00:00I'm not used to being on stage, used to being behind it for the most part.
00:04You know, when we went on this journey with Hans, people showed up.
00:09They're very excited that we'd found someone to run our Latin business.
00:12They said his name was Hans Schaefer.
00:16It took a minute or five to figure that out.
00:20Then we met Hans, and he's been a tireless, passionate leader for Latin music and Latin culture.
00:28But what Hans really taught me was that it wasn't about leaving Latin music in a box,
00:35but it was actually about taking it to the world and expanding it.
00:38So Hans' title is not President of Latin Touring.
00:42Hans is a head of global promoting, and his job is to do that in any way that he sees
00:48fit,
00:48to open new territories and open new markets.
00:51I'll tell you a funny story about Hans' tireless passion.
00:55And coming out of COVID, we were all terrified.
00:57We had no idea, is anyone ever going to come to a show again?
01:00And Hans called me one day and said, I have a secret project.
01:05It's called Los Tacos.
01:06And I said to him, is that like an inside joke?
01:09Are we opening a taco stand?
01:11What are we doing?
01:11And he said, no, there's this group.
01:13It's called Los Bukis.
01:15And, of course, I had no idea who Los Bukis is,
01:17and he's trying to convince me that they should play SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
01:21Now, at this point, you've got to remember, most people are still not leaving their homes.
01:25And Hans said, trust me, this is going to be the biggest thing you've ever seen.
01:29And so I had to make this decision.
01:30Is that really going to be the first big thing that we've done, Live Nation, in Los Angeles,
01:36our first shows at SoFi Stadium?
01:37And Hans said, do it the old-fashioned way.
01:41Ask every person you know.
01:42So I started asking.
01:44And what I found so fascinating is everything he told me was true was it wasn't just the Mexicans I
01:49asked.
01:50It was the Guatemalans and the El Salvadorans and the Venezuelans and the Colombians.
01:53And Hans was so right that they sold out our first two shows at SoFi Stadium.
01:58And I went to that first show.
02:00And it was such a magical moment of excitement, both for Latin music but also just for culture in general.
02:07We got 50,000 people to gather.
02:09Can you imagine in a moment where half the population was still wearing masks?
02:13From there, Hans went on this incredible journey with Bad Bunny and Carol G and Callie Uchis and on and
02:20on and on.
02:21And what he did was educate us as to the way that we could bring Latin music to the world
02:28and how we could bring Latin music to the U.S.
02:31He hired and mentored and continued to create an environment where we could have not just Latin executives working on
02:41Latin music
02:41but Latin executives working on anything because what I learned when I met with some of the biggest Latin stars
02:47is that they didn't want to be known as Latin artists.
02:49They wanted to be treated the same as Jay-Z or Beyonce or Rihanna.
02:53And I think that's the thing that Hans really brought to the business was taking artists and treating them like
02:59the biggest artists in the world.
03:00Not the biggest Latin artists in the world but just the biggest artists in the world.
03:04And I think that's the gift that he's given everyone in this business.
03:08He's been an incredible addition to our team.
03:10He is so committed to his job that as I joke with him, he named his son after both his
03:16mentor, Rebecca Leon.
03:17His son's name is Leon.
03:19Leon.
03:19And also the artist he'd like to work with, Corinne Leon.
03:24But anyway, I could go on for a long time about Hans and I'll leave you on this.
03:29In a very dark moment in my life, a personal dark moment, the second person I called, first person was
03:36Colin Lewis, who's here tonight,
03:39as part of our family, Hans and I, and the second person I called was Hans Schaefer.
03:43And Hans got on a plane and helped me deal with something that was very difficult.
03:46He's not just a great promoter and a great human.
03:49He's a great friend and one of the first people I would call when I was in trouble.
03:53And I would suggest you call him too because he will answer and he knows someone everywhere.
03:57Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to announce Hans Schaefer, executive of the year.
04:23Clearly, appreciate you all.
04:26I probably should have shared notes with Omar because half of my speech was in there.
04:33But we're going to do most of this in English because some people are Spanish.
04:37We're not going to name any names.
04:39It's a work in progress.
04:43Before we do that, I just want to say in Spanish, para mí ha sido un gran año, para que
04:47además luego no piensen que no hablo español, que luego no va.
04:52Pero ha sido un gran año por tres cosas que han pasado en mi vida este año.
04:56Una es la llegada de mi hijo, León.
05:05Dos, evidentemente, este reconocimiento por todos ustedes y compartir este momento, que ha sido un gran, gran, gran reconocimiento para
05:13mí.
05:14Y tres, algo que Ángel y Tito le conté podemos celebrar juntos.
05:20El Mundial de España.
05:27Gran año, gran año chicos, gran año.
05:37So, we're going to go, I'm going to get vulnerable, I'm going to get hopefully a little humor, going to
05:42go along.
05:42So, thank you, Leila.
05:46I appreciate you.
05:48But I wanted to talk about a few things.
05:50Obviously, I want to give thanks.
05:52Thank you to Leila.
05:53Thank you to Billboard for putting this on, for giving us the space for us to celebrate, to celebrate what
05:58we believe in, what our dreams are, and what we're pushing forward constantly, day in, day out.
06:03We move so quickly, and you all know this, because we all go through this, but we move so quickly
06:07that we rarely stop to take in the moments that we have achieved and the things that we have achieved.
06:13And so, for me, this is an incredible moment.
06:17And so, congratulations also to all the honorees, everyone that's being recognized here tonight.
06:22It's an honor for me to be recognized with you all.
06:25I am proud to be in this room with all of you, and I'm proud of everything that everyone has
06:29achieved in here.
