From career milestones to new music releases to major announcements and those little important moments, Billboard editors highlight uplifting moments in Latin music. Here’s what happened in the Latin music world this week.
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Chiquis’ New Book
Earlier this year, Chiquis announced she was writing her first-ever children’s book called The Girl Who Sings to Bees. This week, fans can pre-order the book set to hit shelves and online stores on July 15. Filled with life lessons that include healing, grief and confronting bullying, the book “honors the relationship she had with her mom, finding solace from her grief in their shared love of music by singing to the bees in her abuelita’s garden and the power to find her voice despite fear and bullying from peers,” according to a press release. The Girl Who Sings to Bees will go on sale in July and will be available for purchase on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Target, to name a few. Fans can pre-order here.
Karol G’s Women Ink
Karol G’s Con Cora Foundation is taking its third annual Women Ink initiative to Mexico for the first time, after its first two years in Colombia and Spain, respectively. Set to empower female tattoo artists, the weeklong program — helmed by tattoo artists Javi Cinco Ángeles and Juan Ramón RC and taking place in late August — will offer 40 hours of hands-on training and mentorship, where participants will learn the history of tattooing, techniques and aftercare procedures. Women living in Mexico City between the ages of 22 and 40 can apply now through July 1, by visiting the foundation’s website.
From Song to Movie
“Patria y Vida,” the liberty anthem that fueled a new Cuban revolution and won two Latin Grammys in 2021, has become a full-length documentary set to hit U.S. theaters on July 11 via Spanglish Movies. Directed by Beatriz Luengo and starring Yotuel, the film features notable musical figures including Emilio and Gloria Estefan, Camila Cabello, Gente de Zona and Billboard’s Leila Cobo. The song — penned by Yotuel (formerly of hip-hop group Orishas), Luengo, Alexander Delgado and Randy Malcom (of Gente de Zona) and Descemer Bueno, and features Cuban voices from within the island, Maykel Osorbo and rapper El Funky — became the anthem of anti-government protests in Cuba. “I felt we needed to show the two realities: those of us who live outside Cuba, and those who are still on the island, who live the streets there,” Yotuel previously told Billboard. Watch the trailer below:
Siempre Selena Radio
SiriusXM has launched the Siempre Selena radio channel, where for a limited time, fans will enjoy the Queen of Tejano’s biggest hits. As part of the channel and ahead of its 30th anniversary, Suzette Quintanilla (sister of the late singer and Los Dinos member), opened up about Selena’s Dreaming of You album, released posthumously, and which made history as the first predominately Spanish-language album to ever debut at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 in 1995.
“When Dreaming of You came out I didn’t care,” Quintanilla expressed on the radio show. “I was too much lost in my grief. I didn’t know day or night, I didn’t care about anything. And then I learned to love it and to understand what it represents. It hurt for a very long time to be able to listen to this album, but as time went by, I embraced that this is what sister left behind. This was her not completely fulfilling her dream of doing a whole album, but it’s OK because at least we got this.”
The Siempre Selena channel is available through July 3 on the SiriusXM app, and on satellite channel 79 from June 4 to 10.