regional Mexican
At the end of last year, Bobby Pulido announced his retirement from music to pursue a career in politics starting in 2026. But the norteño-tejano music icon still has much to offer.
In an exclusive interview with Billboard Español, Pulido reveals that he has signed with Fonovisa/Universal for a double album and an additional new project he’ll release before officially closing his chapter as a singer.
“I wanted something special with my friends, something where I could invite the people I admired and respected,” Pulido explains about Bobby Pulido & Friends – Una Tuya y Una Mía, the title of the set that will kick off this partnership. “Normally, it’s customary for guests to sing the other person’s songs, but in this case, I wanted it to be one of mine and one of theirs.”
The recording took place in December 2024 during the Mexican-American singer’s performances at the Auditorio Cumbres in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, where he was joined by guests such as Alicia Villarreal, Bronco, Kinky, Caloncho, Majo Aguilar and David Bisbal, among other stars.
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The concept will begin to unfold on April 22 with the release of Pulido’s hit “Desvelado” in a duet with Bisbal. Two days later, a norteño-tejano version of the Bisbal’s song “Dígale” will be available on streaming platforms.
Antonio Silva, managing director of Fonovisa Disa US & México, tells Billboard Español: “For the team and personally for me, having worked with him at the start of his career, it’s very emotional to reunite at such a special moment, working on a product that represents the legacy of a lifetime of success.”
The first part of Bobby Pulido & Friends – Una Tuya y Una Mía includes 14 songs that will be released in pairs on a weekly basis, starting on April 22 and continuing until May 30. Starting June 17, the 16 songs of the second set will begin to launch, concluding on Aug. 7.
L to R: Antonio Silva (managing director Fonovisa-Disa US/México), Bobby Pulido, Alfredo Delgadillo (CEO & president, Universal Music México/US), José Luis Cornejo (manager Bobby Pulido)
Fonovisa/Universal
Born in Edinburg, Texas, Pulido — the performer of hits like “Se Murió de Amor,” “Le Pediré” and “Ojalá Te Animes” — belongs to a successful subgenre of regional Mexican music that emerged in the mid-’90s and includes groups like Intocable, La Firma, El Plan, and Duelo — all U.S.-born with Mexican roots. “We made our own music by blending cultures. I feel very honored to have represented this movement for so many years and to mentor new generations,” Pulido adds. “I’m happy with what I’ve achieved in my career. I never wanted to be just the artist of the moment.”
In addition to the double set, Pulido is preparing a studio album for next year, aiming to leave new music for his fans before running for an unspecified public office in Texas.
Fans will still have the chance to see Pulido live throughout 2025 during his Por La Puerta Grande Tour, which kicks off on April 25 in San Antonio, Texas. The trek includes a show on Aug. 9 at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City. For more dates and details, click here.
Billboard Women in Music 2025
The U.S. State Department has canceled the work and tourist visas of the members of Mexican corrido group Los Alegres del Barranco after they displayed images of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” during a concert on Saturday (March 29) at an auditorium at the University of Guadalajara.
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The news was confirmed on Tuesday (April 1) by Christopher Landau, the Deputy Secretary of State, in a post on X.
I’m a firm believer in freedom of expression, but that doesn’t mean that expression should be free of consequences. A Mexican band, “Los Alegres del Barranco,” portrayed images glorifying drug kingpin “El Mencho” — head of the grotesquely violent CJNG cartel — at a recent concert… pic.twitter.com/neSIib7EC4— Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau (@DeputySecState) April 2, 2025
“I’m a firm believer in freedom of expression, but that doesn’t mean that expression should be free of consequences,” wrote Landau in his post. “A Mexican band, Los Alegres del Barranco, portrayed images glorifying drug kingpin “El Mencho” — head of the grotesquely violent CJNG cartel — at a recent concert in Mexico. I’m pleased to announce that the State Department has revoked the band members’ work and tourism visas. In the Trump Administration, we take seriously our responsibility over foreigners’ access to our country. The last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists.”
The State Department, through Secretary of State Marco Rubio, announced on Feb. 20 the designation of eight cartels and transnational organizations — including the Jalisco New Generation Cartel — as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).
Prior to Landau’s announcement, the concert had caused significant controversy and outrage in Mexico, which has long tried to curb the glorification of drug lords in popular Mexican music and narcocorridos.
The concert was condemned on Monday (March 31) by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. It prompted the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office to launch an investigation for “glorification of crime.”
📢 Tras la proyección de imágenes en un concierto en Zapopan, que presuntamente hacían alusión a un personaje vinculado a un grupo criminal, la Fiscalía del Estado inició una carpeta de investigación. (1-3) pic.twitter.com/OU4R8EYr6q— Fiscalía del Estado de Jalisco (@FiscaliaJal) March 31, 2025
On Tuesday (April 1), the governor of Jalisco, Pablo Lemus, wrote in a post on X that his government supports the measures adopted by the University of Guadalajara to prevent criminal acts from being glorified at concerts, as occurred over the weekend at the Telmex Auditorium. The local leader said he signed an executive order to ensure that no singer or group with a history of endorsing criminal activity will perform at events linked to his government.
“Next week, I will introduce an initiative to ensure that, in any legally sanctioned public event, producers and performers are held accountable for what happens during their shows, and no one can wash their hands of responsibility,” Lemus announced.
Los Alegres del Barranco were scheduled to play shows in several U.S. cities, where the band was announced as part of the lineup for the Bésame Mucho festival April 5 in Austin, Texas. In a TikTok livestream on Tuesday, Pavel Morales, a member of the Sinaloan group, stated that the majority of their audience supports them and referred to their critics as “confused.”
Billboard Español reached out for comment to the band’s reps, but hasn’t received a reply by press time. Meanwhile, authorities from the municipality of Pedro Escobedo, in the Mexican state of Querétaro, confirmed on Tuesday that the group’s scheduled performance for April 19 was canceled because “it does not meet the necessary municipal permits for its realization,” the local government said in a statement on Tuesday.
The projection of the controversial images took place during a concert titled “Los Señores del Corrido” at the Telmex Auditorium, where Los Alegres del Barranco performed the song “El Dueño del Palenque” (The Owner of the Palenque) and displayed on screen photos of the cartel leader, as well as other images created by AI.
The images appeared on multiple videos on social media. They include the moments in which fans burst into cheers when the images of the cartel leader were shown, adding to the controversy.
In a statement, Auditorio Telmex Adistanced itself from the events, arguing that the venue “has no influence on the selection of the repertoire, speeches, or audiovisual material that artists decide to share with their audiences.” However, it acknowledged that the images of the kingpin could be considered an “exultation of crime.”
