Regional Mexican music is crossing borders and going global. Here's how it happened

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Regional Mexican music — a catchall term that encompasses mariachi, banda, corridos, norteño, sierreño and other genres — has become a global phenomenon, topping music charts and reaching new audiences as it crosses borders.

While it has been around the U.S. for decades, with the late Selena Quintanilla weaving pop, disco and R&B rhythms into her Tejano music in the ’80s and ’90s, something extraordinary happened in the last year.

Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s “Ella Baila Sola” single surpassed a billion streams on Spotify last month, becoming the first regional Mexican Top 10 hit on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100, peaking at No. 4. Days later, Bad Bunny’s collaboration with Grupo Frontera, “Un x100to,” hit No. 5.

According to Luminate's 2023 end-of-year report, four of the six Latin artists to reach 1 billion audio streams in the U.S. were Mexican artists: Peso Pluma, Eslabon Armado, Junior H and Fuerza Regida. They were in the top 125 artists streamed. Overall, regional Mexican music grew 60% in the U.S., accounting for a whopping 21.9 billion on-demand audio streams.