Voices Of Live: Eddie Orjuela, Nederlander Concerts & Orjuela Entertainment, LLC

Orjuela spoke to Pollstar about booking these shows and the growth of the Latin market over the years.

Eddie Orjuela: First of all, I think we live in one of the best markets for Latin music. I’m originally from New York, but I moved out here when I was really young and I’ve been a big time Angeleno for many years. So I attended many concerts when I was younger, in Latin and American music, at different venues. I really experienced the whole lifestyle of how Angelenos go out and enjoy themselves at these concerts. I would see that on both sides. 

And working with my dad, who was also a music promoter, I learned the business from there. You would see how the Mexican fans – and the non-Mexican fans, a lot of Colombians, Puerto Ricans, Central Americans – they would just support all these different types of shows that come to Los Angeles and, to a lesser extent, San Francisco. Anything from regional Mexican music to tropical music, which back then was very popular, to salsa bands from Puerto Rico and Colombia. 

And the market is special to me because, in 2005, I was involved with bringing out the first major reggaeton concert lineup to the Gibson Amphitheatre. My partner at Universal Music, Gustavo Lopez, and I brought out Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, Ivy Queen, the big names that have been around all these years. They had been here on their own in little nightclubs, but never as a package. So we got them together and little did we know that show would sell out super quick. We had multiple radio stations wanting to come on board, not just Latin stations but KIIS FM, Power 106, they were calling us wanting to promote that concert, so that was an eye opener and really changed the game. 

We ended up doing three nights of that show as a concert series, we called it “Invasion de Reggaeton” at the Gibson Amphitheatre and we did more shows the following two years. 

So I’ve worked in all the genres that have been a part of Latin music over the last 20 years, and they have all had success on the West Coast, not only because Mexican music is close by culturally, but the genres of tropical music and reggaeton which are based in Puerto Rico and South America. In LA everything really works. There are fans here for all these subgenres of Latin music. Mexican regional, tropical, urban, rock, some that were really big in the late ’90s/early 2000s. It’s a market that always welcomes all these different communities within Latin music. It’s a gift to be able to be a promoter and to book artists on the West Coast, especially in LA, because you have a variety of genres you can get involved with. What’s really hot at the moment may sometimes influence the results, but at the end of the day all these genres have good results with lots of strong artists. Right now it happens to be more Regional Mexican music, artists like Grupo Firme. 

Before, Latin artists wanted to get onto American tracks, with American artists. They wanted to collab with them, and that is still true. They do go after that, but now it has turned around, you see some of these big American artists wanting to jump on tracks with J Balvin, Bad Bunny. We’ve seen Alicia Keys, Justin Bieber, Pharell Williams, Beyoncé, The Weeknd. And some of them have even sang in Spanish.

It makes me say “Wow,” how far we have come with Latin music, it’s incredible. And of course, streaming and all these digital platforms that have emerged in recent years have been game changers. It’s a great time to be in the Latin music business and even more on the live entertainment side. 

We were originally going to do two nights at Microsoft Theater, and we thought: ‘Let’s just do one strong night at STAPLES.’ Little did we know that one night would become seven nights.

Over the first weekend we sold three shows at the STAPLES Center, and then we added three more. Over the early part of the second onsale, the fans started engaging Grupo Firme on social media, asking them for another show. 

They would write to them saying, “We want another show, we want to buy better tickets downstairs.” It was a massive social media situation, so Music VIP Entertainment and TuStreams, Grupo Firme’s management, decided to add another show to give thanks to our fans.  

It is amazing that STAPLES is doing seven shows, and the band is also doing three other shows an hour away [with another promoter] in October. These shows have all gone on sale at the same time and they are blowing out these tickets for each venue. 

In my years in the business, specializing in Latin music on the West Coast, I have never seen anything like this. I truly haven’t. There have been great artists like Banda MS and Jenni Rivera who have played STAPLES Center and are big regional Mexican names. 

[But these kinds of bands] have usually played Microsoft Theater for maybe three nights, maybe one or two nights at STAPLES. But to go from one or two nights to seven nights … I think Maná holds the record for consecutive Latin shows at STAPLES, but I think we’re going to be the next closest to Maná. …  It has been great working closely with Grupo Firme’s team – agent Tony Larios and manager Isael Gutierrez – in making these shows historic.

Yeah, the demand was definitely there. The fans are so used to being close to the stage, with this particular group, so we would open up a second or third show and the downstairs tickets specifically would fly, especially since we wanted to have comfortable prices, we didn’t want to go too high. That’s a testament to the group as well. But with this demand, we definitely could have gone higher. 

The configuration that we have set out – because so much of the show is the band engaging the fans with their energy, and obviously an arena is big and the upstairs is pretty far away – they wanted to make sure the fans were getting a great show on the lower bowl, which is configured for 11,000-12,000 people. When the downstairs tickets were gone, people were hesitating, they really wanted to be close, so that also prompted us to just add another show. The fans ate it up, they don’t want to be far away, they clearly wanted to be in the lower bowl, and the effect kept multiplying. So we have opened up the upstairs little by little for these shows, but we have already sold 55,000-60,000 tickets. People want these lower bowl seats and they are willing to wait and pay for these seats. 

It’s been great to work with Alex [Hodges]  and everybody at Nederlander. We’ve had lots of success in the Latin genre. You know, they were already doing Latin shows before I came on board, but since then we have been doing quite a bit more. It’s been a great alliance, working with them, they are always forward thinking and wanting to expand to newer markets all over the U.S. 

We’re not Live Nation or AEG, but managers and agencies really like that we are so strategic in how we promote and produce shows. We are not thinking about 30-40 dates across the nation, which is great too, but we really specialize in our markets and we have lots of success. They like that we pay super close attention and the shows have great results because of that. I think that’s been a key to our success and more artists are wanting to work with us in the markets we work a lot.

It’s nice when agents and managers call us. It’s not easy to compete with other big promoters like Live Nation and AEG, I think it’s a testament to our dedication to Latin music and our hard work and we are seeing the results. It’s good to have different options, we will co-promote, we are in this for the long run and we want to continue making the best of all the Latin shows we have, giving fans a good experience by working with the bands and their management teams.