See Why Carin Leon Made Google’s 2022 Year in Search List

Google’s Year in Search list has been released, spotlighting some of the most-searched lyrics, phrases, recipes and more of 2022. Many Latinos in the U.S. were not only scouting for Bad Bunny lyrics and “where is Rosalia from?,” but they were also curious about Carin León’s “La boda del Huitlacoche.” 

“¿Qué es un Huitlacoche?” (what is Huitlacoche) is among the top 10 most-searched terms of this year, following “¿Qué es monotonía?” in reference to Shakira and Ozuna’s heartfelt bachata. 

According to León, “huitlacoche” is corn fungus, but there’s also a bird called Cuitlacoche, which he attributes to his song. “Basically the story is that two birds get married: The Huitlacoche and the Urraca,” León’s representative tells Billboard.

“La boda del Huitlacoche” is a famed Mexican song first recorded in 1998 by Los Broncos de Reynosa. León dropped his playful version alongside the Hermosillo-based group Los Honorables in December 2020. This year, the song picked up virality on social media, earning more than 250K video creations on TikTok. 

“This song is well known in Culiacan, Sinaloa, and it’s more like Regionalism,” León previously said on Live With Billboard Latin. “Hence that not-so-polished live sound — we wanted to give it a more folkloric sound to remember our culture.” 

In July, the track reached the top 10 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart, skyrocketing with a 21-9 sprint. The song also earned the Greatest Gainer honor assisted by a 97% increase in audience impressions, to 4.37 million, and debuted at No. 27 on Latin Airplay, becoming Leon’s highest debut among seven chart entries.