Discoteca global: why 2017 was the year Latin pop broke through

As well as being insanely infectious, tracks such as Luis Fonsi’s Despacito and J Balvin’s Mi Gente have scored billions of streams thanks to an increasingly cross-cultural pop marketOn 31 December 2016, a curious thing happened on YouTube. The platform’s most-watched music video on New Year’s Eve wasn’t a hoary old seasonal favourite, a longstanding party anthem or one of the year’s biggest hits. It was Chantaje, a Spanish-language reggaeton-influenced track