Julie Delpy, honored at FICUNAM for her career

Billboard Latin Music Week 2026 already has its first round of confirmed speakers. These include Greeicy, Jay Wheeler, Jessi Uribe, Kany García and Rawayana.

Lola Índigo, Paola Jara, Rainao, Ryan Castro, Trueno and Zhamira will also participate. All will offer exclusive sessions during the event.

“We are honored to welcome this year’s talent as we continue to inspire conversations that drive the industry forward,” said Billboard CEO Mike Van.

Who are the speakers?

For more than three decades, Billboard Latin Music Week has fueled key conversations and industry highlights.

The 2026 edition will be held from October 19 to 22 at the Faena Forum Miami Beach. The agenda includes performances, panels and workshops that bring together artists, creators and executives with the public.

Tickets are now available at Billboardlatinmusicweek.com.

Among the executive panelists, Nat Pastor, Victor Gonzalez and Tommy Mottola stand out. More participants will be announced soon.

The event will coincide with the Billboard Latin Music Awards, which will be presented on October 22 in Miami. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Telemundo and Peacock.

The halftime performance of the World Cup final, with Madonna, Justin Bieber, BTS and Shakira, not only captivated the global audience. It also generated an immediate rebound in the reproductions of his songs on digital platforms.

Luminate, a firm specializing in music industry data, analyzed listening behavior two days before the event and compared it to the day of the final and the day after. The results show significant increases in each interpreted theme.

• Justin Bieber — Everything Hallelujah rose 110% globally: from 592 thousand views to 1.25 million.
• Madonna — Music grew 66%, going from 193 thousand to 321 thousand.
• BTS — Dynamite increased 43%, from 2.14 million to 3.05 million.
• Shakira and Burna Boy — Dai Dai, official anthem of the 2026 World Cup, rose 24% globally (from 14.78 to 18.27 million) and 52% in the US (from 1.68 to 2.55 million).

Luminate’s study also revealed that the increase was limited to songs performed in the field, not artists’ entire catalogs. A phenomenon similar to that which occurs with the Super Bowl halftime show.

The singer Rei Ami, known for her participation in the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, lived a unique experience off the coast of Korea. He dived with 16 reef sharks during a feeding frenzy.

Far from being terrified, he cried in amazement. “I thought I would be more scared, but I was fascinated. It was witnessing nature,” she said. “You can’t describe the emotions you feel.”

Two ways to face fear

Rei Ami did two cage dives and two freediving dives with hammerhead, reef and bull sharks. His partner on the K-Pop Shark Heroes show, comedian Ken Jeong, preferred to stay grounded. “I’m like Christopher Nolan in Shark Odyssey: I just supervise,” he joked.

The new season of Shark Week starts on Sunday on Discovery Channel, with 20 one-hour episodes. Among them, the participation of diver Molly Carlson stands out, who jumped 15 meters from a helicopter into a plexiglass cage surrounded by reef sharks.

Carlson, who suffers from anxiety, accepted the challenge to inspire others. “If I can help that 16-year-old girl who just wants to hide, I’ll find a way,” he said. “It’s okay to be afraid and do it anyway. That was the purpose of this project.”

The program concludes on August 1 with an analysis of the movement of white sharks northward and the technique used by thresher sharks to stun their prey.