Tropical Airplay is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks the top-performing songs (regardless of genre or language) on tropical radio stations in the United States, based on weekly airplay data compiled by Nielsen's Broadcast Data Systems.
The first number one of the year was "No Quiero Na' Regala'o" by Gilberto Santa Rosa, which had been in the top spot since the issue dated December 21, 1996, and spent a total of three weeks at this position.
[3] It was succeeded by Grupo Manía's song "Linda Eh", which remained on top of the chart for four weeks.
[4][5] Negrón spent 12 weeks at number one and "Inolvidable" was named the best-performing track of the year on the Tropical Airplay chart by the magazine.
[6] Brenda K. Starr achieved her first chart-topper with a salsa cover of Myriam Hernández's ballad "Herida".