Villano Antillano becomes the first trans woman to enter Spotify’s Top 50

Puerto Rican singer Villana Santiago Pacheco, known by her stage name, Villano Antillano, is a force to be reckoned with. The Bayamón-born artist made history last week (July 19) by becoming the first transgender woman to enter Spotify’s Top 50 Global chart. 

Her song ‘Villano Antillano: BZRP Music Sessions Vol. 51’ – a collaboration with Argentinian sensation Bizarrap – debuted on the prestigious chart at No.49 and managed to peak at No.39 just a few days later. It is currently ranked No. 47 with almost 60 million streams. 

The song has also entered the Urbano, Latin, and New Music charts, ranking at No.15, 17, and 11 respectively. In countries like Uruguay and Spain, the song is currently in the Top 10. At the time of writing this article, the music video on YouTube already exceeded 73 million views.

Villano is one of the pioneers of the LGBTQ movement within the Urban music genre, and without a doubt, the collaboration with ‘Biza’ helped her gain more notoriety. Since the premiere of the song, her numbers have grown to over 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify, and her following on social media and other streaming platforms (Apple Music, Deezer, SoundCloud) is also on the rise, positioning her as one of the new Urban artists to keep an eye on in 2022.

In a recent interview with Billboard, Villano talked about the lack of tolerance for trans women in the Urban genre and how she’s had to forcibly insert herself into that world. “To say there is [tolerance] would be a delusion and an attack on the works of queer people everywhere who consume said genre.” She said. “I have helped make queer musicians and artists more visible perhaps; but tolerance, respect, and equality are not things we have at the moment. That’s just the truth.”

But Antillano, being as honest and authentic as ever, couldn’t be bothered by that, “I think it’s important to state that I personally am not striving for tolerance, nobody has the power to “tolerate” me, I yield that power myself and demand respect over all things.”  

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‘Villano Antillano: BZRP Music Sessions Vol. 51’ is available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and other streaming platforms. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!