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Madonna is performing a series of five concerts in Mexico City this week as part of her Celebration Tour, an occasion that the Queen of Pop has taken to reiterate her love for Mexican culture and one of its most iconic figures: the famous painter Frida Kahlo.
“As you know, I have a great history, a long history with Mexico,” the superstar said Saturday night at the Palacio de los Deportes during her performance of “Burning Up,” according to La Razón. “When I was a girl, I discovered Frida Kahlo. I went to the only museum that existed in Detroit, and there were Diego Rivera murals everywhere, but to be honest, I was more interested in a small picture in a corner, of a beautiful woman with her hair gathered in braids and intense eyes.”
Previously, Madonna met with the Kahlo family on Thursday at their home in the city neighborhood of El Pedregal, and wrote an emotional dedication in the guest book expressing she was inspired by the iconic painter, who she considers to be her “soul mate,” reported Mexican newspaper Reforma.
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Just as she’s been doing at different stops on her tour, the Material Girl has had special guests in Mexico during the performance of “Vogue” to judge a handful of dancers in a dance competition. On Saturday, at the first of her shows at the Palacio de los Deportes, she had Mexican comedian Guillermo Rodriguez, known as Jimmy Kimmel’s sidekick on ABC’s late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“When you go to a Madonna concert and she CALLS YOU UP ON STAGE!!!,” says a shared post from Rodriguez and Kimmel on Instagram with a video of the moment in the show.
The second guest was Cuban actor Alberto Guerra, who lives in Mexico. He shared the moment on his social media, along with some snapshots to immortalize the moment. “Thank you Madonna, for giving me the memory of a night that will live forever in my heart,” the actor wrote in English on Instagram.
On Tuesday (April 23), the surprise guest was Mexican influencer Wendy Guevara, a trans actress who won Televisa’s reality show La Casa de los Famosos in 2023, and who was greeted with cheers from the audience when she got onstage. “And a dream come true,” Guevara captioned a photo of her with Madonna on Instagram.
Madonna’s final performances in Mexico City are on Wednesday and Friday. It’s unknown if she will have more guests at press time.
Bobo Producciones, the production and promotion company that for the past few years has produced the successful “90’s Pop Tour” in Mexico and the United States, this week expanded and launched new management, A&R and marketing departments in addition to a record label: Bobo Music.
“We are very excited about everything that is coming this year for our company. We continue to look for opportunities and expand strategically, especially in the Latin market in the United States,” Ari Borovoy tells Bilboard Español. The former member of pop group OV7 — which had its heyday in the 1990s — heads Bobo along with his brother, Jack Borovoy and Sonia Salvador.
For its expansion, the company brought in veteran music industry executives, including Humberto Calderón, who has headed marketing and A&R at BMG and Universal Music; Sabo Romo, the renowned musician, producer and founder of legendary rock band Caifanes; and Eliseo Reyna, who has been a key player in conceiving successful concept albums such as Rock En Tu Idioma and Rock En Tu Idioma Sinfónico.
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“Bobo’s strength and growth in Mexico, the United States, Spain and Latin America will be materialized with our offer of development and consolidation of artists,” says Calderón.
The team aims to develop new projects and expand marketing and production to strengthen the company’s work. Bobo has more than 15 years of experience in musical events and managing Mexican stars including Pedro Fernández, Lupita D’alessio and Sentidos Opuestos, among others.
The company’s most recent success is the 90’s Pop Tour, which last year toured 10 cities in the United States and Mexico, including a stop at Madison Square Garden. The tour has begun its sixth season, featuring Paulina Rubio on four dates, including a May 3 stop in Querétaro and another on May 18 in Mérida. The tour includes a cast of stars from the 90s, such as Caló, The Sacados, Magneto, Kabah, JNS, Ana Torroja, Mercurio and Sentidos Opuestos. In addition to performing their beloved hits that made history in Spanish language music, they also collaborate on new versions with their colleagues.
Blink-182 fans in Mexico held on to hope that the rock band’s bassist, Mark Hoppus, could overcome his health problems and perform the concerts scheduled for this weekend in the capital city. However, the medical diagnosis said otherwise and the cancellation was inevitable: Out of a total of four performances, they were only able to offer one.
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“Dear fans, sadly, Blink-182 shows on April 5 and 6 at Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City have been cancelled due to illness,” said promoter Ocesa in a statement on Friday (April 5), two days after the trio also comprised by Tom DeLonge (vocals and guitar) and Travis Barker (drums), had already canceled one performance after offering an energetic show the previous night (April 2) at the same venue, which represented their long-awaited return to the country after a 20-year absence.
