“It’s the first time I produce a song this way, so much pressure,” said Ovy on the Drums after taking the stage for the Making the Hit Live panel at the 2022 Billboard Latin Music Week.
The Colombian hitmaker was joined by singer-songwriter Blessd onstage on Wednesday (Sept. 28) where the pair created a new song from scratch in front of an audience.
In a span of 30 minutes, the producer and the artist worked together to create a promising reggaeton track, on which Blessd improvised over singing lyrics about heartbreak. While the track — which they broke down as they were making it — was not completed due to the limited time, attendees encouraged the duo to release the song after hearing a teaser that left everyone in that room wanting more.
For 30 years, Billboard Latin Music Week has been the longest running and biggest Latin music industry gathering in the world. It will also dovetail with the 2022 Billboard Latin Music Awards on Sept. 29 in Miami. The Billboard Latin Music Awards will broadcast live on Telemundo, and will also broadcast simultaneously on the Spanish entertainment cable network, Universo, and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean on Telemundo Internacional.
Latin Music Week is taking place from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1 with star-studded panels. Additionally, there is a lineup of events that includes superstar concerts, intimate showcases and new music premieres by Bizarrap, Elena Rose, Camilo and Mariah Angeliq. BRESH will throw the ultimate closing party at Oasis, in Miami’s artistic neighborhood of Wynwood.
Below are three takeaways from the Making the Hit Live panel:
“Medallo” Was Created in 40 Minutes
Ovy: “Blessd called me and he said, I need you, urgently. Are you available? I have an idea that I’d love to start working on now.”
Blessd: “And I told him, I need it to be a hit so get out the violins. The thing with the violins is because every time Ovy adds violins to a song, it becomes No. 1. It happened with ‘Tusa’ and also ‘Medallo.’”
How They Met
Blessd: “Ovy was one of the first to truly become interested in what I was doing. I asked my followers on social media to tag him in my posts and that’s how he found out I existed. At the beginning, it was a friendship. We both like soccer, so there was a click.”
Ovy: “‘Mi Niña’ was the first song that we ever did together. What I liked about him was that he improvised — that really caught my attention. And our chemistry is great. We have a lot of things in common, which was really important when it came to creating music together.”
Blessd on Improvising
“I come battling on the streets so my thing is to improvise. I never sit down to write lyrics. Improvising allows me to feel the music.”
