Kevyn Cruz was 12 years outdated when he began writing songs. “My mother gave me my first guitar, and with the primary three notes, I realized the way to compose,” he recollects. “Little by little, I perfected that artwork.” Now 26, the Colombian songwriter, generally known as Keityn, is behind a few of the most up-to-date Latin hits by Shakira, Karol G, J Balvin, Maluma and Manuel Turizo, amongst others.
His ladies’s empowerment anthems particularly have taken off, with Karol G and Nicki Minaj’s 2019 hit “Tusa” incomes him his first No. 1 on the Sizzling Latin Songs chart and the fiery “Shakira: Bzrp Music Classes, Vol. 53” by Bizarrap and Shakira spending 5 weeks at No. 1 on the identical chart in 2023. “It’s what the second permits me to create,” he says. “I don’t plan issues or set expectations. I simply let issues circulation.”
This 12 months, Keityn was named songwriter of the 12 months on the ASCAP Latin Music Awards, a recognition he describes as “one thing tough to assimilate, however very joyful and motivated with my ft on the bottom to proceed doing it.”
“Tusa,” Karol G & Nicki Minaj
Keityn didn’t plan on creating music the day this collaboration was born; in actual fact, he visited Karol G’s producer, Ovy on the Drums, to play video video games and order rooster wings. But the hit-maker couldn’t get a violin melody out of his head and requested Keityn to assist him write lyrics. “I swear, in lower than half an hour, we had ‘Tusa,’ from the pre-chorus to the refrain,” Keityn says. “It flowed too effectively. The muse was in the home that day. The track was stored within the studio for greater than a 12 months, however we knew it was a giant hit.” Upon launch, it made historical past as the primary title by two ladies in a lead function to debut atop Sizzling Latin Songs for the reason that chart’s inception in 1986.
“SHAKIRA: BZRP Music Classes, Vol. 53,” Bizarrap & Shakira
Following his work with Shakira on “Te Felicito” and “Monotonía,” Keityn was invited to her former home in Barcelona to co-write this empowered dance-pop observe, on which she cleverly disses her ex and throws a jab at his new girlfriend. Shakira had first teamed with superproducer Bizarrap, recognized for his ever-present cap and glasses and intimate studio classes on YouTube. “The method of this track was a bit extra complicated as a result of Shakira is a lady who likes to provide her full consideration to every a part of the track,” says Keityn. “It took many days altering and eradicating elements of the lyrics.” The non-public, hard-hitting observe debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard Sizzling 100, changing into Shakira’s highest placement since “Lovely Liar” with Beyoncé hit No. 3 in 2007.
“TQG,” Karol G & Shakira
Karol G and Shakira’s sultry “TQG” was part of Karol’s historic album, Mañana Será Bonito, which turned the primary No. 1 all-Spanish-language album by a lady on the Billboard 200. Written in Los Angeles in January 2022, Keityn recollects, “Karol invited me as a result of she was doing one thing in L.A., and he or she requested me if I wished to hang around and make music along with her and Ovy on the Drums for a few days.” He admits he had the intro of the track in his head for days earlier than connecting with Karol, however that it didn’t actually circulation till he hit the studio with Ovy. Following its February launch, “TQG” reached No. 1 on Sizzling Latin Songs, the place it remained for 5 weeks.
This story initially appeared within the June 3, 2023, concern of Billboard.
