Karol G · BbY WOW · No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto
When Did Karol G's 'BbY WOW' Come Out? It Almost Missed Her Album
Karol G nearly left "BbY WOW" off her album. Our own chart check finds it No. 1 in 12 countries, six of them left out of Billboard's count.
Min Key,
Updated
Karol G almost cut it; on our read of YouTube's weekly chart it's No. 1 in 12 countries, six of them missing from Billboard's count of nine.
Karol G almost left “BbY WOW” off her sixth album. She has said she wrote it in January with Judeline and her team but kept feeling it was unfinished. While making the album she got deep into the music of the Spanish artist rusowsky, decided the song needed him, and wanted Judeline's voice on it as well. The two recorded their parts remotely, and the moment their verses arrived she published the album's tracklist.
The song made the cut. Released on 7 August 2026 on Bichota Records and Interscope, as part of the album “No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto,” “BbY WOW” is now No. 1 on the US Hot Latin Songs chart and the Billboard Global 200, and No. 7 on the Hot 100.
No. 1 in 12 countries, six of them outside Billboard's count
Billboard's own count has “BbY WOW” topping the national charts of nine countries: Spain, Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru.
We read a different chart. YouTube Music keeps its own weekly Top 100 for 69 countries, and on the copy we read on 28 September 2026, “BbY WOW” is No. 1 in twelve of them: the nine Billboard names, plus Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador. Those six are missing from Billboard's count, but not from every chart: Spotify's daily charts have had the song at No. 1 in all six since early September. All six are in Central America.
On the same day's Trending 20, a faster-moving daily chart, the song is in the top 10 in eighteen countries at once, though not at No. 1 in any of them today. Its No. 1s all come from the slower-moving weekly chart, the one that lines up with a region-wide run rather than a single day's spike.
Why the almost-cut song is the one that swept a region
Judeline and rusowsky recorded their parts remotely, from different places in Spain, and sent them back just before the tracklist went out. “BbY WOW” also carries writing and production credits for Tainy, Omer Fedi and Andrés Correa, alongside the three performers.
So a song added this late, with two of its three voices recorded from a distance, now leads six Central American countries on both YouTube and Spotify, and Billboard's list of the countries it tops names none of them. Counting by country, a run through one whole region can sit on the charts and still be left out of the headline number.
It's one of several songs on the move this week; we follow what's rising on global music trends and what's new on mymy's own new-release desk.
That is the answer to the odd part. The song almost missed the album because Karol G wasn't sure it worked. What it turned out to do was lead an entire region, plainly on Spotify's and YouTube's country charts and missing from Billboard's tally.
Sources
- Chart positions for “BbY WOW” are Billboard's own, as reported at the time of writing. The count of twelve countries at No. 1, and the six Central American ones absent from Billboard's nine, come from YouTube Music's weekly Top 100, read country by country on 28 September 2026; that chart updates weekly, so the count can move. Spotify's daily country charts, read through kworb.net, have had the song at No. 1 in all six of those countries since early September.
- Karol G's account of nearly cutting the song is her own, from an interview with the Spanish radio network LOS40 in September 2026. The release date, label and writing credits are Wikipedia's, checked against the upload date of the official visualizer on Karol G's YouTube channel.
Corrections
- 3 October 2026: An earlier version said the six Central American countries where the song is No. 1 on YouTube's weekly chart were missing from every official chart. That was wrong: Spotify's daily charts had it at No. 1 in all six from early September. They are missing from Billboard's count of nine. The summary, verdict, a heading and three paragraphs have been changed.
- We also corrected how the song was finished, to match Karol G's interview with LOS40: she wrote it in January with Judeline, later wanted rusowsky on it, and the two recorded their parts remotely. We had said she asked both after a summer of listening to rusowsky and that all three recorded apart, and we had credited the account to Billboard.
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