The controversy over the alleged tribute to the drug trafficker arises after information has surfaced over how the cartel uses clandestine ranches to recruit people through deceptive job offers, according to federal authorities and media reports. This followed the recent discovery of Izaguirre Ranch in early March in the municipality of Teuchitlán, where acts of torture and murder were allegedly committed, according to the Guerreros Buscadores collective.
🚨#AlertaADN¡Se cancela! El municipio de Pedro Escobedo, Querétaro, suspendió la presentación de “Los Alegres del Barranco”, prevista para el 19 de abril, tras la controversia por un homenaje a “El Mencho” en un concierto en Jalisco pic.twitter.com/ChxD61VNps— adn40 (@adn40) April 2, 2025
Regional Mexican superstar Gerardo Ortiz testified against Ángel del Villar, the CEO of his former label Del Records, on Wednesday (March 19) in a downtown Los Angeles federal courtroom. The West Coast-based executive’s criminal trial began on Tuesday where he is accused of doing business with a concert promoter linked to Mexican drug cartels.
The trial follows a 2022 criminal complaint that charged Del Villar, among other defendants, with conspiring to violate the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The complaint also alleged that on April 19, 2018, FBI agents approached Ortiz in Phoenix to inform him about Jesus “Chucho” Pérez Alvear’s designation under the Kingpin Act. Mexican concert promoter Pérez Alvear — who was killed in 2024 — ran a company called Gallistica Diamente (Ticket Premier) and until March 2019, promoted concerts in Mexico for DEL Entertainment.
The designation prohibited Ortiz from conducting business with Pérez and performing concerts that Pérez promoted. Prosecutors claim that the música mexicna hitmaker went on to perform concerts organized by Pérez after Del Villar “convinced” Ortiz to “ignore the FBI warning.”
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Ortiz — who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in the case and is cooperating with the FBI — took the stand and told the jury he saw Pérez Alvear with Del Villar at the Del Records office in Los Angeles two or three times, according to Univision Noticias. He added that Pérez Alvear was at the office to hire bands and artists to perform at his shows in Mexico. He went on to confess that he had performed at Feria de San Marcos in Aguascalientes, Mexico in April 2018, promoted by Pérez Alvear, even after he had already been designated under the Kingpin Act and FBI agents had alerted him that if he performed at the Feria, he could face up to 10 years in prison and pay a fine of $1 million — which is why he was charged initially.
The “Dámaso” singer — who signed to Del Records in 2009 and parted ways with the company in 2019 amid a contract dispute — testified a day after the trial began where Del Villar’s lawyers argued in the opening statements that the Latin music executive was allegedly “manipulated” by former Del Records employee Brian Gutiérrez who “convinced” Del Villar that “everything” the company was doing was “legally acceptable,” according to reports by Rolling Stone.
“There is something deeply wrong and manipulative about how this case was created and investigated,” Del Villar’s defense lawyer Marissa Goldberg said on Tuesday. “The ones who actually created this crime, who manufactured it, are not sitting as defendants, which is even more deeply wrong.”
Founded by Del Villar in 2008, Del Records is considered a powerhouse in regional Mexican music. The label has been música mexicana giants including Ortiz, Ariel Camacho and Eslabon Armado, whose global hit, “Ella Baila Sola” with Peso Pluma, became one of the biggest songs of 2023.
Passed in 1999, the Kingpin Act allows the U.S. to impose targeted sanctions on foreign individuals involved in the illegal drug trade and ban U.S. residents from doing business with them. If convicted of violating the law, Del Villar would face a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
On an overcast winter afternoon in McAllen, Texas, all six members of Grupo Frontera are huddled around an oversize white box, staring gleefully at its contents. They peel back the tissue paper wrapping to reveal a present their stylist has gifted them just a few days shy of Christmas — a mound of plush Polo Ralph Lauren bathrobes, one for each member, with a brassy statement stitched onto the back: “B–ch, I got a Grammy!”
The members of the norteño and cumbia band — which won the Latin Grammy for best norteño album in 2024 — are standing inside their palatial Frontera HQ in McAllen, a home that they purchased last year. Built in the mid-2000s, the sprawling estate is a very particular vision of turn-of-the-21st-century luxury (see: the Tuscan kitchen replete with dark wood cabinetry). A minimalist home recording studio, where the band has laid down several tracks, sits just past the outdoor path wending around the pool and hot tub, in a yard expansive enough to park their fleet of tour buses.
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Privacy and practicality alike spurred the band to centralize its operations here. When its star began rising about three years ago, after its cover of Colombian pop-rockers Morat’s “No Se Va” surged to life-altering virality on TikTok, Grupo Frontera would frequently record music in this South Texas enclave of the Rio Grande Valley where its members grew up and still reside — until some locals figured out where the group was recording and started showing up to the studio unannounced. “People would deadass just open the door, walk in and listen to whatever we were recording,” says frontman Adelaido “Payo” Solís in between sips of a briny michelada. “They would just wait for us to finish. Then we came out, we saw people, and we were like, ‘Hi?’ ”
Grupo Frontera will perform at Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW at Moody Ampitheater at Waterloo Park in Austin on March 14. Get your tickets here.
Crucially, the house is decidedly “party-ful,” as Julian Peña Jr., the band’s affable percussionist and hype man, puts it. Grupo Frontera has held a tequila-fueled carne asada (a barbecue hang) or two here, including a baby shower for accordionist Juan Javier Cantú, who recently welcomed a daughter with his wife. The group — which also includes drummer Carlos Guerrero, bassist Brian Ortega and guitarist/bajo quinto player Beto Acosta — hopes to eventually open up the space for visiting collaborators and friends to crash there. But given that the house is still barely furnished, those plans are on hold for the moment. There aren’t many places to sit, save for a few folding chairs and tables here and there; only a handful of the home’s six bedrooms have mattresses in them propped up against walls. Tellingly, the sole piece of art inside is a framed photograph of the band mugging with superstar Bad Bunny — who collaborated with Grupo Frontera on its Billboard Hot 100 smash “un x100to,” peaking at No. 5 on the chart — splattered with globs of bright paint.
Interior decorating was admittedly low on the band’s priority list in 2024 — a year in which Grupo Frontera released its punchy set Jugando a Que No Pasa Nada, which reached the top 10 of the Top Latin Albums chart. An ambitious tour around the United States, Mexico and one date in Spain followed at amphitheaters and arenas, with shows featuring pyrotechnic flourishes and stretching about two hours. Somehow, Grupo Frontera also found time to release Mala Mía, a joint EP with fellow música mexicana stalwarts and collaborators Fuerza Regida, before the year ended. Then in late November, the group won its first-ever Latin Grammy for its 2023 debut album, El Comienzo.
