Publicist Cristina Novo-Bernal has been round music all her life. The daughter of a Peruvian mom and Argentinian father, she was born in Lima, Peru, however grew up in Miami. Her father was a live performance promoter and in addition owned a nightclub; the household nonetheless has footage of little Cristina on stage with performers, singing alongside them. “Music is sort of all I’ve recognized and all I do know,” she tells POPSUGAR.
Now one of many preeminent publicists in Latin music, Novo-Bernal represents shoppers like Nicky Jam, Anuel AA, and Lenny Tavárez. Still, the 42-year-old could not have predicted that her profession — in addition to higher recognition of Latin music on the worldwide stage — would take the twists and turns it has. With an perspective of “create your individual lane,” Novo-Bernal has solidified her place in a traditionally cutthroat business. And regardless of her lengthy and profitable profession, she guarantees she’s simply getting began.
But let’s return to the start: within the early 2000s, Novo-Bernal was simply beginning out. Although she beloved music, she bought a job as a booker and producer for a Telemundo present. Soon, she realized that she loved reserving music expertise for the segments — discovering new artists and giving them a platform — greater than the rest.
“If there’s one thing you need to do or you might be discovering there are roadblocks in, construct your individual.”
Meanwhile, as her early profession progressed, reggaeton was starting to tighten its grip on a wider swath of American audiences. Daddy Yankee was gaining recognition, and in 2004, Ivy Queen got here out with “Yo Quiero Bailar.” Novo-Bernal knew that these had been the forms of artists she wished to be working with, getting them much more recognition. “I used to be like, how will we bridge this?” Novo-Bernal remembers.
At this level, she was dwelling in Florida. But on the advice of one other producer dwelling in New York, Novo-Bernal determined that is the place she wanted to be; the Big Apple appeared to be the nexus of the place the whole lot appeared to “be occurring.”
“So at some point, I actually stop my job, packed my baggage, and moved to New York,” she says. “And then as a result of I already had all these relationships with these artists and labels, I simply began connecting the dots.”
Mind you, Novo-Bernal was nonetheless younger, in her mid-20s. She had no blueprint for what it meant to be a music publicist; she hadn’t studied it in class or held a job as one earlier than. “I went off intuition and what I felt wanted to occur,” she says. Numerous that was pure dedication and grit: “It’s like, Oh, I must put Daddy Yankee on the duvet of “Fader,” and so I’d lookup who’s the contact at Fader, after which I’d pitch him, and that is how I did it.”
Eventually, Novo-Bernal realized she wished to be taught extra about document labels, so she joined Motown Records, which ultimately merged with Republic Records, the place she labored within the publicity division. She was there to be taught the “infrastructure” of that aspect of the business, she says — and was in a position to achieve perception into how sure selections had been comprised of the document label’s perspective. But after she rose within the ranks and “hit a ceiling,” she determined to stop her job and begin her personal public relations company, Artistry & Records. Once once more, Novo-Bernal was pivoting and determining her subsequent transfer in real-time.
“For a 12 months, actually, I ate 99-cent pizza. I used to be struggling a lot,” she remembers. “Then, ‘Despacito’ comes out, and the increase of the Latin market once more sort of explodes. And then, abruptly, everybody’s like, ‘I would like illustration.'”
The first shopper she landed was Nicky Jam, and from there, she was launched to different artists and was usually employed on a word-of-mouth foundation. Again, it was paramount that Novo-Bernal be nimble. In an age of dying conventional media, like print magazines, and the rising recognition of streaming, she’s needed to turn into greater than only a publicist. It’s now equally about creating buzz and activations to get artists acknowledged, she says. Like at all times, she’s carving out her personal path, studying and rising with the occasions. But in contrast to others who run their very own companies in 2023, Novo-Bernal says she does not actually have an internet site or promote herself on social media. As she places it: “I feel my work speaks for itself, and that is sort of how I’ve been in a position to develop in the way in which I’ve been.”
It’s an fascinating foil to the way in which many Latin music artists themselves — from Bad Bunny to Karol G — have been more and more reaching recognition world wide. As Novo-Bernal explains, it is not that Latin music turned profitable in a single day or out of the blue. “Latin music has at all times been tremendous widespread,” she says. “It’s simply that the attain wasn’t as seen or wasn’t as tangible.”
That visibility has particularly grown with social media and the web, she provides: “People must see to imagine and perceive, and because of locations like IG and Spotify — these platforms which might be international — everybody sees these numbers, and numbers do not lie.”
As “illustration” turns into extra of a dialog, Novo-Bernal continues to advocate for what she believes in. After the homicide of George Floyd by police in 2020, Novo-Bernal bought concerned in Conciencia Collective, an alliance throughout the Latin music group preventing racial injustice and led by Afro-Latinos.
For Novo-Bernal, 2020’s racial justice protests confirmed that change will solely come if everyone seems to be concerned — and for the Latinx group, meaning being included within the dialog from the beginning. “The info that must be funneled must be funneled in each English and Spanish,” she says. “If we’re not all inclusive, you possibly can’t count on folks to voice one thing they do not perceive.” Her work, she provides, has concerned educating the Latinx group in regards to the racism that occurs inside all identification teams and in addition actions they’ll take to combat towards this.
Indeed, in the whole lot she does, Novo-Bernal facilities going towards the grain if it means doing what she believes is true. That’s what she’s performed all through her profession, she says — even when folks have tried to dissuade her from straying from extra conventional paths. “If there’s one thing you need to do or you might be discovering there are roadblocks in, construct your individual,” she says. “Don’t hearken to anybody else. In plenty of methods, I’m very cussed. If I need to do one thing, I’ll get it performed, it doesn’t matter what anybody else says.”
That will inevitably result in some failures, Novo-Bernal provides, however that is a part of what retains her going and innovating: “It’s at all times been, like, how do I be taught from this and make it higher?”
And she retains striving. Earlier this month, Novo-Bernal went to the NBA All-Star Game for the primary time and basked in simply how “superior” it was to get a chance like that. It made her notice that she needs to maintain working towards that subsequent superior factor. “I need to take my artists to the entrance rows at style weeks in Milan and Paris,” she says. “There’s far more that I can do to increase. That forward-thinking is what I need to do extra of.”
“It sort of makes you are feeling like superwoman.”
Although Novo-Bernal’s profession may’ve been straight impressed by her father’s, because the mom of a 1 ½-year-old son, she’s additionally impressed to maintain going due to her mother.
“I really feel like I’m making my mother proud, as a result of my mother was a stay-at-home mother, she took care of us,” Novo-Bernal explains. “She would say to me, ‘If I’d recognized what I do know now, I might’ve gone for a profession.’ I really like breaking a few of these generational chains.”
Amid the craziness of her day-to-day job and being a mother, Novo-Bernal comes again to that. “It’s an incredible feeling of accomplishment on the finish of the day, like, I did all this sh*t, plus I did this, plus I used to be with my household,” she says, and you’ll virtually hear the delight in her voice. “It sort of makes you are feeling like superwoman.”
Image Source: Cristina Novo-Bernal