“We don’t take canceling lightly. We know people booked flights, hotels, made plans, got babysitters… We had multiple lengthy discussions all morning within the band, with promoters, managers. We tried moving the date, tried every possible solution, but this is the reality. We appreciate your understanding and support,” Hoppus wrote on his Discord account on Wednesday.
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“For me and my illness, I have seen a doctor here and talked to my doctor back home. I am on multiple medications and have been in bed the past three days except to go to the show, and yesterday I was hoping it was just allergies… Saw docs, was told I had an acute infection in my throat and severe bronchitis. Got on meds immediately with the kind help of the local promoters and have been on treatment,” added the bassist, who fought a battle with cancer in 2021.
Promoter Ocesa said in a statement on Friday that refunds will be issued to ticket-holders of the cancelled shows. They said that for users who bought tickets online the refund will automatically be refunded on the card with which the purchase was made. If the purchase was made at the box office or Ticketmaster centers, refunds can be requested starting Monday (April 8) at the place of purchase.
In mid-2021, Hoppus revealed that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma. Months later, he declared on Instagram that he was “cancer free”. Last weekend, Blink-182 performed at the 2024 Pa’l Norte Festival held in Monterrey, Mexico, in front of an audience of 85,000 in a moment that Hoppus shared on the same social network.
On Monday (April 1), Interpol announced a free concert at Mexico City’s Zócalo slated for April 20. It will be, according to a press release, the biggest show the New York band has ever played in their career.
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“We are absolutely electric with excitement to announce that we will be playing a free concert for our Mexican fans — and fans from all over for that matter — at the Zócalo in the heart of Mexico City on Saturday April 20, 2024,” the band wrote on their social media in both English and Spanish. “It’s a dream for us to be able to perform in such an iconic and historic setting! We are gonna give it some ganas, so be there or be square as they say. More information to follow soon.”
https://twitter.com/Interpol/status/1774851731114905612
The announcement was also made by the government and the secretariat of culture of Mexico City in a press conference and on social networks, causing excitement among fans online. “On Saturday, April 20, the Zócalo welcomes Interpol, a post-punk band formed by Paul Banks, Daniel Kessler and Sam Fogarino,” the post reads. “Come sing iconic songs of this New York band like ‘C’mere’ or ‘Evil’ in the Zócalo.”
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This is the second massive show announced so far this year in the Primer Cuadro of the city, following Mexican-American artist Julieta Venegas’ gig on March 16 to commemorate International Women’s Day, when she drew some 80,000 fans to the venue, according to figures from the capital’s authorities.
Interpol’s show in the Zócalo was a rumor that circulated for at least two years, when the group came to the Mexican capital to promote their 2022 album The Other Side of Make-Believe, and even visited the Museum of Mexico City.
“The concert will be an opportunity for Interpol to give back to their long and dedicated Mexican fan base for their unconditional support over the years,” the band’s press office in Mexico said in a statement, referring to the performance as “the biggest show of their career.”
Mexico City’s Zócalo, where international artists such as Paul McCartney, Rosalía and Roger Waters have performed, is the country’s main public plaza, and the second largest in the world after Tiananmen Square in Beijing. So far, the group with the largest attendance in the Zócalo has been the Argentine band Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, which in June 2023 gathered 300,000 concertgoers, according to official figures, taking the record away from Mexico’s Grupo Firme, who in September 2022 gathered 280,000.
Interpol, the trio formed by Paul Banks (vocals and guitar), Daniel Kessler (bass) and Sam Fogarino (drums), has found its most loyal audience in Mexico. Banks, who lived and studied in the Mexican capital many years ago when his father, a top executive in the automotive sector, was temporarily transferred to Mexico, has talked about the loyalty of the band’s Mexican fans on several occasions.
The “Evil” and “Obstacle 1” musicians have headlined festivals such as Corona Capital Mexico City in 2019 and Corona Capital Guadalajara in 2023. Last year, they participated in The World Is a Vampire festival alongside the Smashing Pumpkins at the Foro Sol in the Mexican capital. A year earlier, they performed a concert at the Palacio de los Deportes to present their album Marauder.
Formed in New York in 1997, Interpol quickly rose to fame with their unique blend of post-punk, shoegaze and dark wave influences. Their debut album, Turn on the Bright Lights (2002), was critically acclaimed, establishing the band as a major force in alternative music. Over the course of their career, Interpol has released seven studio albums, including The Other Side of Make-Believe.
When brothers Oscar and Jesús Flores launched the first-ever of Pa’l Norte in 2012 in Monterrey, Nuevo León — under Apodaca Group, their father Oscar Flores Elizondo‘s entertainment and promotion company — they figured it would be a one-time thing.