06:32So, yesterday, for those of you who know how much I love Japanese culture, I'm known as Hans from Miami
06:39and the Tokyo Inner Circles.
06:43And a friend of mine yesterday gave me this box, and this box has no lock.
06:48It has no key, you know.
06:51But he gave this for my son, and inside, there's only one way to open it, and it's following a
06:58sequence of movements, sequence of moves that you have to follow in order to get to what's inside.
07:04And inside, there's a letter, and inside, there's a gift for my son.
07:09For one day, he'll, it's waiting for him one day, and he'll be able to open that.
07:14Now, he is three months old.
07:17So, unless he's a savant, it's going to be a while, which is okay.
07:22We love him.
07:27So, the work, you know, we set out to do, sorry, hold on, hold on, apologies, I'm getting them all
07:35mixed up.
07:36Here we go.
07:37We've accomplished many things throughout this, throughout my tenure and the time that I've been with Live Nation.
07:43And one of the things that I'm most proud of, and it sticks with me, and Omar talked about it,
07:50was Los Tacos.
07:52Marco Antonio Solis and Los Bukis, the trust, and the moment when everything in the world felt like it was
08:00upside down, except for Miami, which never closed.
08:06You know, the Bukis reunited for, after 25 years.
08:09And I was honored that they had given us the opportunity.
08:13They had called me and said, hey, we're working on this, hence the secret code, Los Tacos.
08:18And we worked on, we worked on routing it.
08:21We worked on building not just, you know, the two first shows that we were going to do at SoFi,
08:25but really to, to go out and aim and try to do something that had never been done before, which
08:30is this Latin tour doing stadiums in North America.
08:34You had moments, you had artists that had been able to do, you know, a night in New York, a
08:39night in San Antonio, a night in San Francisco.
08:42That existed, but you hadn't seen yet that next scale of somebody going out and being able to do multiple
08:48markets.
08:53And today we're seeing Shakira, we're seeing Carol, we're seeing Bunny, we're seeing J.O.P., Grupo Firme has done
09:02it, right?
09:03It's, it's, it's, it's becoming more and more the norm, right?
09:07There's a story of the impossible seems impossible until somebody breaks the ceiling and then very quickly everything starts to
09:14move.
09:14And that's, that's what we've been living in over the last few years, that today, that potential is everywhere.
09:21It's not just the things that are streaming and it's not just the things that seem, touch everything.
09:26It's understanding that cultural currency.
09:29It's understanding what means the most to us, what we grew up with, but the people who we know in
09:36all shapes, all forms have grown up with, right?
09:41And as Omar said, the, the bookies was a massive success.
09:45It was not only huge in, in LA, but by the end of that year and by the end of
09:51that tour, it was one of the biggest tours in the world.
09:54Just playing North America, right?
09:56I mean, we're talking behind Harry Styles, we're talking about some of the biggest names that we know in the
10:02U.S.
10:02And that's incredible.
10:05But what mattered is not the record.
10:08What mattered was not that statement.
10:10What mattered was the people, the people that I've worked with, the people that I've had the opportunity to push
10:17forward,
10:17the people who have entrusted in us to push through and build this team, you know, and over the last
10:25few years, we have had a, an incredible opportunity to, to grow.
10:32I know Omar has given me the space, but really I also have to give it to the team that's,
10:39that's joined me, the team that's pushed for it,
10:42the team that is the audience, that understands the culture because they are the culture, that I don't have to
10:47explain who the artist is because they understand who the artist is.
10:52You all know this.
10:53We all live through this, right?
10:57And what does that give us?
10:59That gives us this opportunity where the artists have now entrusted us, not with their careers, but with their dreams,
11:07with their goals.
11:09Those, JLP's tours, literally called, this is our dream, right?
11:16And we talked about it two years ago.
11:19We had this conversation.
11:21This was not, it happened from one day to the next.
11:25This was, hey, what do I need to do to get there?
11:28And we talked about it and we sat down and, and we're there.
11:32We've lived the dream.
11:34I'm living the dream.
11:37And the lesson, the lesson that comes out of this for me, the most important thing that I've learned about
11:46this job, about what I do, about what stays beyond us, what's bigger than us, right?
11:54Having a child now is changing completely my perspective.
11:58And the most important thing is that you can build with your own conviction a place for other people to
12:07call it their own, for them to act with their own conviction.
12:11Giving that space has allowed us to do what we've done and what we've accomplished at Live Nation.
12:17That's one of the most proud things that I have to say about the job, about the opportunity, about Michael,
12:26about the investment in the company.
12:28You know, so I say with pride, Live Nation today is Latin.
12:33And Latin has been, is global.
12:36And the culture of this company has changed.
12:41The culture of this company is now a reflection of us, not as a division, not as a separation, not
12:48as this thing that adds, but as part of the DNA of the company.
12:54And that is one of the most things that I am proud of today.
12:57And, of course, the thank yous to my parents who are here, for the values that they have instilled in
13:05me, for the ones that I live and I lead by, for Marta, for your patience overall.
13:19For the strength and for the love, for this life that we're building, for tomorrow, because the reward matters.
13:30And this recognition matters.
13:32The space matters to have this conversation.
13:36But what's more important, what matters most, is the person that you become along the way.
13:43That is the real treasure.
13:46Right?
13:47And so, that is all I have to say.
13:52Mucha gracias.
13:55Thank you all for coming.
14:02And one day, he'll be able to open this box.
14:07And when he does, I hope to be sitting there next to him, and I hope to have the same
14:12curiosity, the same patience, and the same perseverance that's required to open this box.
14:18It's required to do what we do every day.
