Leila Cobo

Leila Cobo is a Colombian television show host, a novelist, a pianist, and a journalist. She is noted for her coverage of Latin music and for the past 12 years has been the executive director of Latin content and programming for Billboard. Cobo also contributes frequently to magazines like Latina and Poder and speaks frequently at conferences and universities around the world. Prior to Billboard, she was the pop music critic for the Miami Herald. Cobo has written two novels and is currently working on two books on the Latin music industry for Penguin books.

Personal life

Cobo was born in Cali, Colombia. She earned a bachelor's degree in Journalism from Bogota's Javeriana University. She got her second degree in piano performance from Manhattan School of Music in New York and concertized extensively for several years in her native country, performing as a soloist with Colombia's Symphony Orchestra (Orquesta Sinfonica de Colombia), Orquesta Sinfonica de Antioquia in Medellin and Orquesta Sinfonica del Valle in Cali. She was also featured multiple times in Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango's concert series, performing as a soloist and in chamber groups. Cobo later obtained a Fulbright Scholarship and obtained a degree in Communication management from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California.