Grupo Firme
Saturday night (Aug. 26) will go down in Grupo Firme‘s history as the group set a new record at the Feria Nacional Potosina with 300,000 fans in attendance at their concert, according to figures provided by the Coordinación Estatal de Protección Civil in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The numbers also represent a new record for the group, which in 2022 gathered around 250,000 people in Mexico City’s Zócalo.
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However, what will remain etched in the memory of fans aside from the music is that frontman Eduin Caz shocked followers with a revelation about his health. In the last year, Caz underwent cancer surgery after suffering from Barrett’s esophagus, a condition associated with an increased risk of developing esophageal cancer.
“I gathered the best doctors, God bless, and I had the surgery,” Caz said. “I never revealed it because I don’t like to be looked at like, ‘Oh, poor thing.’ But I just had a study done and I’m doing great.”
“He had a tumor and they removed it, a sign that we beat the cancer,” Vicente Zambrano, Grupo Firme’s publicist, clarified to Billboard Español on Monday (Aug. 28).
On July 30, Caz announced on social media as he celebrated his 30th birthday while touring in Costa Rica that once the trip was over he would take a break from his career but the group would remain intact. He did not specify the reason or how long he would take but said it was a personal matter.
“I lost many things that are not coming back. The truth is that I balance out everything I have lived through, and honestly, that was how things had to happen,” he said at the time. “But I think I need to go back to putting myself first, and to feel good about myself.”
Grupo Firme’s temporary hiatus comes at the conclusion of its Hay Que Conectarla stadium tour, which began April 15 in Washington, D.C., and traveled through 13 cities across the U.S. The stint continued through Central America on July 14 in Guatemala through El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
On Aug. 5, they performed at the Estadio Atanasio Girardot in Medellín, Colombia, for their only show in that country, where they had Maluma as their guest to perform the song “Cada Quien,” one of the many successful collaborations with which Grupo Firme helped put the regional Mexican genre on the global map.
On the Billboard charts, Grupo Firme reached No. 3 on Latin Airplay with “Que Onda Perdida” with Gerardo Coronel, which also topped the Regional Mexican Airplay chart for three weeks in July. Most recently, “El Amor De Su Vida” landed on the Billboard Global 200, where it debuted and peaked at No. 60 on the Aug. 19 chart.
On Oct. 5, Grupo Firme will compete for the Billboard Latin Music Award for tour of the year. To see the full list of 2023 finalists, click here.
Grupo Firme reached a historic milestone by packing the iconic Foro Sol in Mexico City seven times, bringing together an audience of 455,000, according to figures from Mexican promoter Ocesa.
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The shows were part of Firme’s successful 2022-23 Enfiestados y Amanecidos Tour. Their last concert at the venue was Saturday (March 11), when 65,000 people shows up, according to organizers.
“So far, the Mexican regional group is the only one to pull out seven concerts at Foro Sol as part of the same tour,” Ocesa told Billboard Español.
Foro Sol, part of the legendary Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, headquarters of Formula 1 in Mexico, is a stadium that has hosted some of the most important musical events in the country, including concerts by legends such as U2, Coldplay, Guns N’ Roses and the late British rock star David Bowie, who in 1997 was chosen as the opening act of this venue with his Earthling World Tour.
Since its creation in 2013, Grupo Firme has established itself as one of the most cherished Mexican regional bands, not only due to their music but also to its style and charisma.
Their songs, which combine the tradition of the genre with elements of pop and urban music, have become huge hits in Mexico, the U.S. and beyond. Titles like “El Tóxico,” “Ya Supérame” and “Cada Quien,” to name a few, have appeared on the Billboard charts.
Among their multiple achievements, the band has sold shows in a matter of minutes.
Grupo Firme has also been credited with having gathered the largest audience for a free concert in Mexico City’s Zócalo last September: 280,000 people, according to the municipal authorities.
According to their representatives, these achievements “generate great expectations regarding a new U.S. tour in cities they have never visited before, so that all their fans can enjoy their greatest hits live.”
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