Born in Miami, and raised between the Magic Metropolis and Spain, Hans Schafer’s life soundtrack blends each half from Elegant’s sun-soaked rock to the romantic ballads of José José. Immersed inside the enterprise of music from an early age — his stepfather is Jesús López, chairman and CEO of Frequent Music Latin America and Iberian Peninsula, and his mother was a label supervisor at BMG Latin — Schafer developed a worldwide outlook on the commerce basic. That perspective would flip into his edge, serving to him rise as a key architect in Latin music’s enlargement all through worldwide markets.
Now senior vice chairman of worldwide touring at Dwell Nation, Schafer has spent the earlier seven years shaping among the many most groundbreaking moments in Latin music historic previous. He helped orchestrate Los Bukis’ $50 million-grossing reunion tour and their historic all-Spanish-language residency on the Las Vegas Strip. He carried out a pivotal operate in launching the first worldwide stadium excursions for Karol G and Unhealthy Bunny. Most not too way back, the latter’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour” set world info, selling further tickets than any Latin artist ever in Italy, France, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the UK.
“It’s solely a matter of time sooner than we start seeing more and more extra Latin acts in larger venues all through the pond,” Schafer tells Choice. “The demand has been steadily rising, and as Unhealthy Bunny has taught us, the fantastic thing about globalization is if you do break by way of in new markets, the prospect to connect and really cater to each new space individually is priceless. And that’s true not only for Latin artists, nonetheless any artist.”
Dwell Nation reported that fan attendance at its reveals in Latin America was up by better than 25% inside the first quarter of 2025, citing that rising demand to be “supported by the worldwide rise of non-English language artists,” who the company says now signify twice as a lot of its excessive 50 excursions compared with 2019.
Henry Hwu
Schafer moreover frolicked as director of Latin experience at AEG Dwell, overseeing the company’s Latin enterprise and nationwide reserving method beneath the route of Rebeca Léon (now founder-CEO of Lionfish Leisure, an artist administration and manufacturing agency), along with the branding and sponsorships division of Frequent Music.
“It was [Léon] who knowledgeable me I had a occupation in dwell and touring,” he says. “From there, I moved on to Dwell Nation, when there was a selected division for Latin artists. I have in mind when Los Bukis booked the first Latin stadium tour inside the U.S. [in 2021], and the question was on a regular basis, ‘Who else can do it?’ and that was a second when the floodgates had opened, and it’s flip into rather a lot easier for any particular person else to come back again in and attain that since then.”
Underneath, Choice talked with Schafer about ongoing excursions, options for progress and big wins for such acclaimed acts as Feid, Shakira, Rauw Alejandro, Karol G, Kali Uchis and Tito Double P, amongst many others, beneath.
What’s the best misunderstanding about worldwide excursions for Spanish-language artists?
Everytime you start to take a look on the commerce and the enterprise, the Latin music enterprise truly turns into in regards to the demographic, and by no means merely the consumption of Latin music however as well as the consumption of totally different music. All through the agency of Dwell Nation, we’re not that Latin as solely a silo of followers who devour that music. It’s a rather a lot broader dialog. How do you objective these audiences?
To start with, these excursions had been further seen as investments. Giving your followers a chance to see you reside holds various delayed price for an artist’s touring occupation. I consider once more to the audiences that purchased to see Unhealthy Bunny play a 500-capacity room at a small membership; they placed on that accomplishment like a badge of honor — and that diploma of development can solely happen with time. That step-by-step will give you longevity and a better chance for a a lot larger bounce. And we’re seeing more and more extra artists make that bounce internationally.
How have these excursions superior over the previous couple of years?
Followers have been crossing over for some time now. And for as long as I’ve been engaged on this commerce, this idea of crossing over was such a core thought to Latin artists and to the Latin commerce — “How do you cross over?” We’re gone that now, and I consider one among our best priorities now’s promoting these artists in an real method, and doing so with persistence for the tactic.
At one degree, you considered turning right into a supervisor. The place did that deep sense of responsibility to the artists begin for you?
A supervisor is in a extremely distinctive situation in that they’re serving to info an artist develop their occupation, from the very center, and I didn’t want to start on the center… I wanted to see all of the fully totally different factors to the way in which wherein their world works. As soon as I used to be working at Frequent Music with mannequin partnerships and sponsorships, one factor I didn’t even have a robust background in that, nonetheless international cash grew to develop into my information.
One in all many presents that I’d say truly type of modified the route of my occupation was one I did with MasterCard and Juanes, which wasn’t an unlimited deal, nonetheless it was a touchstone, culturally. I grew to develop into close to his supervisor on the time, Rebeca [Leon]. She sat me down and knowledgeable me I should pursue a occupation in dwell [music], which on the time was nonetheless categorizing all Latin music as regional music. She made the enterprise better by being among the many many first to primarily push for larger investments. She wasn’t afraid to say, ‘You guys are this with the inaccurate lens.’ And he or she was so correct. Now look the place we’re.
What are among the many challenges the dwell commerce goes via?
I think about Latin music — and further importantly, the traditions and evolution occurring now behind it — is ready to make some constructive change. Kali Uchis, who’s so free creatively and [has no] language limitations in her music, is heading out on her first space tour. Then we had albums from Rauw and Unhealthy Bunny truly that mainly received right here from a culturally empowered place.
And the options to hold out these tradition-charged albums internationally are wanting pretty healthful, too.
In spite of everything, various nations are going by way of troublesome situations historically which will make it harder to proceed as our artists need — as we’ve seen with this new administration within the US. Nevertheless there’s a truly thrilling demand in places like Latin America and Europe, and for actually world acts, we’re unlocking absolutely new markets. The world is a big place, and we’re working to open as many bridges as attainable for artists who have to get there.
