2021 was full of major and surprising collaborations, including Bad Bunny and Aventura, Sech and DJ Khaled, Selena Gomez and Camilo, Maluma and Grupo Firme, just to name a few.
Rosalia, whose new studio album Motomami is on the way, also dropped collaborations with newcomer Tokischa (“Linda”) and another track with The Weeknd (“La Fama”), after we predicted she would team up with Billie Eilish (the two kicked off 2021 with the melancholic “Lo Vas a Olvidar”).
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This year, we’d like to see the Spanish singer join forces with chart-topping artist (and her boyfriend) Rauw Alejandro, because why not? But this is not the only Latin collab we’d like to see in 2022.
Here are our Latin editors’ predictions:
Dream Collaboration: Ana Bárbara and Ivonne Galaz
Why it would work: Both Ana Bárbara and Ivonne Galaz joined Billboard Latin Music Week in September for BMI’s “How I Wrote That Song: With the Women of Regional Mexican” panel. There, we couldn’t help but see a special connection spark between the veteran Ana Bárbara and newcomer Galaz, who brought Bárbara to tears with her story of feeling inspired to write music after her mother’s passing.
While Galaz’s style is more contemporary with sad sierreño vibes, and Ana Bárbara’s sound is more traditional (mariachi and norteño), a collaboration between both would break barriers. For one, women in the male-dominated genre don’t often collaborate, but to see the old and new generation of women in regional Mexican come together would be pretty epic.
Christopher Polk
Dream Collaboration: Bad Bunny and Ivan Cornejo
Why it would work: The upcoming Mexican artist broke out in 2021 with his viral sierreño hit “Esta Dañada.” Fueled by its success on TikTok, the track peaked at No. 61 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it only the second regional Mexican song to enter the all-genre chart (Oct. 23). It also nabbed him a remix with Jhay Cortez, keeping intact with its melancholic requintos and sad vocals. In an interview with Billboard, the rising star said he would also love to collaborate with Bad Bunny. Now, we all know El Conejo Malo is all about innovation and that he previously teamed up with corrido tumbado star Natanael Cano, so a track with Cornejo would make total sense.
Dream Collaboration: C. Tangana and Natalia Lafourcade
Why it would work: When Natalia Lafourcade joined C. Tangana for his star-studded Latin Grammys “Ingobernable” performance, it made us wonder why both of these artists, who have friends in common (such as Jorge Drexler), haven’t worked together. Their pop-folk styles are very much alike and are proponents of legacy genres from their respective countries such as son jarocho (Lafourcade) and flamenco (Tangana). And both artists have expressed their admiration for each other.
Most recently, during an interview for NPR, Tangana said his favorite album of the year was Lafourcade’s Un Canto Por México, Vol. 2. “I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from this thing she’s called ‘el musical (the musical),’ which is a live interpretation of her songs and relies on a lot of artists [contributions].”
Dream Collaboration: Camilo and Jorge Drexler
Why it would work: During an interview with Billboard, Camilo revealed that one of his all-time favorite artists is none other than Drexler. “I was able to spend some minutes with Jorge Drexler and it’s on my bucket list to [collaborate with him]. I’ve already told him before but I told him again, ‘You’re my favorite songwriter,’ I said to him. ‘And I write songs because you write songs.’
So, given that both pop artists have already met and Camilo has expressed his admiration for the Uruguayan singer-songwriter, the thought of them teaming up for a project doesn’t seem too far fetched.
Dream Collaboration: Kali Uchis and Paloma Mami
Why it would work: On an episode of Billboard’s Cultura Clash, Paloma Mami revealed that she did not feature other artists on her debut album Sueños de Dali because “I didn’t ever wanna be known as that artist that is always collaborating and I feel like in the Latin industry, it was like popping off, that’s what everybody was doing.”
On the same episode, Kali Uchis, who scored her first No. 1 on the Hot Latin Songs chart with ”Telepatía” back in May and became the first female soloist without an accompanied act to reach No. 1 since 2012, added: “Sometimes it can be nice to learn from other people, but I started alone in my room so for me, I love working alone. If you’re super talented and have a song that’s really powerful, then you don’t need another person on the song for it to do well.”
However, since the two Latinx stars have a close friendship, we can only imagine how incredible and empowering a collab between the two would be.
Dream Collaboration: Rauw Alejandro and Rosalia
Why it would work: New “it” couple Rosalia and Rauw Alejandro made their relationship Instagram official on Rosalia’s 28th birthday last year (Sept. 25), both sharing never-before-seen photos on social media. Each artist is leading their own successful careers and dropped key collaborations in 2021: Rosalia with The Weeknd and Billie Eilish; Rauw Alejandro with Selena Gomez and Chris Brown, to name a few.
Given their power-couple status, we think it’d be a cool idea to see the two lovebirds join forces in 2022 and release new music together. After all, Rauw’s “Aquel Nap ZzZz” is dedicated to Rosalia, and who knows? Perhaps he’ll make a surprise cameo in her upcoming album. One can only hope.
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