“We thought it would happen once, and then we’d just move on with our other projects,” Oscar says. He, along with Jesús and their sister Blanca, comprise the leadership of Apodaca alongside their dad, who founded the company in 1978 as Representaciones Artísticas Apodaca. At the time, the brothers were young executives and, as much as they liked their dad’s business, they wanted to put their own stamp on it. “My brother and I had never produced a festival when we decided to launch Pa’l Norte; fun fact, we had never even attended a festival in our lives,” Oscar says with a chuckle.
But even if it was a one-hit wonder, they wanted to give it a shot in hopes of diversifying the company’s roster of live music events. Apodaca was, and still is, a leader in the regional Mexican scene producing several shows and concerts for that genre in Monterrey, where the company is based. So, the brothers — taking the years of experience they already had working under their father — decided the company’s first festival would be a rock-only lineup. The first edition, Pa’l Norte Rock Festival, a one-day event, featured artists like Calle 13, Carla Morrison, Kinky and Zoé.
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Even with hiccups along the way, including being understaffed and a hailstorm the day before which they thought would cancel the event, they pulled through. And, unlike today, the event didn’t have a lot of support from sponsors, even with the Apodaca name attached to the festival. It was also at a time when the city, located in a state that borders Texas, was recovering from a brutal wave of murders linked to organized crime. Which is not to say Monterrey is a crime-less city today — but although organized crime is still a major concern in the city, it has not affected the festival in its 12 years. Its security plan includes city and state police officers (Fuerza Civil) inside and outside the festival, plus private security.
When Pa’l Norte first launched, Monterrey — an important commercial entry port between the Northeastern region of Mexico and the United States — was also on its way to becoming a modern economic region exploding with tech innovation. “It was like the perfect musical symphony,” says Francisco Orozco, professor at the school of business at the prestigious Tecnológico de Monterrey. “There was a political change in the city that opened doors for these types of events to happen and people gained the confidence and courage to leave their homes again. We proved we weren’t just bullets.”
Three years into the festival, Oscar and his brother dropped the rock-only label because “we wanted to grow and bring more commercial artists,” says Oscar (the festival also adopted the slogan “Siempre Poderoso y Ascendente,” or, “Always Powerful and Ascendant”). They also scored a partnership with concert promoter OCESA, which Live Nation acquired in 2021 for $416 million, doubling down on their efforts to expand their reach. “OCESA has been a great ally that has supported us a lot,” Oscar says. “We are partners in many festivals, but this partnership was key for Pa’l Norte because together with them, we were able to grow in many areas such as sponsorships, international artists.”
The now re-branded Tecate Pa’l Norte — after landing a major sponsorship deal with the beer giant — has gone through massive changes, which has led to its global appeal. “Apodaca has been very meticulous with their alliances, from the beer industry to teaming up with the ministry of tourism to have hotels and transportation available when the festival takes place, [and] also partnering with airline Viva Aerobus for sponsorship,” Orozco says. “It’s a business model that works. They know the importance of allies and that’s why the festival has grown the way it has.”
Today, it’s the “most important musical event in Northern Mexico,” according to Nuevo León’s Ministry of Tourism. “Every year we are talking about more than 75% hotel occupancy derived from Pa’l Norte, but this year will be much more special because it coincides with Easter,” the government agency told Billboard in a statement. “Throughout these 12 years, it has positioned itself not only to impact the creative industries in Nuevo León, but also as one of our most important economic and tourism engines. This year we estimate a revenue of close to 750 million pesos (approximately $46 million U.S.).”
Pa’l Norte’s three-day event now has nine stages that gathers 100,000 people per day at the emblematic Parque Fundidora (before, the capacity was 37,000 when it started at Parque Diego Rivera). Its lineup has evolved from genre-specific to super-eclectic with past headliners including Billie Eilish, Foo Fighters, Caifanes, Maná, Tame Impala, The Killers, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs and 50 Cent. This year’s edition was headlined by Peso Pluma, Blink-182, Imagine Dragons, Maná and Fuerza Regida.
“At the end of the day, promoters are looking to have the most popular acts on their lineup,” says Alan David Robles-Soto, director of the music production program at Tecnólogico de Monterrey. He’s also a guitarist who’s performed alongside Mexican bands like Jumbo and División Minúscula. “It’s the same case with Coachella: it used to be a rock festival and then it wasn’t. It’s in the promoter’s best interest, they want to push sales and the ones who are going to sell are bands like Blink-182.”
