give value to what they’re doing. I tell them because I care and I want them to grow,” Conriquez says. “The truth is that life has been very good to me. Everything I have wanted I have had through hard work, and I can’t slow down now.”

Billboard Latin Music Week is returning to Miami Beach on Oct. 14-18, with confirmed superstars including Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Sanz and Peso Pluma, among many others. For tickets and more details, visit Billboardlatinmusicweek.com.