Brian Ortega
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In the three brief years it has been together, Grupo Frontera has transformed from a cohort playing covers at quinceañeras into a Mexican American boy band commanding some of the world’s largest stages — where it’s sometimes accompanied by legends its members looked up to while growing up, like Ramón Ayala, and other huge stars it has now recorded with, like Peso Pluma, Maluma and Nicki Nicole. By melding the norteño and cumbia of their childhoods with their micro-generation’s penchant for embracing genre swerves (most of the band members are young millennials, save for Solís, who’s about to turn 22), Grupo Frontera has helped usher in a new era of música mexicana.
“I feel that they’ve created a powerful movement and opened the path for more bands and for the public to reconnect with a genre that had been under the radar several years,” says Edgar Barrera, the Grammy- and Latin Grammy-winning songwriter who has written dozens of songs for the group and has been a mentor to it. Given that seven of the band’s singles and both of its studio albums have reached the top 10 on the Hot Latin Songs and Top Latin Albums charts, respectively, the approach seems to be working.
Grupo Frontera’s success story is all the more astonishing considering the unorthodox decisions its members have made along the way. For one thing, they have no interest in moving from the relatively quiet McAllen (population: roughly 150,000) to a Latin music metropolis like Miami or Los Angeles to be closer to potential opportunities. “We really take it to heart when they say, ‘Keep your feet on the ground,’ ” Guerrero says. “Us being humble is what’s going to take us farther.”
Adelaido “Payo” Solís
Jasmine Archie
Julian Peña Jr.
Jasmine Archie
Instead, they’re bullish about staying close to home in the valley, a region that has made national headlines recently as one of the areas the Trump administration has targeted for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. The Rio Grande Valley is also home to Intocable, one of the most successful norteño bands ever, and the region has historically produced talented musicians and even a handful of breakthrough stars — Bobby Pulido, Duelo and Freddy Fender among them — in spite of lacking the infrastructure that helps groups take the next big step.
In another unlikely turn, the band has released its music independently; indie label VHR Music put out its debut album, and the band self-released Jugando. But don’t mistake these decisions for ambivalence — the group is wary of staying in the same place, metaphorically speaking. “It’s not OK for you to be too comfortable and feel like what you’re doing right now is going to work out forever,” Solís says. And now Grupo Frontera finds itself at a new crossroads as it strategizes how to reach the next level of stardom — specifically, expanding its audience beyond the United States and Mexico, bringing its heart-tugging cumbias to new ears.
“We want to go someday to Japan,” Cantú says. “Any place we could play that’s different. Brazil is a goal we have … We want to put out our Mexican roots to the whole world.”
Grupo Frontera’s origin story is bound up in TikTok’s inscrutable algorithm. In early 2022, one of its first singles, the ebullient “No Se Va,” became ubiquitous on the platform, debuting at No. 50 on Hot Latin Songs and eventually climbing to the top 10. The guys had just started playing music together during off-hours from their day jobs as car dealership finance managers and ranchers. They cobbled together early videos for a few hundred dollars and learned about the music industry by searching “how to” tutorials on YouTube. When the TikTok spotlight suddenly shone on them, they seized the moment. The act soon started working with Barrera, and in mere months, it had released another hit, then another. “If it wasn’t for TikTok when we released ‘No Se Va,’ it probably would have stayed in our hometown of the valley,” Solís says.
Barrera — who has written and produced for megastars including Shakira and Maluma — has a distinctive sensibility that has no doubt helped Grupo Frontera’s sound evolve over the years. His guidance was a boon in those early days, and he especially helped the act see a bigger picture. “We were thinking about, ‘How do we do the biggest wedding here in the valley?’ And [Barrera] goes, ‘Wedding? How can you do the biggest stadiums in the whole world? That’s how you have to think,’ ” Peña remembers. “And we’re like, ‘All right, let’s think that way.’ And then little by little, when we would release a song, we would do it thinking that this song was going to go viral, this song was going to help us out. And it would work.”
From left: Beto Acosta, Julian Peña Jr., Juan Javier Cantú, Carlos Guerrero, Brian Ortega, and Adelaido “Payo” Solís of Grupo Frontera photographed December 20, 2024 in McAllen, Texas.
Jasmine Archie
It’s been practically three years to the day since Grupo Frontera first went nuclear on TikTok, back when talk of an outright ban wasn’t imminent. Yet some of the band members deleted their personal TikTok accounts recently and haven’t redownloaded the app since it returned online in mid-January following a brief ban. (The band’s professional TikTok is still active.) They don’t exactly miss it, personally. “I feel like I’m a new man,” Cantú says with a smile. These days, Solís has focused the attention he would have spent scrolling through TikTok on Splice, an app for sampling and creating songs. While Solís doesn’t consider himself a gloomy person, he admittedly gravitates toward “melancholy, sad, depressing chords” while writing. “That’s what inspires me, to be honest: those sadder chords.”
While Solís’ voice is his main instrument, he occasionally plays guitar, piano and accordion by ear. He’d like to get better at nailing down exactly what he wants to hear from the instrument he’s playing so those sounds can aid him with songwriting — something he has been doing more of since last year’s Jugando (where he was credited with co-writing the song “Ibiza,” which is about wanting to give a lover anything their heart desires).
Though Barrera has written most of Grupo Frontera’s songs so far, along with other writers like Ríos, the band feared becoming complacent by always yielding those creative duties to someone else. “We were comfortable with the fact that [Barrera] would send us a song and that’s it,” Solís says. “But at a certain point, we felt like we weren’t working for it.” The group started inviting other songwriters into the mix, and Solís began chipping in more after a generative writing camp with Barrera.
The band sees taking calculated sonic risks as pivotal to its next phase. In late January, for instance, Grupo Frontera hopped on a song with Spanish icon Alejandro Sanz, “Hoy no me siento bien,” that marked two milestones: It was the group’s first-ever salsa tune and its farthest-afield collaborator to date. “I’m not too sure if a bajo quinto has ever played salsa before, but Beto was trying his best,” Solís jokes. Unlike the band’s usual fare, the song doesn’t address being in (or out of) love, either. “But I love the message,” Solís says. “It’s like, ‘Today, I don’t feel OK and that’s OK.’ ”
“Yeah, like feeling bad is OK, too,” Cantú interjects. “That’s badass.”
