Regional Mexican music takes over NPR’s Tiny Desk

Regional Mexican music’s planetary resurgence took halfway signifier erstwhile stars Carín León and Grupo Frontera delivered standout performances connected NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert bid successful caller weeks, highlighting the genre’s affectional extent and cross-cultural appeal.

León, backed by a 16-piece band, performed May 16 successful the NPR Music bureau successful Washington, D.C. — severely investigating the cramped spaces of the celebrated venue. A video of the show connected YouTube has garnered 3.8 cardinal views successful nether 2 weeks.

Grupo Frontera, a Texas-formed set profoundly rooted successful Mexican genres and cumbia, performed determination April 24. A video of that league has implicit 2 cardinal views.

Both artists were winners astatine the 2024 Latin Grammy Awards six months ago.

The singer-songwriter León — who hails from Hermosillo, Sonora — won for champion modern Mexican euphony medium (“Boca Chueca, Vol. 1”).

Grupo Frontera — whose members person roots tracing backmost to Mexican states similar Tamaulipas and Nuevo León — won for champion determination Mexican opus (“El Amor de Su Vida”) and champion norteño medium (“El Comienzo”).

Like each Tiny Desk concerts, some performances took spot down a existent moving table — primitively that of now-retired NPR euphony big Bob Boilen — surrounded by shelves cluttered with books, memorabilia and bureau supplies.

The intimate, authentic bid has go a viral gateway for artists similar T-Pain and Dua Lipa, with 138 cardinal views for Lipa’s 2020 league — though hers was recorded successful a London workplace arsenic a “home concert,” a Tiny Desk format adopted owed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For Mexican acts specified arsenic the soul-stirring Natalie Lafourcade — whose 2017 Tiny Desk Concert is the 13th most-watched of all-time, with 35 cardinal views — and the poetic Silvana Estrada —  whose 2021 Tiny Desk (Home) Concert was performed successful her puerility location successful Coatepec, Veracruz — it’s a level to transcend stereotypes.

“We’re successful a infinitesimal wherever you tin beryllium who you are, without U.S. labels dictating terms,” said NPR shaper Anamaría Sayre, who champions Latin music.

Blending norteño, banda and popular influences, León played a 15-minute acceptable that included “Ese Vato No Te Queda,” “Lado Frágil” and the then-unreleased ballad “Por La Suave” from his caller album, Palabra De To’s (Seca).

“Thank you for having america here. Que viva la música mexicana,” León told the audience, which usually totals astir 20 to 30 NPR staffers and guests. “Representing Mexico with our dependable is simply a pridefulness beyond words.”

Mexican singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade gave 1 of Tiny Desk’s all-time most-watched concerts successful 2017. (Sony Music)

The show featured charchetas (brass alto horns that are staples successful Mexican music) and a tololoche (a accepted Mexican four-stringed instrument, akin to a tiny upright bass), positive different instruments emblematic of determination Mexican music’s affluent sound.

Three weeks earlier, Grupo Frontera’s 7 musicians (two much than usual), 1 pb vocalist and 3 specially added pistillate backup singers brought the band’s “cumbia norteña” fusion to the space.

Playing a period aft joining Shakira on-stage successful Mexico City, Grupo Frontera performed a 20-minute acceptable that included hits similar “Un x100to” and “El Amor de Su Vida” reworked with R&B and reggae twists.

“We rehearsed for days to cleanable this acoustic set,” the set noted. Many Tiny Desk invitees opt to play acoustically to lucifer the setting. “The intimate ambiance made america nervous, but it was genuinely beautiful.”

The performances besides countered disapproval of determination Mexican music’s ties to narcocorridos, banned successful parts of Mexico for glorifying cause cartels.

“This is astir heartbreak, emotion and pridefulness — not controversy,” NPR’s Sayre emphasized.

Grupo Frontera’s league faced added scrutiny owed to what has been perceived arsenic past praise for U.S. President Donald Trump. Their Tiny Desk amusement was decorated with a Mexican emblem and sombreros.

With reports from El País, Billboard and Marca