Inside the Latin Touring Boom

A few hours before Argentine hip-hop duo CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso were to perform a sold-out show in Madrid on Sept.

17, Paz Aparicio surveyed the calendar at Movistar Arena, where she is GM.

In 2019, the venue that holds more than 17,000 fans put on six concerts by Latin American music stars; this year, that number will be 55 to 60.

“I’m feeling the incredible change,” Aparicio says.

“The artists from Latin America are selling more tickets.

The audience is bigger when a Spanish speaker is performing than when an English speaker is performing.” Related Bad Bunny Is the First-Ever Latin Artist to Gross $1 Billion in Touring Hilary Duff to Receive Outstanding Pop Tour of the Year Award at 2026 Billboard Live Music Summit Judge Rules Woman Accused of Shooting at Rihanna & A$AP Rocky's Home Mentally Fit to Stand Trial Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Latin artists have grown into dominant international touring stars: In 2024, Luis Miguel , Bad Bunny and Karol G were among the five performers who grossed over $100 million apiece, according to Billboard Boxscore, while last year, Shakira set a record with the highest-grossing Latin tour for a female artist.

As Latin artists from Bad Bunny to Peso Pluma have evolved into the world’s biggest pop stars, they’ve regularly headlined in Spanish-speaking countries worldwide, a trend that has helped push officials and concert promoters in Medellín, Colombia; Lima, Peru; and elsewhere to build new arenas.

In July, Live Nation announced it is partnering with a São Paulo city district to build a 21,000-capacity venue; OCESA Colombia is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its Vive Claro Distrito Cultural open-air arena that fits 40,000 and has moved over 300,000 tickets in the past 12 months; this October, Colombian promoter Breakfast Live is inaugurating DAVIarena, the first state-of-the-art covered arena in Medellín.

And most of these arenas are built for live events, predominantly concerts, as opposed to just sports.

For years, according to Juan Toro , vp at agency THE·TEAM, industry agents and managers had a “fear” of touring in Latin America, rarely making the effort to connect with key promoters or study regional markets.

Since the pandemic, these agents and managers have become more bullish.

“They’re looking at the numbers that the Latin artists are producing and the kind of money they’re making in these markets and they’re starting to understand there’s real economic viability here,” Toro says.

“There’s real money in these markets.” The more sophisticated Latin American markets, where arenas, stadiums and state-of-the-art production technology are plentiful, plus corresponding hotels and restaurants, have thrived in recent years.