Juan Javier Cantú
Jasmine Archie
Carlos Guerrero
Jasmine Archie
On its recent collaborative EP with Fuerza Regida, Grupo Frontera moved in yet another direction: trying corridos imbued with a Tejano bent, along with its cumbias. While these projects have been well-received commercial successes, the prospect of potentially not hitting the mark, and perhaps even failing, doesn’t seem to deter the act. “That’s what we want to do — to tell the world that Frontera can collaborate with different artists and that we could also make different styles of music,” Cantú says. “That’s our goal, most likely, for this year. Not to get away from cumbia or norteño — that’s our base. But also like, ‘Hey, we could also play and sing this.’ ”
The morning after catching a transatlantic flight from Spain, the members of Grupo Frontera arrive at a local sports club in McAllen with rackets in tow. They’re here to play padel, a sport resembling tennis and squash, that they got hooked on thanks to its low chance of injury. As they arrive one by one, the guys seem in good spirits if a bit bleary-eyed. They begin warming up by bouncing balls against glass walls surrounding the court. Acosta arrives last, strolling in with a sheepish grin. “The tardy one,” the band’s publicist says with an eye roll. “You can put that in the article.”
Since only four players can be on the court at any given time, the men rotate sets. Acosta rolls up one pant leg to get his head in the game, then forcefully serves the yellow ball. It lands with a thwack on the court’s blue turf, and Cantú bursts out singing the keyboard riff from “The Final Countdown.” S–t-talking abounds. Guerrero, who suffered an injury after missing the last step of some stairs, is moving with some hesitation — but after playing a few focused rounds, he and Acosta win the impromptu tournament.
While they might be opponents on the court at this moment, they tend to operate as a single organism in the band’s day-to-day decision-making. They use a democratic process and any arguments are cleared up directly: “When one person is wrong, the rest of the group notices it and they just tell them straight up,” Solís says.
Solís sees a through line between the band’s padel habit and the heightened energy it unleashed on last year’s Live Nation-promoted Jugando tour. In 2023, when it first started touring extensively, Solís admits that he would tend to stay in the same spot while singing onstage. “Then this year, I would, like, run around and jump across the stage and stuff.” The guys start chortling, talking over one another as they consider how they might elevate their stage presence in 2025: “Backflips! Shirtless concerts! Splits!”
Should the band realize its stadium dreams, the group’s penchant for showmanship will likely still need to be amped up further. “The show needs an upgrade on the technical and musical sides,” explains Raymond Acosta, the director of talent management at Habibi who works with the band there. (The band has been signed to the management division of Rimas Entertainment since 2023.) “The larger space demands a greater offering to fans. It has to be a unique experience where fans feel part of something bigger than just a show. It’s a challenge to connect with every single person in that stadium.” But as Acosta sees it, a band like Grupo Frontera is up for that challenge: The act “can attract all types of crowds, which makes a significant difference.”
Beto Acosta
Jasmine Archie
For the moment, Grupo Frontera is embarking on something else it has never done before: taking a monthlong break to recalibrate from its breakneck touring schedule, right before delving into writing new music. The last item on its calendar in December involves distributing free holiday toys for a block party at Edinburg, Texas’ Bert Ogden Arena, where it held a spur-of-the-moment free performance for the community.
Grupo Frontera is cognizant of how it represents the Rio Grande Valley both out on the road and at home. And while it has always eschewed any talk of politics, it has inherently become part of any discussion of where the band comes from, as the U.S.-Mexico border is now a flash point for discussions about immigration, xenophobia and racism. When I ask in December if they’ve been feeling the reverberations of this particular political moment — with the vocally anti-immigrant Trump administration then about to enter the White House — and if their fans approach them wanting to talk about politics, the band deflects. “I mean, our group name, Grupo Frontera, I think it feels natural for people to be like, ‘You’re from the border,’ stuff like that,” Guerrero says. “We always try to keep that private.” Peña chimes in, saying that they strive to “talk about music, that’s it.” (Their publicist shuts down any further discussion of the topic.)
But recently, the band had to answer for a political controversy of its own, when a video of Solís’ grandmother (known as “La Abuela Frontera” online) dancing to “Y.M.C.A.,” a song that Trump played frequently on the campaign trail, circulated online. Coupled with a now-deleted TikTok video of the band jamming to the same song, it prompted outrage from fans who perceived it as the group celebrating Trump’s election win. The backlash has since led to boycotts and a petition calling for Grupo Frontera to be taken off the lineup for Sueños, a Chicago musical festival where it’s slated to perform in May.
In response, the band wrote in a statement that “Grupo Frontera has NO affiliation nor alliance with any political party that’s against immigrants and the Latino community. Like many of you, our families and [group] members have fought and struggled for a better future, and we will always take our people’s side, defending our roots and values. It’s important you know that the opinions of our friends and family don’t represent Grupo Frontera. We are immigrants, we are from the border, and Grupo Frontera will always be by and for the people.” The band also posted a video in late February stating that the “Y.M.C.A.” video had been part of a routine it had on its last tour, where it danced to a different song before each show; in it, Acosta lamented how a swirl of “fake news” had been “putting us against our own people.”
As they see it, their main obligation is to elevate the valley in the eyes of the world, especially the musicians who hail from their same stomping grounds. “There’s a lot of talent,” Guerrero says of musicians in the valley. “Better than us,” Acosta adds. To them, what prevents musicians from making a successful living in music here is a lack of recording studios — but they want to leave behind a “trail for everybody to do it,” Cantú says. That might eventually involve having bands record at their own studio. As the guys see it, it’s not so much that they “made it” out of the valley, but rather that they’re “trying to make the valley grow,” as Solís puts it.
It was that same kind of support that first convinced Grupo Frontera to stay independent, after hearing cautionary tales from Acosta’s brother and other local musicians who had signed unfavorable record deals. Since then, it has made as much of an effort to learn the back end of the music business as it does fine-tuning chord progressions, often seeking Barrera’s counsel. Even after it was first approached by a few big labels, the band had “a gut feeling that it was not the right choice at the time,” Cantú says, a smile growing across his face. “And it worked out pretty good.”
The members believe these incremental steps, along with their unconventional approach, will take them where they eventually plan to be. “We’re trying to become superstars,” Peña says. “Something that 30 years from now, somebody’s going to look back [and say], ‘Dude, you remember Frontera?’ ”
A while back, Peña recalls, someone in Grupo Frontera (he doesn’t remember who) mentioned wanting to become like AC/DC or Queen — a timeless band steeped in mythos. At first, Peña scoffed at the idea. “I remember saying, ‘Dude, shut up. Like, what the hell?’ ” he says. “And now I think about it like, ‘Why not?’ I mean, why can’t we be that?”
