K-pop giant HYBE is accelerating its focus on the Latin American market with the launch of two talent searches both aimed at promoting Spanish-language music content.
HYBE on Sunday (June 8) launched Pase a la Fama, a TV music competition that will pit aspiring musicians from Mexico, Spain and Brazil against each other to form three bands.
Winners will receive $100,000 and a recording contract with HYBE Latin America. The show airs on Telemundo, NBCUniversal Media’s Spanish-language network.
HYBE Latin America first announced its Pase a la Fama partnership with Telemundo in April. At the time, the HYBE unit revealed the panel of judges for the show, comprised of three prominent figures in regional Mexican music: singer and actress Ana Bárbara; Mexican-American singer-songwriter Adriel Favela; and Horacio Palencia, a songwriter with over 6.4 billion streams and 50 BMI Awards.
“Leveraging HYBE’s top-tier training and production capabilities, we aim to discover and nurture the next generation of global Latin artists.”
Jounghyun JH Kah, HYBE Latin America
Separately, HYBE says it has selected 300 applicants from Mexico, the US, Brazil and Spain for a boy band project based in Mexico. The audition project will narrow that field down to 16 finalists. It brings together Kenny Ortega, who directed Disney‘s High School Musical franchise, as executive producer, with Charm La’Donna as head choreographer and Robert J. “RAab” Stevenson as head vocal coach.
HYBE says both projects will employ its “proven artist development methodology” used in the development of K-pop artists.
Jounghyun JH Kah, CEO of HYBE Latin America, said: “Leveraging HYBE’s top-tier training and production capabilities, we aim to discover and nurture the next generation of global Latin artists.
“Our audition projects will strengthen the bridge connecting Asia, the English-speaking world, and Spanish-speaking regions, further enhancing our global business capabilities.”
HYBE’s methodology focuses on structured training and mentorship programs. In February, HYBE teamed up with Grammy Award winner Ryan Tedder to search for and create a new boy group.
“Our audition projects will strengthen the bridge connecting Asia, the English-speaking world, and Spanish-speaking regions, further enhancing our global business capabilities.”
Jounghyun JH Kah, HYBE Latin America
An earlier talent search effort resulted in the launch of girl group KATSEYE in the US last year through HYBE’s partnership with Universal Music Group‘s Geffen Records.
On a recent earnings call, HYBE CEO Jason Jaesang Lee said KATSEYE “had the best year in 2024 with their debut album SIS,” with their title track Touch appearing on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 for two weeks and the Global Song Chart for 13 consecutive weeks.
“The group has received so much attention and affection from listeners and music critics worldwide. The success of KATSEYE demonstrate[s] that the K-pop system can work in the US,” Lee stated.
HYBE’s Latin America plans arrive as the market continues to grow. In 2024, recorded music revenues in Latin America rose 22.5% YoY, outpacing the global growth rate of 4.8%, according to data from the IFPI.
The growth can be attributed to streaming revenue, which accounted for 87.8% of all recorded music revenues in the region.
HYBE first expanded into the Latin Music market in 2023 via the acquisition of Exile Music, an affiliate label of Spanish-language entertainment studio Exile Content.
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