Pa’l Norte is perhaps Mexico’s biggest, and most diverse, music festival, though other major events like Vive Latino and EDC Mexico (both produced by OCESA in Mexico City) also move significant tickets: The former had a total of 160,000 attendees this year, while EDC Mexico had 200,000 people in attendance for its 2023 edition. Meanwhile, the Machaca festival, also in Monterrey, gathered 65,000 last year, according to local reports, and the Baja Beach Fest in Baja California (which went from six days to three) draws in a daily capacity of 35,000.
“The importance that Mexico has in Latin America in terms of income in the sub-sector of live music is noteworthy,” Orozco says. “Artists are not only performing in Mexico City or Monterrey but also in other states where we did not imagine artists would go. They understood that people are willing to spend a lot of money for these experiences. Geographically and logistically, the country, which borders the U.S., is in a very important spot for them as well.”
Producing more than 600 shows a year, including 15 festivals across the country, Apodaca now has several divisions under its umbrella, including booking, distribution and management. With Pa’l Norte, the goal is only to become more global and, in the future, Oscar hopes to add a streaming option to expand its reach and potentially turn it into a two-weekend event, à la Coachella. For now, he’s pleased with the festival’s growth over the past 12 years and the impact it’s had on the Mexican state.
“As citizens of Nuevo León, we are very proud that Pa’l Norte is a source of work for restaurants, hotels, taxi drivers during that week,” says Oscar. “At the festival, we have more than 10,500 people working per day; generating that number of jobs fills us with pride. We want to keep impacting. The slogan says it all [always powerful and ascending].”
After a decade-long absence, Jumbo, a cornerstone of Latin alternative rock, are making their return to the U.S. stage, joining forces with genre peers División Minúscula. Their much-anticipated comeback follows years of setbacks due to a “critical error” that led to visa complications, preventing them from touring stateside despite the release of three albums brimming with tour-worthy material.
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Now, armed with renewed vigor and passion, the Mexican rock band — consisting of frontman Clemente Castillo, guitarist Jorge “Flip” Tamez, bassist Carlos Castro, drummer Alberto Ramos, and producer Iñigo Rizo — are ready to captivate audiences once again as they crisscross the United States, hitting major cities from coast to coast. Promoted by Live Nation, the tour kicks off in Chicago on April 17, followed by a show in New York City the next day. The tour route includes stops in Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, and culminates in Houston, Texas on August 14.
Celebrating 25 years since the release of their debut album, Restaurant, in 1999, Jumbo’s significance extends beyond mere longevity. This album not only marked a milestone in the band’s career but also played a pivotal role in shaping the Mexican music scene of its time, particularly the musical boom known as La Avanzada Regia scene of that era in Monterrey.
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“The grand merit of that generation was to be able to break [barriers] and show that in a city where there was no music scene suddenly thundered and became so big,” Flip (real name Jorge Tamez Chapa) tells Billboard Español. “Plastilina Mosh was nothing like Zurdok, which was nothing like La Flor de Lingo, or Niña, or Kinky. Unconsciously we valued being original, and I think that created a very rich movement. Thirty years later it is beginning to be romanticized a lot. I feel very proud to be from that generation”.
Jumbo. Photo Credit: Juan Rodrigo Llaguno
Juan Rodrigo Llaguno
“División Minúscula and Jumbo are two bands with different backgrounds but equally important in the alternative rock genre. They belong to an era that defined many fans on both sides of the border,” adds Manuel Moran, vp of Latin touring at Live Nation. “We are proud to be part of this great celebration and we are very grateful for the trust they have placed in us to surprise their fans in the United States with a comeback tour and an unexpected collaboration like this one.”
Jumbo’s latest release, Manual De Viaje A Un Lugar Lejano (En Directo), earned them a Latin Grammy nomination for best pop/rock album in 2019, further solidifying their status as stalwarts of the Latin alternative rock scene.
In this interview, Flip delves into the band’s journey, from the highs of success to the challenges they’ve faced along the way, shedding light on their experiences and aspirations for the future. And yes, he explains why they could not enter the U.S. for over a decade.
What does it mean for you to take the stage again in the United States, and how did the opportunity to collaborate with División Minúscula for this tour come up?
We are very happy to tour the United States and celebrate 25 years of our career. We had an issue, a very serious mistake we made that kept us away from the United States for more than ten years. During the first albums Restaurant (1999), D.D. y Ponle Play (2001), and Teleparque (2003), we had great tours over there. We were building a market early in our career. Saúl Hernández from Jaguares invited us to be openers along with Julieta Venegas and La Gusana Ciega. I remember they were incredible tours, and suddenly there’s this break.
