Carin León ‘Surprised’ by Chart Success of ‘Boca Chueca, Vol. 1’

Carín León celebrates the week’s highest debut on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums and Regional Mexican Albums charts (dated June 15) as Boca Chueca, Vol. 1, comes in at No. 8 and No. 5, respectively. The 19-track set launches with 9,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending June 6, according to Luminate.

“Very happy to debut on the Billboard charts with this album that we love very much, and I am especially surprised with the results it is having,” León tells Billboard. “I am delighted to be able to show a little more of the music that we have and that we carry in our hearts.”

On Top Latin Albums and Regional Mexican Albums, units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums [TEA] and streaming equivalent albums [SEA]. Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.

Boca Chueca, Vol. 1’s first week sum is driven almost entirely by streaming activity. That figure equals 12.05 million official on-demand audio and video streams for the album’s songs this week, while a negligible amount of activity comes from album sales and track-equivalent units.

With Boca Chueca, the Mexican singer-songwriter mirrors his best showing to date on both charts: his fourth studio album follows 2023’s Colmillo De Leche, which reached an equal No. 8 and No. 5 high on Top Latin Albums and Regional Mexican Albums charts, respectively.

Elsewhere, León outdoes his previous showing on the all-genre Billboard 200, where Boca Chueca debuts at No. 169, surpassing the No. 184 peak of Colmillo.

On Billboard’s songs charts the set was preceded by one song on the multi-metric Hot Latin Songs chart, which combines streaming data, airplay and digital sales: “The One (Per No Como Yo),” with Kane Brown, debuted and peaked at No. 29 on the March 16-dated list.

As the album launches, “Despidase Bien” debuts at No. 29 on the current tally mainly on the strength of streaming activity. The song logged 2.5 million official U.S. streams in the tracking week.

“I think the song that I identify with the most, a song that is a little risky but that feels great in our desire to make music, is ‘Despidase Bien,’ with its soulful nuances and gives a refresh to our type of R&B with its very regional lyrics and by mixing all these types of genres and sounds that are a big part of the project that is Carin León,” adds León.