This story appears in the March 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Mexican music hitmaker Geovani Cabrera has signed an exclusive global publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG), Billboard has learned. Born in Sinaloa, Mexico, the 15-year music veteran has penned a number of hit songs, including “JGL” recorded by Luis R. Conriquez, Christian Nodal‘s “Se Me Olvidó” and “A Través Del Vaso” by Los Sebastianes, to name […]
With an electrifying roar that resonated in every corner, Carin León took over Madrid’s WiZink Center, marking his historic debut in Spain. Part of his Boca Chueca Tour, the show not only marked the Mexican star’s first performance in Europe but also broke records: With an audience of 17,426 people, it surpassed Metallica’s mark set in 2018, becoming the event with the highest attendance of the more than 1,200 concerts held at the venue.
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The atmosphere at the WiZink was unique, transformed into a 360-degree Palenque style, with spectators surrounding the arena like in a boxing ring, an unprecedented layout for this Madrid venue. Among the attendees were music stars such as Vanesa Martín, India Martínez, C. Tangana, and Ximena Sariñana, as well as the legendary soccer player Sergio Ramos, all witnesses of a night in which Mexican and Spanish music intertwined for two and a half hours of pure spectacle.
From the beginning, León’s excitement about being in Madrid was palpable. “I’ve always said it: the second place I would go after Hermosillo is Madrid,” he confessed, making clear the special place this city holds in his heart. One of the first surprises of the night was the live performance of “Recorrerte,” a song in collaboration with Sen Senra that he described as “sexy,” managing to arouse the audience’s emotions. The song, which has not yet been officially released, will be part of the Galician artist’s album PO2054AZ, VOL. II of the Galician artist, scheduled for release on November 15.
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One of the most emotional moments of the night came with the presence of his great friend and mentor, Álex Ubago, with whom León shared a special bond since he invited him to his birthday party in San Carlos, Sonora last July. Together they performed two of Ubago’s classics, “A Gritos de Esperanza” and “¿Qué Pides Tú?,” in a tribute to the influence that Spanish music has had on the Sonoran’s career. “What a dream to share with the artists I admire, long live Spain and long live its artists and music,” exclaimed León, visibly moved.
The connection between the two artists was reinforced with a dedication by León to those affected in Valencia by the DANA (a meteorological phenomenon that usually causes heavy rains and recently caused a tragedy in the region). “Life is sometimes very uncertain and very unfair. I want to dedicate this concert to the people of Valencia,” he said, receiving a standing ovation from the audience. “More than a minute of silence, I want an eternity of joy. Long live Valencia and this song goes with much affection and respect,” he added before performing “Vida Pasada.”
After singing “Por Culpa De Un Tercero”, the venue rumbled with the arrival of another of the stars of the night: Pablo Alborán. Together they performed “Viaje a Ningún Lado” in a duet that showed their mutual respect and admiration. “This man is a bully, how you sing!” joked León, to which Alborán responded with a wink: “For me, being together on stage in Madrid, there is no better place.” In this musical communion, the artists gave each other another joint performance, “De Piedra a Papel”, which became one of the most acclaimed moments of the evening.
Among the special guests was also Omar Montes, who performed with León the song “Ron con Coca” and, in a tone of admiration, said: “How proud of you, Carin León, who comes to Spain and breaks more than the Spaniards. You deserve all the good things that are happening to you.”
The night progressed with a series of hits, such as “Que Vuelvas,” “Talento de Televisión,” “Tóxico” and “Aviso Importante.” But the energy reached another level with the arrival of Manuel Carrasco. Together, they performed their collaboration “No Me Llores”, as well as a little-known gem by Carrasco that the Mexican himself asked him to sing, “Yo Te Vi Pasar,” which reflected the palpable chemistry between the two artists. “I’m delighted in front of so many beautiful people at your party. Let’s enjoy, brother,” exclaimed Carrasco, infecting the audience with his enthusiasm.
The musical display continued with a surprising version of Enrique Urquijo’s classic “Aunque Tú No lo Sepas,” to which León added his unique style. And, to close the night, the León could not leave out one of his most beloved anthems, “Primera Cita,” which sealed a spectacular debut in the Spanish capital.
“More than faith, I’m sure there will be more dates like this one,” anticipated León, before saying goodbye.
The next destination of his Boca Chueca Tour is London, this Sunday, November 3, followed by Amsterdam and Paris, on November 4 and 5, respectively.
Conjunto Michoacan, the veteran Regional Mexican group known for its ranchera and norteño ballads, released “El Corrido de Fernando Valenzuela,” about the late star Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, in 1981. But the group didn’t do it because everybody was doing it — even though, in the early ’80s, everybody was. “We knew of a few other songs, but were not really inspired by them, because we were focused on what we were doing,” recalls Alejandro Saucedo Garcia, the group’s violinist for 40 years. “He was the king of baseball and everybody in Mexico loved him.”
“El Corrido de Fernando Valenzuela,” the group’s 1981 single, was one of many musical tributes that dominated Mexico and Los Angeles while “El Toro” was racking up hundreds of strikeouts and winning in the World Series. Among the most popular were upbeat salsa-and-disco jam “Go Fernando” by Everardo y Su Flota, a Chicago group whose bandleader died in 2014, and “Cumbia de Fernando Valenzuela,” a more traditional, name-chanting ballad by Los Gatos Negros de Tiberio.
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Conjunto Michoacan, one of the few surviving groups that dipped into Fernandomania at the time, had a songwriter, the late Magdaleno Oliva, who knew Valenzuela well. “They would have conversations about baseball and stuff,” Saucedo Garcia recalls, through a translator, by phone from his home in Taretan, Michoacán, Mexico. “The song was very famous,” he adds. “On the radio all over the place. We toured in Mexico and the U.S. and played the song.”
Valenzuela, who died last week at 63, was born in a small Mexican town, Etchohuaquila, Sonora, before becoming the only baseball pitcher ever to win the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards in the same season. He was magnetic and dominant and a sort of folk hero to Latino baseball fans, particularly those with Mexican heritage. Still outraged about Dodger Stadium displacing a heavily Latino Los Angeles community called Chavez Ravine in the ’60s to bring baseball to the city, many local Hispanics plunged into Fernandomania.
“My parents, right away, you know, they started crying. We all cried,” Sergio Juarez, a baseball fan who grew up near Dodger Stadium, recently told NBC Los Angeles. “It was different because Fernando looked like us. Fernando was someone that was humble, and he broke barriers that a lot of people wouldn’t even reach.
“And to see a person that had a Spanish surname, Mexican-American, came from a small town,” he added. “It was very special.”
Corridos represent a 200-year-old tradition of story-songs that frequently deal with David-vs.-Goliath-type battles of lone heroes taking on institutions; they were an adaptable way of saluting Valenzuela in the ’80s. In a Los Angeles Times essay after the Dodgers retired Valenzuela’s No. 34, Michael Jamie-Becerra, a University of California Riverside assistant professor of creative writing, wrote that Conjunto Michoacan’s track “would have you believe that Fernando’s on-field success could be attributed to his having a noble heart, caring for his parents and being an all-around good guy.”
Conjunto Michoacan recorded “El Corrido de Fernando Valenzuela” for Odeon Records, an imprint owned by major label EMI that is now part of the University of California Los Angeles’ Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings. Although the track has only 1,087 YouTube views and is not available on most streaming services, Conjunto Michoacan has recently played it live throughout the U.S. and Mexico. Its fans include the Guatemalan YouTube commenter who posted that he listened to the group’s music “when I went to herd sheep in the field with my radio with pure rayobac batteries.”
Saucedo Garcia says the group plans to release a new version of “El Corrido de Fernando Valenzuela” with updated lyrics and perform it on upcoming tours. “New things about his achievements and his passing,” he says.
The 65-year-old violinist continues to follow baseball, including the World Series, in which the Dodgers have a 3-0 lead over the New York Yankees. He has a rooting interest: “I would like the winners to be the team of Fernando Valenzuela,” he says.
Regional Mexican music continues to surf a wave of unprecedented global popularity and expansion, with names like Peso Pluma, Luis R Conriquez, Edén Muñoz, Fuerza Regida and Grupo Frontera crowning Billboard’s global and U.S. charts.
Yet women in the genre are almost nowhere to be found. Just one female artist-led song appeared among the 50 on Billboard’s year-end Regional Mexican Airplay Songs chart: Yuridia and Angela Aguilar’s “Qué Agonía.” And among the regional Mexican acts dominating the Hot Latin Songs chart, only one female name comes up: pop singer Kenia Os as a guest on Peso Pluma’s “Tommy & Pamela.”
Behind the scenes, it’s a different story entirely. In what had long been a world of male dominance in the C-suite of música mexicana, women are now powerhouses. María Inés Sánchez, formerly head of marketing for regional Mexican indie label Afinarte, is now the West Coast vp for Sony Music U.S. Ana Luisa Gómez, who has worked with Alicia Villarreal and Sergio Vega, among others, now manages superstar Muñoz. Rosela Zavala manages Ana Bárbara, and Adriana Martínez manages rising trio Yahritza y Su Esencia.
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And they’re just a few among a growing group of women that also includes Ana Martínez (leading Fonovisa/Disa’s U.S. division), Delia Orjuela (head of creative for música mexicana at Warner Chappell) and managers for some of the most visible artists on the charts, like Ivan Cornejo, Xavi and Eslabon Armado.
Billboard gathered four of these executives for a candid conversation about how they’ve managed to make their marks in a complex genre they readily admit is “full of men” — and the unique skill set that it has taken.
“I’ve always said that I’m one person at home, and another when I leave my house and I become that other person that everyone says, ‘Oh, she’s super angry, super hysterical,’ ” Gómez says with a smile. “Yeah. I’m super all that because if I wasn’t, I think I wouldn’t have made it.”
Spanish singer-songwriter Natalia Jimenez (left) and Gómez
Courtesy of Ana Luisa Gómez
How did you get your start in the world of regional Mexican music?
Ana Luisa Gómez: I graduated from the University of Monterrey [in Mexico] in communications and started working in television, where I spent 14 years producing entertainment and musical programs. Fifteen years ago, I left that and started managing Sergio Vega, “El Shaka,” may he rest in peace. [Vega was murdered in 2010.] Then I started my advertising agency, offering a 360 model of booking, promotion, radio, television. Later I decided to focus more on management, and I’ve been with Edén Muñoz for three years.
María Inés Sánchez: I also started years ago at PolyGram, Sony, Universal, Machete, always in marketing, and when I moved to Los Angeles I started doing public relations. Later, [my client] Chiquis Rivera recommended me to run PR for DEL Records [in 2016], and that’s how I started in the Mexican music genre. I worked with Régulo Caro, Gerardo Ortiz, Ulices Chaidez, Los Plebes del Rancho [de Ariel Camacho].
Rosela Zavala: Like María Inés, I got my start through Chiquis. I came from the pop world, working with Paulina Rubio and later with Gloria Trevi. And from Gloria I went to Chiquis and landed in a completely different world, the regional Mexican music world. I co-managed Chiquis, and Ana Bárbara is the first artist I fully manage.
Adriana Martínez: I’ve only been doing this for two years. The role of manager fell on me. My brothers, Yahritza y Su Esencia, began to be recognized, and since they always turn to me, I had to get a lawyer and all that. When I said, “OK, now you can fly alone,” they said, “No, please don’t leave us.” The truth is I started in this with zero experience.
What has been the most difficult thing about being a manager?
Martínez: Being siblings, and then transitioning into manager mode. At first, the guys didn’t take me very seriously when I said, “We need to do this.” The seriousness of things was there, but it was easier for them to procrastinate because I was the one in charge and I was their sister.
Gómez: The most challenging thing for me is working with men. They’re all men. There are no women, at least not in the teams I have worked on, starting with Sergio Vega. It’s not easy for men to accept that someone is telling them what to do and how, although it’s not a mandate. But I understand. It’s machismo. So the most challenging thing is to deal with that and develop a strong character.
Zavala: I have found it difficult to get Ana’s music heard on the radio. We bring songs and they say, “Oh, the traditional mariachi isn’t playing now. It’s grupero.” So Ana says, “Let’s do grupero,” and they say, “Ah, grupero sounds old.” In Mexico we get played much more, but in the U.S., with so many men on that chart, it’s difficult to get in. Also, in the beginning with Ana, I wrote to a couple of concert promoters that I knew, and they weren’t interested in her tour. A few years later, those same people wanted to work with her. I love making that happen. But I always looked for the people who told me they believed in her, let’s do it. And there are many people, even men, who told me, “Yes, we will give it our all.”
Ana Bárbara (left) and Zavala
Courtesy of Rosela Zavala
Do you remember the first time you had to lay down the law to be taken seriously?
Gómez: With Sergio Vega, of course. I met him through Oscar Flores, a super-renowned concert promoter, and we clicked. But Sergio was a man without reins. He did what he wanted, how he wanted. He was a great talent looking for the right direction, but he didn’t know how to do it. When I said left, he said right. And one day, after an event in Sonora [Mexico], where everything I told him not to do, he did, I grabbed my suitcase, knocked on his hotel room door and told him, “That’s it. I don’t have to deal with you or your people or your party.” I took my bags and flew home to Monterrey. After five days, he came to see me and said: “I am in your hands. What do we do?” And from there, we became family.
Do you think of one moment in your career as particularly defining? María Inés, I remember meeting you when you were a junior publicist, and then seeing you become a powerful executive at the Afinarte label…
Sánchez: That’s where I started, from ground zero. When I began working at Afinarte, they didn’t have a company email, for example. The first year, they uploaded the music to TuneCore and I made the pitches to the platforms. They didn’t have a distributor. I came from working at multinationals, which of course are highly organized and have departments for everything. Here we had to assemble everything, and I was the only woman: The bosses, the musicians, even the photographers were men. So it was a challenge, but I thank them because not many companies would have given me that much autonomy.
Zavala: Working with Paulina was like getting a master’s degree. [Initially], I was the president of her fan club, and she gave me the opportunity to be her personal assistant. Then I finished my “master’s degree” with Gloria. I spent eight years with her. I saw her struggle at the beginning with her shows, and then saw her grow to play arenas. She gave me that opportunity to grow and learn more and do day-to-day management. It was scary at the beginning. When you go from being a fan to being an assistant, you are no longer the friend. Everything becomes much more serious.
Martínez: I graduated [with a degree] in psychology. I worked as an outreach coordinator [for a health provider], and I already had my life planned. [When I started working with my brothers], the most important thing was to make sure that the values that our parents had taught us — keeping our feet on the ground, not forgetting where we came from, manners — were maintained. But there have also been times where I’ve said, “This is as far as it goes; I’m their sister, but if they don’t have respect for me as their manager, then that’s it.” After that, things calmed down and thank God, we are all moving together. But sometimes you have to have those talks or pack your bags and leave. All these battles have made us realize that family is important but also the respect we have as business partners is important.
Yahritza y Su Esencia with their sister and manager Martínez (second from left).
Jesse Sandoval
Aside from the difficulty of being taken seriously, what is most challenging for you on a day-to-day basis?
Martínez: We work with a major label [Columbia] and an indie label [Lumbre Music]. It’s good to have the macro view and the micro view, but our work doesn’t end there. It’s always been super important for us to have that relationship with the fans, to reach a point where they know the artist as people. And we didn’t receive much support in that respect. We said, “If we show people who we are and where we come from, our hearts will connect,” and sometimes big companies don’t understand that.
Gómez: Above all, the people that surround the artist but aren’t part of the music industry and love to mess things up. Going back to something that María Inés said, the daily challenge to be validated.
Are there certain advantages you do have as women in this business?
Martínez: I think we have that emotional balance, and we can see that in our empathy. The balance we give our artists with that empathy is super important, and it helps them know that they can trust us and that we are here to play any role.
Gómez: I am neither Edén’s mother, grandmother nor cousin, but you have to be all of that for him. Understand if he’s had a bad day, if his child is sick that day. A man also understands, but I think that a man has less sensitivity than us, he doesn’t have that sixth sense we have where as soon as I see him, I know what’s up. I think that as a woman you can dig in a little bit further than a man would dare to.
Zavala: The sensitivity we have with them and putting ourselves in their shoes. Even if you’re having a bad day, you still have to get onstage, sing. So the ability to support them from behind, be a cheerleader and look them in the eyes and giving them that support they need at that moment is very important. Because although you’re not family, you become family.
From left: Sony Music Latin president Alex Gallardo, Mexican singer-songwriter Ramón Vega and Sánchez at Sony Music Latin’s 2023 Música Mexicana Celebration in Los Angeles.
JC Olivera/Getty Images
What advice would you give to anyone starting out in the music business?
Gómez: You have to be passionate. If you go for the money or for the “I’m the manager,” bye. The money will come. It’s about fighting to place the artist at the level [they are] and being clean and honest. And don’t be a fan. It’s one thing to admire your artist, but don’t fall into fandom. You won’t be able to help them.
Sánchez: Don’t give up and be patient. And be empathetic. Be attentive. Be a little more human and don’t look at artists as a money machine. And speak up. Before, I stayed back and swallowed a lot of things. You have to raise your voice in the moment. Go for it. If you don’t agree with something, say so.
Zavala: Don’t take things personally. I was 22 when I started. I was so very young. Now that I’m older, I think back to how sensitive I was. Because it’s not about you. You grow thick skin. And, I’d say, speak up. Present your ideas, articulate them and land them as they should be.
Martínez: Be patient. Love, passion for your work, is what will lead you to do a good job with your artist. And most of all, don’t throw in the towel so soon. And ask. I would always hold back. I would talk down to myself. Ask for help, ask questions. I always thought that they were going to see me as “How could you not know that?” But all questions are good.
This story appears in Billboard‘s Rumbazo special issue, dated Sept. 14, 2024.
Ramón Ayala is one of the most iconic figures of Norteño music. He rose to fame in the ’60s as part of the duo Los Relámpagos del Norte, alongside Cornelio Reyna, and for more than half a century he has maintained a successful career with his band Ramón Ayala y sus Bravos del Norte.
So when he announced in February his El Principio De Un Final Tour, many were surprised by that title (Spanish for “The Beginning of an End”). At Coachella, Peso Pluma included him in a tribute to greats of Mexican culture on the screen at the back of the stage, while he performed his hit “Lady Gaga”.
But is Ramón Ayala retiring or not?
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“Of course not,” says the “King of the Accordion” to Billboard Español. “I am now in perfect condition. If I don’t play and tour, I don’t feel happy and fulfilled. I have been a musician all my life.”
Ayala’s history with music began when he was just five years old and he accompanied his father playing the accordion to bring money home in his native Monterrey, Nuevo León, cradle of one of the three strands on which regional Mexican music is based: norteño, mariachi and banda sinaloense.
Throughout his long-lasting career, he has recorded over 100 albums, two of which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Regional Mexican Albums chart: Arriba El Norte (1991) and Antología De Un Rey (2004). He’s also placed 12 songs on Hot Latin Songs, including “Del Otro Lado del Portón”, at No. 12, and “Quémame los Ojos”, at No. 19. And he’s received two Grammy Awards and two Latin Grammys, among other accolades.
On March 9, he began his 50-concert tour in Los Angeles, which includes stops in Atlanta, El Paso, Chicago, Las Vegas, and other U.S. cities. He will soon announce dates in Mexico, in cities like Hermosillo, Tijuana, Ensenada, Culiacán, Mexico City and Monterrey, “where they will pay me a tribute in the Macroplaza,” he says of the latter.
Also in March, he released the corrido “El Retén,” the first single from an upcoming 15-track album.
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In an interview with Billboard Español, Ayala answers 20 questions about his life and career, his last moments with Cornelio Reyna and how much he still has left to do.
1. How do you manage to still get up with such great enthusiasm 61 years after starting your career?
Knowing that there’s a large audience that follows us both in Mexico and in the United States, that fills our concerts and is awaiting our new music, motivates me.
2. When you started in music, did you dream of getting to where you are now?
I have been a musician since I was five years old. At that age, I already played the accordion and worked with my dad in a band in Monterrey — I dreamed of continuing doing what I did and nothing else.
3. Do you remember the first professional recording you made?
Yes, it was in 1963, a song called “Ya No Llores,” and it was such a hit that it opened the doors to Ramón Ayala and Cornelio Reyna, my dear compadre. We were Los Relámpagos del Norte. That’s how we would be until 1971.
4. Los Relámpagos del Norte have remained an inspiration. What does it mean to you to have laid the groundwork for so many generations?
Cornelio and I met when we were 14, so we were like brothers. That made us bond and better transmit our music to the audience.
5. Do you have a special memory or anecdote with Cornelio Reyna?
When we started out, Cornelio was the one who made the contracts. Once, he promised [we would play] three events in one night. We arrived to the first, we did not make it to the second, and we arrived to the third one when people were already leaving. People recognized us and threw stones at our trucks. At that moment we decided that someone should represent us, and a friend offered to do it, Servando Cano.
6. Servando Cano, who would become one of the most important representatives of regional Mexican music…
That’s right. He worked as a cashier at the National Bank of Mexico in Reynosa, Tamaulipas. He offered to be our manager and we accepted. We went to Mexico to sign the contract so that everything was well done and legally.
7. With so many hits, is there a song that’s particularly meaningful to you?
There is one that I have a special affection for, “Mi Golondrina,” because it was one of the first that I recorded. But “Rinconcito en el Cielo” is very important in my career.
8. Why did Cornelio Reyna and Ramón Ayala separate? Was there any problem between you?
There was no problem, we always got along well. What happened is that he wanted to try his luck in Mexico singing mariachi and acting in movies.
9. Did you get a chance to reunite with Reyna before his passing in 1997?
In 1995, he returned to the U.S. and asked me to do a tour as Los Relámpagos del Norte. What I proposed was to go on stage first with Los Bravos del Norte, and halfway through the show, both of us [would come out] as Los Relámpagos. We were able to do two tours like that, but he was already very sick. He returned to Mexico and died there.
10. You went through some difficult moments in your career, didn’t you?
Yes, there have been some difficult moments, but fortunately there have been more good times and successes.
11. The name of the tour “El Principio De Un Final” caused a stir. Is this a farewell for Ramón Ayala?
We just named the 2024 tour that way; we don’t know when the end will be. I feel very good, so unless God has planned something else, we will continue.
12. Have you thought about retiring to be a full-time grandpa?
No, not at all. I do spend a lot of time with my children and grandchildren, though. For example, before starting this tour, I was teaching the kids how to bottle feed the newborn goats on my ranch. But being a grandpa is only for moments.
13. During the COVID pandemic, your brother José Luis, the drummer of the band, died. That double loss must have been hard for you.
It was something very hard for me. It was the beginning of the pandemic, there were no vaccines and my little brother left. After that, I spoke with his son, José Luis Ayala Jr., who is a very good musician and is already very well integrated with us.
14. Do the other members of the band contribute ideas?
No, no. I tell them how I want things to be done and heard. We have worked very well this way; the proof is the response from the fans after so many years.
15. How is Ramón Ayala’s life in the U.S.?
I have been living in the Texas Valley for over 60 years. From Brownsville to Laredo, most of the population is Mexican, so we live and eat our carne asada as in our homeland, in addition to speaking a lot of Spanish.
16. How will you be celebrating Cinco de Mayo?
Working, fortunately. We will perform at the County Fair in Pomona, California. It is a very important event with more than 100 years of tradition.
17. Do you have any collaborative album planned?
Yes, we are going to record several of our hits with other artists. I already participated in an album celebrating Leo Dan’s career and I once did a duet with Lupillo Rivera accompanied by a sinaloense band. I also want to give you a heads up that another album is coming with Los Rieleros del Norte that is already recorded.
18. As an icon of Norteño music, what’s your opinion of the new generation of artists who are following this path?
I really like seeing how some of them have a lot of respect for Norteño music and the accordion — they play it excellently, like Edén Muñoz or Alfredo Olivas.
19. Any dream duet that didn’t get to happen?
I always dreamed of doing a duet with Pedro Infante, and I achieved it by participating in a tribute album. He was no longer with us physically, but his voice was.
20. Is there anything in your life and your career that you regret?
I regret nothing. Thanks to God I have reached the point where I am surrounded by fans, friends and family.
Fonovisa-Disa, Universal Music Group‘s regional Mexican label, has appointed Ana Martinez to U.S. GM. Based in Los Angeles, Martinez, a 19-year music industry veteran, will report directly to Antonio Silva, MD of Fonovisa-Disa for the United States and Mexico.
“The legacy that Fonovisa has historically created, mainly across Mexican music, has been the inspiration and reference for entire generations, and will continue to build long into the future,” Martinez said in a statement. “With the current moment in Latin music, it is exciting for me to join a company and team of this nature, to herald a new era for this historic label, where our music continues to elevate, leaving its mark on history and culture, not only across Latin music, but also globally.”
Martinez previously spearheaded strategy and relations as part of Amazon Music’s global Latin team, where she carried out global campaigns for the likes of Bad Bunny, Karol G and Shakira, as well as multi-platform Amazon livestreams, including Maluma‘s concert from Medellín in 2022, ”Medallo En El Mapa.” Prior to Amazon, she spent seven years at Universal Music México, joining the company as label manager of Anglo repertoire before landing the role of marketing director.
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“I am very excited about the integration of Ana Martínez to the team, her experience across different fields of the industry complements our business vision and strategy for the Fonovisa-Disa roster,” added Silva. “I fully trust that her ability to foster success across projects will further strengthen our vision of generating global hits for Mexican music in the future.”
Martinez’s appointment comes just months after Alfredo Delgadillo was appointed as president/CEO of Universal Music México. Of Martinez’s return to Universal Music Group, Delgadillo said: “Ana is always connected and thinking ahead of the market and this, together with her extensive experience across the Latin music industry from independent labels, booking and production of concerts, artist management, her time in specialized magazines and most recently in her position at Amazon Music, will further nourish our ecosystem and help Fonovisa-Disa to maintain its position as the leader of Mexican music in the world.”