Many years went by — and fortunately we managed to overcome this — and now we have the opportunity to share the stage with División Minúscula. Although they are from Matamoros, most of them have been living here in Monterrey for many years. They are very good friends. It’s the first time we do a tour as such and we are very happy; I think it’s going to be very fun.
Jumbo. Photo Credit: Juan Rodrigo Llaguno
Juan Rodrigo Llaguno
As you celebrate these 25 years, what do you consider has been the key to staying together as a band?
It’s very difficult. The other day I read a report by Sting that said, “I don’t think any grown man can be in a band.” He said it had to do with this youth gang dynamic that gets a little lost as you get older. And you notice that the relationship does change — you change as a person, you are no longer that youth [from before] — but I think we are still united by the desire to make music.
Jumbo is a band that from day one, we set out to make songs that would go beyond the barrier of time. We were never very attached to any fashion — although when we came out, we sounded like what was going on in the early 2000s. In our journey, we have seen many things come and go. We’ve had to change formats, first digital, then streaming. Many things have happened to us that I think the love of making music has brought us back into alignment. Fortunately, we have never fought or disrespected each other, but we have an admiration for each of the members.
And although at times we do have different artistic goals and visions, it always ends up falling in the same place. Many of us in the band are producers of other projects, we have other activities, but all related to music. As long as there are people who lend us their ears, there is no reason to stop. The 25 years was a number that hit us like a motherf–ker. It’s a great reason to celebrate.
Being one of the pioneers of La Avanzada Regia movement in Monterrey, how do you see the impact of this movement on today’s music, and what do you think has been your most significant contribution to this legacy?
I always say that I’m very proud to be from that generation. I grew up playing in many bands, and it didn’t cross my mind to dedicate myself professionally to this, or to be signed by a record label or go on tour. And suddenly the scene was big enough, the Monterrey scene. There were like 10 to 15 bands playing in four or five places, and the rest was the audience. This is before the internet — I mean, we took our flyers to the show and handed them out to perform the following week.
La Avanzada, we were very united as bands; there was the same hunger to go out and dream, to take this to the next level. Monterrey, being the industrial capital of the country, had a very rigid scheme of opportunities. You had to study, work in one of the big companies, and make your life. It was very difficult to dream of a profession outside those schemes. The great merit of that generation was to be able to break [barriers] and demonstrate that in a city where there was no professional music scene it could become so big, and in a few years permeate the Latin market so strongly.
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When Control Machete came out, it a huge boom that the rest of Latin America turned to see what was happening in Monterrey. They were looking for a hip-hop movement, but they found something very different. Plastilina Mosh was nothing like Zurdok, which was nothing like La Flor de Lingo, or Niña, or Kinky. Unconsciously we valued very much being original, not looking like anybody else and I think that created a very rich movement. Thirty years later this scene is beginning to be romanticized a lot.
What’s next after the tour? Any final thoughts?
One goal that we had for many years was to get back to the United States in some way. I think the next thing after this tour is to get into the studio. There are no concrete plans yet.
I’ll tell you the anecdote so that there is no mystery; I think it’s something that new [foreign] bands learn from. We made the very serious mistake of going to a show with a tourist visa. The work visa has a shorter amount of time. It happens to [foreign] bands that the work visa has a short period of time. Suddenly there is an isolated show, and even though we had an arrangement with the promoter that could be for promotion, we got too close to the line and fell into a problem. So, it doesn’t matter if you’re going to play a free show, it doesn’t matter if you’re going to tour very casually. Playing in the U.S. is work, and that cost us to stay away for many years. If it’s any moral for bands, don’t make that mistake. We learned the hard way and fortunately we are back.
We are really excited. We had a hard time having three albums and not being able to tour there. So we bring all that accumulated energy and we are sure you will notice it in the shows.
Check out Jumbo and División Minúscula’s full tour dates below, second slide:
Mexican music director and producer Lynn Fainchtein, known for her work as music supervisor on films such as Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores Perros and Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, died on Friday (March 1) at the age of 59 in Madrid, Spain, where she lived, informed the record label Casete, which she co-founded.
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A cause of death has not been disclosed; a spokesperson for Casete told Billboard Español that he had no information at this time. An outpouring of messages of condolences from musicians, cultural institutions, filmmakers, journalists, actors and personalities of the music and film industry in Mexico flooded social networks during the early hours of Friday, when news of her passing broke.
“Rest in peace Lynn Fainchtein, a beacon of light and music. May the best soundtrack always accompany you,” said Alejandra Frausto, Mexico’s Secretary of Culture, on her X account.
