JENNI RIVERA
THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF A WARRIOR BUTTERFLY
Novelist, pianist and journalist, Leila Cobo is the Executive Director of Latin Content and Programming for Billboard magazine. Under her tenure, Billboard has expanded its coverage of Latin music to unprecedented levels, and now has a complete weekly section dedicated solely to Latin music. Leila also programs the yearly Billboard Latin Music Conference, the largest gathering of the Latin music industry in the United States.
Originally from Cali, Colombia, Leila won a Fulbright scholarship to attend graduate school and earn a Master’s Degree in Communications from the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California, after having earned a Master’s Degree for concert piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music in New York. She was the pop music critic for The Miami Herald and wrote about culture for The Los Angeles Times. Leila has written album notes for many top-selling artists including Shakira, Ricky Martin, Julio Iglesias and Chayanne. As a musical expert, she has been invited to serve as a judge for many competitions, including the Viña del Mar International Song Festival in Chile, and Objectivo Fama Internacional, in Mexico.
In addition to her position at Billboard, Leila is the Executive Producer and host of Estudio Billboard, the acclaimed television show where she has interviewed the greatest artists in Latin music, including Maná, Juan Luis Guerra, Jenni Rivera and Gloria Estefan.
Leila is a coauthor of the Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music and contributing writer for Quinceañera, an essay collection published by HarperCollins. As a fiction writer, her first novel, Tell Me Something True, was published in October 2009 to critical acclaim by Grand Central Publishing/Hachette. Her second novel, The Second Time We Met, was published in 2012.
In 2008, the Miami magazine Ocean Drive named her one of its “Power Brokers.” She also won the Premio Orquídea, which honors exceptional Colombians living abroad, for her work as a journalist. Leila is considered a leading expert on Latin music, and is constantly referenced in music media. She lives in Miami, Florida. For more information, visit her Web site: