Mexican singer Peso Pluma performs in live performance on the Foro Sol in Mexico City, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023.

Aurea Del Rosario/AP

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Aurea Del Rosario/AP

Mexican singer Peso Pluma performs in live performance on the Foro Sol in Mexico City, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023.

Aurea Del Rosario/AP

Peso Pluma is YouTube’s most considered artist of the yr within the U.S.

The Mexican music phenom beat out Taylor Swift, Drake, YoungBoy Never Broke Again and Bad Bunny for the primary spot.

Globally, Peso Pluma racked up greater than 8.5 billion views on YouTube in 2023.

The YouTube chart put YoungBoy Never Broke Again in second place, and Drake, Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift at numbers three, 4 and 5 respectively.

The 24-year-old’s hit track “Ella Baila Sola” with the California-based band Eslabón Armado ranked third on the platform’s U.S. Top 10 songs of the yr.

The track initially went viral on TikTok after which went on to turn out to be the primary regional Mexican observe to make the Top 10 within the Billboard Hot 100’s total 65-year historical past.

“I feel humble and grateful that my music has made it to the top spot on YouTube,” Peso Pluma stated in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter.

Born Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija in Jalisco, Pluma grew up in Guadalajara. He dreamt of turning into a soccer star as a boy. He began enjoying the guitar at 15 by watching YouTube movies and was obsessed with hip-hop and reggaeton music. He aimed to turn out to be a rapper.

But, as detailed in a recent story from NPR, “he quickly realized his voice — simultaneously gravelly and nasal — wasn’t suited to those styles of music. So he joined the new wave of Mexican Gen Zers who have returned to the traditional country music of their parents and grandparents, putting their own spin on norteñas, corridos and cumbia.”

The artist rose to worldwide stardom this yr. He won and was nominated for a lot of awards, together with the Billboard Latin Music Awards’ Songwriter of the Year.

His third album, Génesis, is within the operating for greatest Música Mexicana album on the upcoming Grammys in February.

In an episode of Alt.Latino devoted to the rise of regional Mexican music earlier this yr, NPR’s Felix Contreras and Anamaria Artemisa Sayre mentioned the massive recognition amongst mainstream U.S. audiences of Peso Pluma and different younger Mexican artists.

“I feel as though this music represents being Mexican-American, wanting to love your Mexican self and struggling to show that,” stated Sayre. “Everyone finds something to love within this music. And I think it’s because we’ve never been so visible in this country like we are right now.”