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“‘Que Viva Mexico’ forever with your musical supervision, dear Lynn Fainchtein. In ‘Roma,’ ‘Babel,’ with ‘Abel,’ or with ‘Precious,’ ‘Los adioses’ (or goodbyes) are always sad,” wrote the Filmoteca de la UNAM, using titles of films in which the artist worked.
Fainchtein studied psychology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), but for more than three decades, she served as an innovative broadcaster, film, radio and television producer.
In her early days, she worked as an announcer for the local Mexico City station Rock 101, where she met Mexican filmmaker Iñárritu, who was then working in advertising and voice-overs. Eventually, she became one of his closest collaborators in his award-winning film career.
With Iñárritu, she worked as music supervisor on all of his films, including the Oscar-nominated (and/or Oscar-winning) Bardo, The Revenant, Birdman, Biutiful, Babel, 21 Grams and Amores Perros.
“Alejandro always starts working on the music when he is almost finished with the script. For him, music is as important as production, art, wardrobe, makeup. He is a director who works on music a long time before and takes it as a very important part of his projects,” said Fainchtein in an interview with Billboard Español in December 2022.
In 2018, she served as music supervisor for Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, winner of the Golden Lion at the 75th Venice International Film Festival and Academy Awards for best director, best foreign language film and best cinematography.
In 2022, Cuarón invited Lynn to oversee and create the music for his first television series for Apple TV+, Augustus, which would premiere this year, starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline and Sacha Baron Cohen, according to her official website.
She was head of programming and news producer for MTV LATAM until 2000. In 2012 she co-founded the independent record label Casete with musician and producer Camilo Lara, Héctor Reyes Guevara and Paco Arraigada.
As music supervisor and producer, she participated in numerous films and shows for Netflix, HBO, Amazon, Apple, Fox and Star+, among many other studios. She also collaborated regularly with La Corriente del Golfo, the production company founded by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, where she supervised the music for Abel, Déficit, J.C. Chávez and Mr. Pig.
Among her other major projects are David France’s Oscar-nominated documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, Patricia Riggen’s The 33, Luis Estrada’s ¡Qué Viva México, La Dictadura Perfecta and El infierno, as well as Jonás Cuarón’s most recent film, Chupa, released on Netflix in 2023.
Last year, Fainchtein supervised the music for Perdidos en la Noche, by fellow award-winning Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
“La Reina del Sur” will be heard again in Europe with the arrival of Los Tigres del Norte in Spain on April 4, when the “Jefes de Jefes” return to the country after 14 years as part of a tour that will take them to Madrid, Barcelona and Pamplona. The first show will be at the capital’s Wizink Center, with capacity for more than 17,000 people. They will also perform for the first time in England, at the Eventim Apollo in London, 10 days later.
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After 55 years since their formation, the icons of norteño music maintain a solid, current career, releasing new music and touring constantly throughout the U.S., Mexico, Central and South America. Their current tour, Siempre Contigo, began on February 2 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California and will keep them busy for most of 2024. It is something they do with the best attitude towards their fans.
“Love must always be present in everything you do,” says Jorge Hernández, frontman of Los Tigres. “The most important thing is to be honest with your audience.”
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With hits including “La Puerta Negra,” “Contrabando y Traición,” “Jefes de Jefes,” the Billboard Hot Latin Songs No. 1s “El Acaudalado Mojado” and “El Circo,” and many others, Los Tigres del Norte — who have seen many musical trends come and go over the years — are pioneers of traditional corridos, with the authority that time, accolades and fans have conferred on them.
In an interview with Billboard Español, Hernández spoke about the key to their longevity, his opinion on the new artists who are globalizing música mexicana, their return to Spain and upcoming projects.
Why did it take you so long to return to Spain?
In 2001 we started going to Spain every year and a half, or every other year. Then we were going to release an album and go there before the pandemic, but in the end it couldn’t be scheduled. Now that everything has been falling into place, promoters from Europe called us and the tour was finalized. It begins on April 4 in Madrid and ends on the 14th in London.
Will you have musical guests at the concerts in Spain?
We want to invite several female artists to sing with us. We’ll tell you who they are soon.
At a crucial time for regional Mexican music, it is important to perform in as many places as possible.
That’s right. The work that other colleagues have done has great validity for us and we all have to take advantage and be present so that our music takes this boom full force for which we have fought so hard for a long time.
In fact, we plan to record several videos of our upcoming singles there.
You travel thousands of miles every year to entertain your fans in different countries. How do you prepare physically and mentally to live constantly on the road?
There is always a discipline. Above all, taking care of your health, sleeping the necessary hours, taking care of your body, taking care of how you live. Always go on stage consciously to have the respect of the audience. You must do this from the beginning of your career for it to last. You must be prepared so that vices don’t win over you. All of this is part of taking care that your path is as clean as possible.
