Rising rapper Myke Towers is the 2022 songwriter of the year, while Colombian pop star Camilo won songwriter/artist of the year at the 2022 ASCAP Latin Music Awards.
The Latin Song of the year is global hit “Dákiti,” performed by Jhay Cortez and Bad Bunny and written by ASCAP songwriters Cortez and Mora with Bad Bunny and Tainy. Sony Discos Music Publishing won publisher of the year honors for credits in a slew of songs.
Winners at the performing rights society’s annual awards — which recognize the chart-topping songwriters, producers and publishers behind Latin music’s big hits — where announced today (May 23) on ASCAP’s social media channels in lieu of the traditional in person dinner that ASCAP has long hosted.
Towers, a versatile rapper with distinctive lyrics and vocals, takes home songwriter of the year of honors for his single “Bandido,” which hit No. 4 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart, as well as for his part in Sebastian Yatra’s “Pareja del Año” and other hits including “La Nota” and “La Curiosidad.”
On his end, Camilo showed the viability of pop in the past year with hits like “Despeinada,” “Millones,” “Vida de Rico” and “Tattoo,” all of which topped Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart, a phenomenal showing for a pop act.
As for song of the year, it’s hard to quibble with global hit “Dákiti,” the No. 1 song on Billboard’s year-end Hot Latin Songs chart, where it spent a stunning 27 weeks at No. 1.
Sony Discos Music Publishing wins publisher of the year for the second time in a row, thanks to its stake in hits like 2021 top Latin hits including “De Vuelta Pa’ La Vuelta” (Marc Anthony), “Ram Pam Pam” (Nathy Natasha), “Bandido” (Myke Towers) “El Problema” (Daddy Yankee), “Vida de Rico” (Camilo), “Volví” (Aventura and Bad Bunny), “Un Amor Eterno” (Marc Anthony), and “Botella Tras Botella” (Gera MX and Christian Nodal), among others.
In what’s becoming an increasingly major trend in Latin music, many of this year’s winning songwriters also manage the artists, publishers or other songwriters of winning songs. The long list of manager/songwriters who won awards this time thanks to having writing credit in winning songs includes José Pérez Díaz, Lex Borrero, Camille Marie Soto Malavé, Juan Camilo Vargas, Raphy Piña, José Pérez Días and Franklin Martínez, among others.