Leila Cobo

Billboard’s VP/Latin industry lead, Leila oversees the brand’s Latin editorial team while leading its Latin coverage, programming Billboard’s annual Latin Music Week and hosting the weekly Latin Hitmaker podcast. A Fulbright scholar proudly from Cali, Colombia, Leila is a classical pianist with a performance degree from Manhattan School of Music and a master’s in communication from the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California. Formerly The Miami Herald’s pop music critic, Leila has covered Latin music for over two decades and is the author of two novels and four music books, including a best-selling biography on Jenni Rivera (Penguin) and Decoding Despacito: An Oral History of Latin Music (Vintage/Random House), included in The New York Times’ 2021 Summer Reading list.