The music of Los Tigres del Norte is already part of the Mexican culture. What do you think of the new trends?
Trends will always exist because they are part of the growth of music. I give as an example a tree that has many branches: Norteño music is the base and there are musical currents that come and go over time, different styles, but in the end everything goes back to normal because the essence or base is solid. Young people look for what gives them joy, music to have fun, and there are artists for everyone.
There are young artists who prefer traditional norteño music. Any in particular that you like?
They all deserve our love and respect. I couldn’t name any single name. For me, music is all of us who make up this union. We all work with the same goal: To be relevant.
And what has been the key for Los Tigres del Norte to remain relevant?
The most important thing is persistence. Love must always be present in everything you do, you must be in love with your work. The honesty with which you do your work. One of the main things to stay relevant is to finalize your plans, not leave them halfway. But the most important thing is to be honest with your audience.
You’ve been to some South American countries, but there are many that are still waiting for you.
We have constantly gone to Colombia, to Bolivia, we were recently in Chile. Now we are going to take the tour to Argentina, Peru, Paraguay, which are the countries we were missing.
Will there be any collaborations with other artists this year?
Yes, there will be collaborations. Our label, Fonovisa Records/Universal Music, has some options for us that we will be reviewing. We will have several surprises this year.
RBD will end a long-awaited reunion that took 15 years to come to fruition on Thursday (Dec. 21), a tour that took the famous Mexican pop group through stadiums and arenas in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and the United States for more than 50 dates. The Soy Rebelde Tour was a successful journey that surprised everyone, including its members, who never imagined what their music represented for millions of people.
“It’s beautiful,” band member Maite Perroni tells Billboard Español. “Now we see children who get excited and sing, who are the children of our fans. They make their parents come to the concerts because they want to be part of that history.”
The end of this cycle for Anahí, Dulce María, Christian Chávez, Maite Perroni and Christopher von Uckermann — which began in August in El Paso, Texas — will be at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, a forum for over 80,000 people that has welcomed icons such as Vicente Fernández, Madonna and U2. Previously, RBD filled the Foro Sol for six nights starting November 30, attracting a total of 390,000 fans, according to promoter Ocesa.
While the Soy Rebelde Tour, produced by Live Nation and T6H Entertainment, became the second most lucrative tour by any Latin artist in 2023 (only behind Karol G’s Mañana Será Bonito,) the impact generated by the reunion of RBD and its fans is huge at a time when reggaeton and regional Mexican music dominate the streaming platforms.
Five (of six) returning members sat down together in an exclusive cover interview with Billboard Español shortly before hitting the road, and Perroni recounts what returning to the stage with her colleagues has meant for her and the group.
What assessment do you make of this long-awaited RBD reunion? What has been the most surprising thing about it all?
It has been very nice to meet again with so many people who have been part of our history for so many years now, 20 years, which is easy to say, but there’s a lot of loyalty, love, affection. It has been a great surprise to meet new generations — is no longer just one generation, it’s three generations! All of this has made me come to the conclusion that RBD is that powerful, loving, positive energy that moves the project. We have simply become the vocalists, the representatives of what this group is, but the truth is that the magnitude, the strength, the power, the energy, the love, the dedication, have been given to us by the audience. And we realize that RBD is today and always.
What has been the main achievement of this reunion?
That we managed to make history! That is something that was questioned in the past because RBD is a project that came out of a TV show (Rebelde,) a pop group, one of those that already existed in the world. They told us that pop music is easy, that pop bands disappeared easily, and many of us were classified in that place, and also for a long time we received, within the industry, from other colleagues, singers, songwriters, criticism, ridicule, parodies. And despite that we moved forward, building what RBD was. We believed in Rebelde and what we did. And the most beautiful thing is to see that 20 years later our history transcends to another place and that we can feel very proud that this went down in history within Latin music, pop music, and that is thanks to the people.
What was the biggest challenge?
RBD has been a project that has filled us with challenges, with many emotions, a lot of commitment. For me, RBD is more than a group of artists; for me we are brothers and sisters, with our defects and our qualities, with our good and our bad things. We love each other and understand each other. Regardless of that, for me, it has represented being able to balance three worlds: The first one with my baby, my family unit to join this dynamic; two months after my daughter was born we were already flying to Los Angeles to get to the tour rehearsals and to join a tour of almost five months and my husband’s support has been fundamental for me.
