The Tropical Airplay chart (formerly known as Tropical/Salsa and Tropical Songs) is a record chart published by Billboard magazine introduced in 1994. The first number-one song on the chart was "Quien Eres Tu" by Luis Enrique.[1] Originally, rankings on the chart were determined by the amount of airplay a song received on radio stations that primarily played tropical music, namely music originating from the Spanish-speaking areas of the Caribbean such as salsa, merengue, bachata, cumbia, vallenato, and tropical fusions. Any song, regardless of its genre, was eligible for the chart if it received enough airplay from the panel of tropical music radio stations being monitored.
Billboard revised the methodology of the chart in January 2017. Since January 21, 2017, the Tropical Airplay chart measures airplay based on audience impressions of tropical music songs over approximately 140 Latin music radio stations.[2] Audience impressions are based on not only how often a song is played as monitored by Nielsen BDS but the ratings of the monitored stations at such time the songs are being played as measured by Nielsen Audio.[3] With the change, the chart was reduced from a list of the top 40 songs to 25.
The current number-one song on the chart is "Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido" by Karol G.[4]
Marc Anthony has the most number-one songs, with 37 between 1995 and 2024."Carita de Inocente" by Prince Royce (pictured) is the longest-running number one song with 29 weeks.Víctor Manuelle has the most top tens and entries on the chart
In 2017, Billboard magazine compiled a ranking of the 20 best-performing songs on the chart since its inception in 1994. The chart is based on the most weeks the song spent on top of the chart. For songs with the same number of weeks at number one, they are ranked them by most weeks in the top ten, followed by most total weeks on the chart.[19] The top 20 was updated the following year.[20]
