From The Opry To The Stones: Carin León Embarks On Breakout U.S. Tour

Performing at a major music festival can be daunting for any artist, especially if it’s in front of an audience you’re not accustomed to.

Carin León and his banda, which naturally includes tuba and accordion players, are used to performing for a tequila-drinking crowd ready to sing along to Spanish-language hits like “Que Vuelvas” and “Primera Cita.” But in April, the regional Mexican star started from scratch, having to win over a new audience. He sported a cowboy hat, bolo tie, chaps and sleeveless white shirt as he made his way to the Palomino stage to play for the bourbon- and craft beer-drinking fans of Stagecoach, the most popular country music festival west of Tennessee, where the genre was born.

“We were really nervous. In a festival like Coachella, you can have your crowd. A lot of our people will show up and support us, but you don’t know what you’re expecting at Stagecoach,” Jorge Juárez, León’s manager, tells Pollstar.

Those preshow jitters didn’t last long. Fans not only filled the space around the stage but began singing and dancing throughout his set, which predominantly featured Spanish-language songs — he did sprinkle in a cover of Johnny Cash’s “Man in Black” and his Spanglish song “It Was Always You (Siempre Fuiste Tú),” a collaboration with Leon Bridges. He even made a fan out of the Goldenvoice team, one of whom turned to León’s manager and told him, “Jorge, I took a risk, and I’m happy I took it because I see that it was worth it.”

“I knew Carin was going to be great, but I had no idea it was going to hit as hard as it did,” Stacy Vee, Goldenvoice executive vice president in charge of Stagecoach, tells Pollstar. “He had an overflowing tent of people eating out of the palm of his hand and singing every word.”

It was a gamble for everyone involved, but one that paid off with León making history as the first música Mexicana artist to perform at Stagecoach, not only marking a watershed moment for the singer but for country and Mexican music.

It’s a bold move from the Mexican hailing from Hermosillo, Sonora, a city near the border rich in music history, and he’s ready to bridge the two genres and cultures by taking his unique sound — which draws inspiration from Mexican icons like Joan Sebastian and Chalino Sanchez and country stars such as Chris Stapleton and Dwight Yoakam — on the road with the “Boca Chueca Tour,” a 27-date arena trek promoted by AEG Presents and Cárdenas Marketing Network that includes four European dates.

The tour kicks off at Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre in Greenwood Village, Colorado, on Aug. 29, and the routing includes stops at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Los Angeles’ BMO Stadium, Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto, New York’s Madison Square Garden and Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. León will then go to Europe for shows in Spain, England, the Netherlands and France.

“There’s so many stories to tell that I couldn’t before,” León says about his upcoming tour. “I didn’t have the resources to express myself on stage like I wanted to. Today, we have the tools in hand with my latest album (Boca Chueca, Vol. 1) doing well. We want people to enter the Boca Chueca universe, one that is a bit dark and sometimes sad but also full of light. It’s balanced in terms of genres, and we try to move people’s emotions and have those shocking moments they will remember.”

León doesn’t need to serenade to make you remember him. Simply sit down and chat with him for a few minutes and you can’t help but be charmed by his swagger, humility and encyclopedic knowledge of music. He even referenced G-funk as an influence.

“The truth is that there isn’t any genre I don’t like,” says León, who grew up listening to artists like corridos star Sergio Vega, U.S. rock band Metallica and rapper Tupac Shakur. “I’m a supporter of music, and I feel like all music has something to say. I have lived within many genres, and I even find something to learn from bad music.”

That honesty and earnestness about the power of all music is what Rich Schaefer, AEG Presents president of global touring, was drawn to when he spoke with León and his manager on a plane ride last year, a meeting that ultimately led to the promoter working on the Mexican’s “Colmillo De Leche Tour.” The 27-date run grossed $36.6 million and moved nearly 250,000 tickets, according to Pollstar Boxoffice reports.

“He is breaking through any ceilings that might have existed for artists who typically are looked at like Carin,” Schaefer tells Pollstar. “He just transcended that and has become an artist, not just a regional Mexican artist.

“There’s something about authenticity and being able to connect with your audience, and in the country tours we promote and artists we work with, they have something genuine in their songwriting, in their lyrics and also in how they communicate with their fans,” Schaefer adds. “Carin has taken a page from so many great artists and joins them in being authentic and genuine.”

León’s not only taking a page from those who came before him but also forging a path few if any Mexicans have ever taken, fusing genres and finding common ground between them to deliver something new yet familiar.

He leans on a Sonoran sound in 2023’s Colmillo De Leche but sprinkles in some R&B, blues and flamenco, and with this year’s Boca Chueca, Vol. 1., León goes further into his admiration of country music and other genres like ska, gospel, heartland rock and, as he calls it, “pop noventero,” which is ’90s-style pop. The LP also features a Spanglish collaboration with Kane Brown titled “The One (Pero No Como Yo).”

“I feel that in each genre’s roots, there is so much in common. They all have something to do with our most primal human feelings,” says León, whose real name is Óscar Armando Díaz de León. “[With country and regional Mexican], I think they’re the voice of the pueblo, the voice of the common folk today.”