On the other hand, and it is something very personal but very important to me, is that in a very short period I had to be on stage, after giving birth, with many extra pounds on me, I had to be on a stage where there were many emotions, hopes and a lot of love, but with a very large magnifying glass to see how you look and what you do — you’re pregnant, you’re fat, you’re skinny, if you didn’t make it — and say, “I don’t care what they say, I don’t care what happens. I am on a stage sharing and being able to carry this.”
What difficulties did you encounter in this process?
The first thing was to commit ourselves in a much more adult way to our project, to commit ourselves to creating a company, a society, to get involved from the administrative and the legal side, and to make decisions that were decisive so that we could continue our tour, take the reins of our history, do things the right way. But I can say that today I leave with my heart full, knowing that the effort was worth it — RBD is worth it — and that together we will always be better and stronger.
What’s in RBD’s future?
The reality is that our last concert is on December 21st. We have hopes, desires. It has been beautiful! Of course the hope of being able to continue building something together remains. We’ll see what destiny and life have in store for us; we don’t know today. We are in a different process, in this closing cycle, finishing this tour in Mexico, at the Estadio Azteca, very excited and tremendously grateful.
Two years after the death of Vicente Fernández, his grandson Alex Fernández wanted to remember him in a special way: with a song that reflects all the feelings of the loss of his greatest ally. Let’s not forget that it was his “Tata,” as all his grandchildren called the ranchera legend, who convinced Alex to dedicate himself professionally to music and put his work team at his disposal — and even got Sony Music Mexico to sign the young singer.
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“Mi Abuelo Vino a Visitarme” (meaning “My Grandfather Came to Visit Me”) was written by Francisco El Gallo Elizalde and Jonathan Vizcarra, and produced by Colombian Yohan Usuga, who got to work with Vicente Fernández. “He told me ‘I didn’t want to leave you, but I don’t want to see you sad/ Remember that your father is there and you promised to take care of him’/ Suddenly I threw myself into his arms and meeting his gaze/ I confessed to him in a low tone, ‘I’m missing you so much’,” Alex sings with gut-wrenching emotion in Spanish over mariachi backing.
The song is accompanied by a music video, directed by Christian Schmid, that was filmed at the legendary Rancho Los 3 Potrillos — owned by the Fernández family outside Guadalajara, Mexico, next to the tomb of the man who remains the greatest singer of ranchera music. The sepia-colored atmosphere and the performance of the youngest member of the singing dynasty resulted in emotional scenes.
“I did it the way he deserves, with his team, and the way I think he would have liked it,” Fernández tells Billboard Español. The visual premieres today (Dec. 12) at 7:00 p.m. ET and can be viewed here:
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The 30-year-old artist has had a busy schedule this year, with solo performances as well as collaborations with his father, Mexican music star Alejandro Fernández. Alex is already working on his third studio album, still untitled, which he plans to release in mid-2024, and which he says will include several collabs, one with his father. Below, he talks with Billboard Español about that upcoming album, and about paying tribute to his legendary grandfather.
Was “Mi Abuelo Vino a Visitarme” a tailor-made track or a song sent to you for the occasion?
I wanted to pay homage to my grandfather but also to have a song dedicated for grandparents; I already wrote one for my father, but in general, nobody writes for those wonderful beings. El Gallo Elizalde sent it to me, he penned it for his father and I liked it very much, but I asked him to adapt it for my grandfather.
Filming by your grandfather’s grave must have been very special.
In the video, we recorded several places on the ranch that were very special to my grandfather, and we included many things that he liked. Every moment was emotional, every detail was taken care of to make a tribute as he deserved.
Was your grandfather’s team closely involved in this project?
Absolutely. My grandfather’s team is also my team — it’s the one I started with — so I wanted to do things the way he would have liked. I wanted to make it very traditional Mexican. I wanted it to be with few instruments, the voice, a guitar and an accordion, with a charro costume, to wear it with a lot of pride and respect.
Alex Fernández, Vicente Fernández and Alejandro Fernández perform onstage during the 20th annual Latin GRAMMY Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on November 14, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
What do you think of the musical changes that have taken place lately in regional Mexican music?
I understand that there must be changes in some things, but I do believe that what is truly traditional, the Mexican music of yesteryear, has been lost. It is good to do new things, but it is necessary to return to the roots.
What’s coming musically in 2024 for Alex Fernández?
Personally I will start the year with the arrival of my new baby [to be named Nirvana], plus a new album in which we will include mariachi, of course, a little bit of country, banda music and different sounds. I want to experiment musically and now I want to do a lot of collaborations. In fact, I am about to record one with my father and I have also talked with Natalia Jiménez. I will start releasing the singles in February. Next year we will combine shows with a lot of promotion and thus continue advancing in my career and improving myself.
