Music That Has Shaken the World in March

Image courtesy of Salomon Ligthelm

Bad Bunny

Calvin Klein broke the internet this month with the release of its Spring 25 campaign, teaming up with Bad Bunny as a guest star, following the success of his latest album DTMF that continues in the top charts and his big momentum growing worldwide, something I wrote about in January. The commercial features Bad Bunny dancing in a CK underwear to one of his album songs 'EoO' and generated $8.4 million in media impact value in less than 48 hours.

Brazilian Funk Domination

If you follow the series Music That Has Shaken The World you already know Brazilian Funk continues to be on the rise, being the most listened Brazilian music genre outside Brazil, as well as growing and blending with other genres around the world.

Recently we have also noticed more usage of Brazilian Funk in advertising in Germany and around the globe. Zalando, for instance, has had two campaigns with the genre in the recent years, including a production by us and this month alone we spotted KFC Believe Part 2 with a Brazilian Funk production and now the most commented commercial of the year so far has used it with spotlight: Pedro Pascoal dancing and singing to Perfect by Sam i & Tropikillaz for Apple.

Releases

In January I wrote about my music predictions for 2025 and how I think the Pop Girls Renaissance with a new wave of female stars will continue growing this year, just like in 2024, but also with new works from well established ones such as Lady Gaga and JADE.

Surprisingly, what was not on my radar was to suddenly become a fan of Selena Gomez.
Please do not get me wrong, I grew up watching her on TV and always had a great feeling about her, but never really resonated with her music until her new album I Said I Love You First with producer Benny Blanco (who is also her fiancée) came out this month. The album had a similar effect to what Plastic Hearts did for me regarding Miley Cyrus, even though I have always been a fan of Miley's vocal abilities.

As an album, ISILYF might not be the strongest when it comes to an identity and sonic concept and there is also not much innovation, but it is clever. First of all, for an album that is supposed to be about their love story and a celebration of their romance according to their interviews, this is missing in the actual record as a lot of songs were written about previous relationships or lost friendships and reveal almost nothing about their own.

Then, when it comes to a sonic identity, I am a fan of strong concepts and innovators and this one, musically, lacks it. It feels like a mix of everything that we know works well or that is on the rise in pop music: collaborations with Gracie Abrams, Charlie XCX, The Marías and I also spotted some Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey influence, just to name a few. However, this is both a weakness and a blessing. After all, what is wrong about betting on what works?! Besides, it shows Benny Blanco producer skills and Selena's creative choices are in fact well executed and for that I give them credit and the spotlight here.

Pitchfork gave it a 5.9 (which is quite high for Pitchfork brutal style reviews anyway), but the album is working and they are the talk of the moment everywhere with songs entering charts and one music video debuting as top 10 on YouTube’s Trending chart, despite being self promoted by them and not by Interscope. In fact, if I could bet on an artist right now for great brand collaborations (besides Doechii & Bad Bunny) it would be Selena or Selena and Benny together.

Doechii

Speaking of our dear Doechii, her and her team continue to do an incredible job. Following the success of Anxiety on TikTok, a track that Doechii created by sampling Gotye’s 'Somebody That I Used To Know' (that samples Brazilian artist Luiz Bonfá song Seville) - and had not yet released but only sang in a YouTube video some time ago that went viral this year - she quickly jumped on the studio to record and released it earlier this month, taking advantage of the song momentum.

The song release was accompanied by a dance trend that started with one user edit of Doechii’s original song with a clip from the ‘90s classic sitcom 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.', reaching over 2.3m views and helping create even more buzz around the song.

Then, again Doechii and her team reacted fast to the viral edit and teamed up with Will Smith and Ashley Banks from 'The Fresh Prince of Bel Air' to recreate this iconic '90s dance with them, now as part of her single promotion and becoming one of the most viral dance trends on TikTok.

You can listen to all of it and more in the T&F monthly playlist.

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Honourable Mentions: February Favourite Songs & Music Videos

Flood by Little Simz featuring Obongjayar & Moonchild Sanelly, directed by Salomon Ligthelm

​'No Front Teet', collaboration between Perfume Genius and Aldous Harding, directed by Cody Critcheloe