'Hispanic Rewind 2023': the “piquito” of Rubiales, #Barbenheimer, Shakira and Bizarrap in the viral summary video with the memes of the year

Between 2010 and 2019, the video platform YouTube celebrated its most viewed publications of the year in a compilation video titled YouTube Rewind. There was hardly any presence in Spanish, except, sporadically, for ElRubius, Luzu, YellowMellow and a few others. The pandemic caused this Christmas tradition of the virtual community to disappear, but years before an alternative in Spanish had already emerged, promoted by Valencian Alec Hernandez, whose channel has more than 3.15 million subscribers. It is title Hispanic Rewind. AND is still alive in 2023.

This recording reviews the best of the year on the internet, its social networks and platforms, in an ambitious production of almost 30 minutes. 70 well-known content creators in Spanish have participated in it, such as DjMaRiiO, TheGrefg, Illojuan, Auronplay, Jordi Wild, Gemita, Lluna Clark and Perxita, among others. This time, the compilation video has been financed through three sponsors, a brand of snacks spicy foods, an online bank and a beer brand. Alec Hernández claims to have exceeded the budget higher than that of previous years, which is why he has spent more than 200,000 euros to record it. In its first six days of publication, the video has achieved eight million views on YouTube and has generated countless related contents, which have also accumulated millions of views.

“For YouTube, the United States is the center of the world, as is the case in many other sectors. I thought about what we could do to make this tradition something more ours. It is a way of vindicating the Spanish and Latin community, which generates an enormous number of visits to platforms globally,” Alec Hernández says this Thursday in a telematic conversation from Valencia.

With a clear cinematographic vocation, this year's memory refers to viral moments born on Twitter, TikTok, Twitch, Instagram and YouTube itself that have transcended the entire society. There are references to the aforementioned Session 53 from Shakira and Bizarrap singing to the Colombian's breakup with the soccer player Gerard Piqué, to the controversial kiss of Luis Rubiales to Jenni Hermoso at the World Cup, to the surreal comments of David Bisbal and #Barbenheimer, the unexpected and ironic marriage of two very different films from each other, Barbie and Oppenheimer, released this summer on the same weekend. Two new urban music stars also stand out: Peso Pluma and Quevedo; blockbusters of fantastic and horror cinema, such as Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Five Nights at Freddy's; sports phenomena such as The evening of the year organized by Ibai Llanos; and many video games, Counter Strike 2 and Zelda to Call of Duty and Fortnite.

This year's proposal, filmed in 16 locations in Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Andorra, Teruel and Mexico, is inspired by the action genre and the film saga kingsman, reproducing one of its most spectacular scenes. With these annual videos, Alec Hernández seeks to promote the activity of the company DHC FILMS, founded by his brother David and with which he already records advertisements. And “demonstrate the potential of the production company and make it a catapult for it to scale to larger productions in film or series,” he admits. Thats why he Hispanic Rewind This time it has a plot thread. And a lot of self-parody. In this short 27-minute fiction, Hernández himself is kidnapped by the YouTube community that, angered by previous editions of the video, has reached the limit of his patience. The youtubers They choose to create a computer with Artificial Intelligence, in charge of making this year's compilation. This AI, which shows its identity through a robot called ROB, absorbs all digital content creators to generate the long-awaited video.

Hate on networks is one of the main themes of this year and from which the video has not been able to escape since it premiered on December 22. One of the main criticisms from users has been the lack of representation of Latin America in an initiative that calls itself Hispanic. Hernández explains that last year he traveled to Mexico and formed a team that would be in charge of filming each year with content creators from all over the continent. He admits to having brought together fewer names in the final montage than he would have liked, due to the “complication of resolving the enormous distances by summoning them in person in a Mexican studio.”

The pre-production phase of Hispanic Rewind 2023 It began in mid-September, while recording began in October and ended in November. More than 50 technical professionals have passed through it, and 100 VFX artists have worked in post-production, according to the production company. Managing the egos of so many internet stars together is one of the most complicated parts of this end-of-year video, its creator admits. “They are colleagues, but not friends. Content creators have their conflicts among themselves, as happens in any competitive sector, such as Formula 1 or tennis,” says Hernández.

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