Pollstar’s 2026 South America Special: Massive Growth, New Buildings, Brazil Focus, Way More

Welcome to Pollstar‘s third South America Focus, highlighting the region’s growth, the building of new venues and the stars elevating their nations. The special coverage includes insight from the top promoters in South America and venue executives discussing each country’s potential and the challenges that still exist on the continent. See Pollstar regional charts, including South America, here.

To purchase a copy of the special Pollstar issue, which featured Jerry Seinfeld and Nate Bargatze on the cover, visit the Pollstar store.

South America Steadily Grows With Latin Music’s Streaming Power, Tours Placing Region In Global Spotlight

It’s hard to surprise anyone who works in the music industry and understands the trends and cyclical nature of the business, but even the most grizzled veteran has to be impressed by what’s going on in Latin America, most notably South America.

A surplus of international tours, a successful export of talent, stabilizing economies and investment in infrastructure is paving the way for a golden era in South America, which is little by little achieving feats it could never have imagined two decades ago.

Carlos Geniso, CEO of the popular Chilean entertainment company, was plenty busy in 2025, producing some of the biggest shows of the year and working with the aforementioned acts, an indication that South American markets like Santiago are as vibrant as ever. DG Medios finished among the Top 50 in Pollstar’s recent Year End Promoters chart with nearly $58 million grosses off 739,882 tickets.

Read more here.

‘Come To Brazil’: Promoters Thriving In Robust Brazilian Markets

Mexico may be the Latin American nation to steal the most headlines in any given year with its dominant showing in stadium and arena charts, but it hasn’t dethroned the king of LATAM in the overall ecosystem of the music business, which includes revenues from streaming and physical sales.

With a ginormous population surpassing 213 million, Brazil has the honor of being No. 1 in Latin America and the No. 9 music market in the world, according to a 2025 report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. It’s one of the fastest growing markets in the music industry, and that includes live entertainment as more acts, especially legacy artists, consider South America to their routing.

Read more here.

Una Nueva Era: South American Markets Continue To Rise With New Venues

For decades, the main knock on South America has been its infrastructure, with government regulations deterring private investors from developing markets. It’s still an issue, but one that the region is resolving, little by little, as government officials realize the value of the live entertainment industry and its potential influence on local economies.

One nation leading that charge is Colombia, which inspired the region when Movistar Arena in Bogotá opened eight years ago. The nation’s capital saw yet another crown jewel open in 2025 in Vive Claro, a versatile multipurpose stadium built by OCESA Colombia to meet the demand for live events with sustainability and live music in mind.

Read more here.

Lightning In A Bottle: How ‘La Fusa’ Became One of Brazilian Music’s Greatest Live Albums

The cover says it all. A stark, black and white photo of three Brazilian performers singing live at a small club in a South American metropolis, it embodies the bohemian charm of the ’60s bossa nova movement – a sound marked by jazzy harmonies, wispy vocals and lyrics celebrating the fleeting beauty of the human experience.

But the image also tells an intergenerational story about an aging poet who took under his wing two emerging artists – a chanteuse with a voice as pure as sunlight, and a young guitarist with an unusual gift for syncopated samba chords. Together, they started a tour that was meant to last two weeks but stretched out for months and resulted in what is probably the finest live album in the history of Brazilian music.

The poet was Vinicius de Moraes, former diplomat and reckless womanizer, the unofficial lyricist of the bossa wave. The singer was future diva Maria Creuza, then 26.
Read more here.

‘A Market That Will Never Decline’: Q’s With Carlos Geniso, CEO of DG Medios

If concerts are part of the algorithm in your social media feed, it’s likely you’ve come across a snippet of a show from an act like Oasis, Dua Lipa, Kendrick Lamar or Twenty One Pilots performing in front of a passionate, sold-out crowd at a soccer stadium.

It’s also likely that the clip is from a South American concert that was promoted by DG Medios.

Carlos Geniso, CEO of the popular Chilean entertainment company, was plenty busy in 2025, producing some of the biggest shows of the year and working with the aforementioned acts, an indication that South American markets like Santiago are as vibrant as ever. DG Medios finished among the Top 50 in Pollstar’s recent Year End Promoters chart with nearly $58 million grosses off 739,882 tickets.

And it wasn’t just major English-language acts. Geniso did his part in giving Latin stars a platform to grow the genre, artists like Puerto Rican singer Chayanne, who sold out a whopping eight nights at Movistar Arena in Santiago and grossed $10,225,416, according to Pollstar Boxoffice.

Read more here.

A Global Music Mecca: Top 10 Brazilian Live Albums Everyone Should Own

After England and the U.S., Brazil is probably the most musically fertile nation on the planet. It started with the percolating samba – an amalgam of Afro roots, European melody and South American sensibility – but the ‘60s also saw the emergence of four distinct, earth-shattering movements: the jazzy, globetrotting bossa nova; the radicalized, psychedelic tropicália; the hooky, Beatlesque jovem guarda; and the almighty MPB (música popular brasileira), an inexhaustible blend of rock and reggae, soul and pop, Latin balladry and experimental noise. With a hefty record industry and plenty of stars, it was only a matter of time before the live album became a Brazilian tradition, which continues to this day.

There are literally hundreds of awesome concert recordings to pick from, but these 10 classics are absolutely essential.

Read more here.