Meet Karol G, Colombia’s Taylor Swift

We have all heard of Taylor Swift, but what about Colombian singer Karol G?

While Swift has dominated the headlines and concert ticket sales over recent years, it is actually the 33-year-old Latin American pop star whose videos have been the most watched online in recent years.

That’s according to Vevo, which is the main provider of official music videos to YouTube. Karol G’s were the most streamed around the world for three years in a row – 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Last year, Karol G’s Vevo videos were watched 4.7 billion times, with fellow Colombian Shakira in second place on 3.2 billion, and Swift on three million. It is expected to be a similar picture when Vevo releases its figures for 2024 this month.

So who is Karol G, and what has fuelled the success that also saw her sell out Madrid’s Bernabéu Stadium over four nights back in July, plus stadiums across the US last year?

Born in the Colombian city of Medellín in 1991 her full name is Carolina Giraldo Navarro. She wanted to be a singer from an early age, and when she was 14 she appeared on the Colombian version of the talent show X Factor in 2005.

Success did not immediately follow, and instead by 2014 she had moved to the US to live with her aunt in New York City to learn English and do menial work. She almost gave up pursuing a career in music at this time, but her father convinced her that she could make it.

While in the US Karol G also attended a music business conference in Boston, which she says was very helpful in helping her understand how the industry worked.

She got her breakthrough hit single in 2017, the song Ahora Me Llama, which was a collaboration with Puerto Rican male artist Bad Bunny. Her first album Unstoppable then followed.

Since then the hits have just kept on coming, and her 2023 album, Mañana Será Bonito, was the first entirely Spanish-language release by a female artist to top the US album chart.

Karol G’s style of music is more often described as “reggaeton”. This combines hip-hop with Latin American and Jamaican music, with the singing and rapping usually done in Spanish.

While she is widely reported to be both hardworking and ambitious, Rocío Guerrero, head of Latin music at Amazon Music, says that the singer – and Latin music in general – have been greatly helped by the rise of streaming, both the music and the accompanying videos.

“Streaming democratised the landscape,” says Ms Guerrero, explaining that it has allowed Latin music, which wasn’t being played on mainstream radio stations to travel the world.

“Radio stations were local, but with streaming we brought together all of those audiences [around the globe]. It has given more opportunity to more Latin songs and artist to be exposed. Karol G is a perfect example of this evolution.”

Today on Amazon Music more than a third of Latin music is now consumed outside Latin America, and in the last three years alone the listenership for Karol G has grown by more than 250%.

Meanwhile, in the US, Latin music is now the fastest-growing genre, hitting a record $1.4bn (£1.1bn) in venues last year, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Streaming accounted for 98% of this.

And this year, Karol’s G’s Mañana Será Bonito album was the fourth most streamed globally on Spotify.

This helped to boost interest in her 2023-24 sell-out, global Mañana Será Bonito Tour. This grossed $307m in ticket sales. And while that figure is dwarfed by the $2bn achieved by Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, Karol G’s earnings were the highest for a female Latin artist.

Carlos Balado, a professor at OBS Business School in Barcelona, analyses the economic impact of music concerts. He says that both Karol G and Taylor Swift have benefited from the increased popularity of going to such a big live event.

“There’s a growing trend where the public considers that part of their normal spending has to go towards concerts,” he adds.

Leila Cobo, chief content officer for Latin/Español at US music magazine Billboard, which is also known for its music charts, says Karol G has helped to put Colombian music on the map.

“I think music is the biggest ambassador for Colombia. I really do,” she says. “And Karol G has tapped into this female Latin female fanbase who really didn’t have someone like her. They wanted someone relatable, fun, sexy, had cool songs, but wasn’t completely over the top.

“And reggaeton is super danceable, it’s super consumable, it’s super youth oriented,” adds Ms Cobo, who is the author of a book on Latin music.

Despite winning numerous awards and critical acclaim, Karol G has not been immune to criticism. Her lyrics have been slammed for being too raunchy, and critics have also taken aim at her for calling one of her songs “Bichota”. This is a slang term meaning big shot or boss, and often associated with drugs and criminality.

She argues that she repurposed the word to signify empowerment. As for her lyrics, her defenders say that rather than singing about and objectifying women, she sings on behalf of them.

Karol G’s estimated net worth had skyrocketed to $25m by 2023 according to Celebrity Net Worth – a figure that’s likely increased substantially since her recent tour.

Outside of music she earns money by collaborations with shoemaker Crocs, sportswear brand Kappa, Smirnoff vodka, and Spanish fashion label Loewe. Her name has also appeared on the front of FC Barcelona shirts as part of the football club’s partnership with music streamer Spotify.

Ms Cobo says: “She’s branching out. She’s a very bright, inquisitive person and always looking to grow. And she’s very aware that it’s not just about music.”

Karol G’s business ventures are controlled by her company Girl Power Inc, which also oversees her charity Con Cora Foundation.

This aims to help improve the lives of underprivileged women and children across Latin America by giving educational scholarships to teenage mothers, supporting girls who want to go into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, providing financial aid to kids’ football teams, and society-reintegration projects for female inmates.

Meanwhile, Karol G launched her own record label in 2023, Bichota, to have more control over her music, which is subsequently distributed and promoted by US company Interscope, part of the giant Universal Music Group.

Yet despite her global success, there are still markets she hasn’t yet cracked – the UK, for example, where she’s still not widely known. Britain has a small, but fast-growing Hispanic diaspora.

However, Amazon’s Ms Guerrero thinks it is only a matter of time before Karol G does break the British market. “It’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of time,” she says.