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Romeo Santos and Prince Royce Shoot ‘Dardos’ to No. 1 on Latin Airplay
Romeo Santos and Prince Royce leap to number 1 on Billboard's Latin Airplay as 'Dardos' rises to 9.2 million US impressions. Santos extends his tropical record to 24 number 1s; Royce earns his 20th. La Arrolladora ties Banda MS with 22 Regional Mexican leaders.
The moment felt obvious in a small way and seismic in another. At recent shows where Romeo Santos closed with a slow-burning bachata and Prince Royce slipped into that glossy falsetto, the crowd stopped pretending they were just listening. Phones went up, people leaned forward, and when the chorus of ‘Dardos’ hit they sang like they owned the chart.
Billboard’s May 9-dated Latin Airplay chart made that live-room certainty official. ‘Dardos’ vaulted 3 to 1 on the overall Latin Airplay list after a 37 percent jump in audience impressions, reaching 9.2 million in the United States during the tracking week ending April 30, according to Luminate. The single was also tagged Greatest Gainer for the week, swapping places with Maluma and Kany Garci’a’s ‘1+1’, which fell to number 3 after a 30 percent dip to 6.5 million impressions.
This is not a one-off chemistry. Santos and Royce already had a three-week run at number 1 with ‘Lokita Por Mi’ from December 2025 through March 2026. Both songs come from their joint album Better Late Than Never, which opened at number 2 on Top Latin Albums and held the top spot on Top Tropical Albums for two weeks in late 2025. The pair have turned a collaborative streak into a dependable radio pattern.
Chart milestones matter here because they tell a larger story about taste and legacy. With ‘Dardos’ at the top of Latin Airplay, Santos extended his lead as the tropical artist with the most number 1s on that chart since it began in 1994, now sitting at 24. Royce notched his 20th overall Latin Airplay chart-topper.
On Tropical Airplay the numbers shift a bit: Royce earned his 28th number 1 on that chart, inching up behind Victor Manuelle on 29 and Marc Anthony on 39. Santos picked up his 21st leader on Tropical Airplay, a reminder that both men are still finding fresh ways to dominate a format they helped define.
Regional Mexican Airplay had its own headline. La Arrolladora Banda El Limón de Rene Camacho pushed ‘¿Donde Estabas Tu?’ to number 1, their 22nd leader on that chart, which ties them with Banda MS for the second-most number 1s in the chart’s nearly 32-year history. Calibre 50 remains out front with 29. The Arrolladora single rose to the top with about 7 million audience impressions, up roughly 10 percent that week. It follows the group’s recent two-week run at number 1 alongside Juanes with ‘Una Noche Contigo’.
There is a feedback loop happening. Radio spins and streaming spikes feed arena moments, and vice versa. Onstage, ‘Dardos’ functions like a test: can two established bachata stars share the spotlight without blunting the moment? They can. Royce drops a phrase, Santos answers; the guitars scrape, the congas push, the crowd finishes lines. It reads loud in the speakers and louder on the tracking reports.
If anything feels inevitable, it is that collaborations of this scale will keep recalibrating the charts. Fans want the old-school bachata touch and the modern radio sheen. Romeo Santos and Prince Royce are giving them both, and the charts are listening.
Photo: Malike Sidibe, Oct 29, 2025, New York