Makes sense considering the surging popularity of country and Latin music, especially in the past five years. According to a year-end report from Luminate, a company that gathers data and provides insight on trends in the entertainment industry, Latin and country are two of the fastest-growing genres in the U.S. based on streaming figures with increases of 24.1% and 23.7%, respectively.

It wouldn’t be a shock to see some overlap between consumers considering the fact that the Hispanic population in the U.S. is growing at a faster rate than any other racial or ethnic group. From 2010 to 2022, the country’s population grew by 24.5 million and Hispanics accounted for a whopping 53% of that increase, according to Pew Research Center.

Schaefer, who has attended his fair share of country and Latin concerts, has seen that demographic shift firsthand.

“I can’t speak for all of country music, but at the shows we’re covering, we are definitely seeing a more diverse audience than say three years ago,” Schaefer says. “I think that speaks to why audiences are connecting with Carin, and we saw it at Stagecoach of all places, the epicenter of country music. He played it, and we had a packed tent. People were singing every word and there were Mexican flags. And there are no single-day passes for Stagecoach. You can’t just buy a ticket to see Carin, so they really are there to see everybody on the bill, and it spoke to how the world is diversifying.”

Though the move to conquer the country world was calculated, it was also organic. León, who was a founding member of regional Mexican band Grupo Arranke before going solo in 2017, often showed his appreciation for other genres by performing covers, including a ballad, “Tú,” from Puerto Rican pop singer Noelia and Extreme’s “More Than Words.”

As his popularity grew, so did his confidence, and he mustered the courage to experiment with his sound. León had aspirations of revolutionizing música Mexicana and making it global and more universal by incorporating sounds from other countries. He simply followed his heart rather than trends and inspired his manager in the process.

“He sees the big picture,” says Juárez, who also manages Mexican pop band Reik and owns a boutique promotion company called Westwood Entertainment, which has worked with Latin stars like Karol G and Bad Bunny. “I’m a dreamer also. I always say to my talent that the hunger my artist has also comes to me. I see that hunger to conquer different countries, different languages, different rhythms. Carin said, ‘We have to go to the country world because about 30% of the people who listen to country are Latinos. We should give them some music.’”

Juárez put his boots on and got to work, taking León to Nashville to meet musicians, executives and promoters who know their way through the country landscape. He’s forged relationships with Cody Johnson and fellow Pollstar cover artist Jelly Roll as well as their managers, and networking in the birth state of country music landed the Mexican artist an opportunity to perform on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and later at the historic Grand Ole Opry, where he held back tears to perform three songs and an encore in front of an energized crowd.

“Long live country music,” León said to the audience during his Opry set in February. “May this blessed place never die. We’re on sacred ground.”

On top of the Opry show and stellar performances at both Coachella and Stagecoach, León achieved another milestone this year he never could have envisioned growing up in Hermosillo. He was asked to open for The Rolling Stones a few months ago at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, an invitation he quickly accepted despite the fact that he was playing to a much older crowd.

“It’s so surreal. When I started this project, we dreamed of getting to a good place, perhaps performing at a nightclub full of fans,” says León, who is repped by United Talent Agency’s Jbeau Lewis. “We have achieved goals that are just incredible.”

Playing at Stagecoach was one thing, but opening for the legendary British rock band was something else.

“When we were backstage, Carin asked me, ‘You see the audience?’ I said, ‘Yes. It’s completely different,’” Juárez recalls. “He told me, ‘OK, let’s start over. I’m going to start from scratch; I’m going to sing to them with all my heart so they can really see what I’m made of.’ I think we gained a lot of fans [that night].”

Opening for such an act is not only a testament to León’s work but to the power and influence of Mexican music. The soon-to-be 35-year-old is one of the faces of the música Mexicana movement that is also spearheaded by acts like Peso Pluma and Grupo Frontera, who are also pushing past the barriers of genres to create a sound that not only elevates the music designated under the regional Mexican umbrella but cements them in music history.

León takes the responsibility of carrying the torch of today’s Mexican music revolution seriously, so much so that he launched the “F*ck Regional Movement” that aims to rid of the term regional Mexican that lumps together the many different sounds originating from Mexico.

His manifesto states, “We don’t fit in that term. We are much more than that. We are banda, we are corridos, we are mariachis. We are flavor, emotion, revolution. We are a countless number of colors and feelings, at times good, at times not so good, but always chingones (badass).”

“It’s an important moment for us Mexicans, and we have to remain present and take advantage of what we have, raising the bar in our music as well as on stage with our productions,” León says. “I feel inspired and, above all, with a desire to take my music and incentivize other artists with different propositions.

“I try to make my music without a specific genre and more of a hybrid of things but somehow still have a very Mexican style. I hope artists are inspired to be themselves and never forget where they came from. Today, more than ever, art decides where [culture] is headed, and good art is like warm bread, right?”

It certainly is. And Latinos like León and Juárez are relishing every bite of it, whether the art comes from Mexico, Tennessee or Colombia. They’re just happy to be able to play in the spaces of Mexican music, country and every other genre León’s inspired by.

“We can get criticized, but we don’t care. We prefer to be the leaders of the music that we do than to follow orders,” Juárez says. “At the end of the day, [León’s] happy doing what he wants to do and satisfied doing this type of music. That’s one of the goals we want to achieve in this journey of music, to be very orgulloso (proud) of what we’re doing.”