Mexican Corridos Singers Continue To See More Canceled Shows…In Mexico

The cancellation of Mexican music concerts is becoming too common these days with the current political climate.

And that’s not just referring to the United States, whose current administration has made it more challenging for touring Latin artists to perform because of a visa process that has gotten more complicated and controversial immigration raids in major markets where many acts do good business. Mexican artists are having issues in their own country with municipal governments cracking down on a controversial but popular subgenre known as corridos bélicos, banning them at live events and infringing on artists’ freedom of speech.

One of the most recent cases involved Junior H, a música Mexicana standout who has garnered more than 24 million monthly listeners on Spotify and graced the cover of Pollstar last September. The corridos singer made his Coachella debut in Indio, California, earlier this year, representing Mexico in the desert for the first time as an ambassador of a genre that dominates global streaming charts. His music is mostly introspective about relationships and life’s challenges, but like many other corridos bélicos (also referred to as corridos tumbados), sometimes touches on violence and drugs associated with narco culture and street life, which is why a Mexican municipal government canceled his concert scheduled for June 20.

Days before the event, Cuernavaca government officials informed Junior H that his show in Yautepec was no longer happening because his team did not acquire the proper permits. They also stated that corridos that “praise crime” would not be permitted.

Junior H posted a statement on Instagram lamenting the situation. “It was beautiful to see how Mexican artists were rising and putting the legacy at the top, in everyone’s sights,” he said on June 18. “But thanks to our fucking government, we’re screwed.”

It’s a stressful situation for artists who operate within the corrido genre because they are also under the watch of the U.S. government, which recently revoked the visas of Los Alegres del Barranco after using the image of a druglord during a concert in Mexico. Having restrictions on both sides of the border can affect their touring and, most importantly, their income.

Shows from such artists generate a lot of revenue for everyone involved, and venues love to book them, especially here in the States. Junior H had two sold-out concerts at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles last October and grossed $6,778,222 off 43,658 tickets sold over two nights, according to Pollstar Boxoffice, and Peso Pluma’s arena tour in 2024 was also a success, with grosses surpassing $58 million off 34 shows.

Junior H isn’t the first artist to encounter such issues and won’t be the last, as several Mexican cities and states have passed laws prohibiting music from such artists in live public spaces. There have also been cases where cities and Mexican acts agree to cancel shows because of violent threats made to the artists. Grupo Firme and Peso Pluma have had to nix shows because their lives were threatened by cartels via narcomantas, which are banners written by members of the criminal organization. (Several notable Mexican musicians, including corridos legend Chalino Sanchez, have been killed by suspects allegedly tied to drug trafficking.)

However, such measures and controversy haven’t deterred the genre from becoming one of the most popular in not only Mexico but all of Latin music, and some governments are reluctant to ban corridos acts because the public demands to see artists like Peso Pluma, Natanael Cano and Oscar Maydon at fairs and rodeo shows, which can draw dozens of thousands of fans. At last year’s Feria Nacional Potisana in San Luis Potosí, Cano, known as the Godfather of corridos tumbados, set a Mexican attendance record with more than 310,000 attending his two-hour-plus show.

Cano and company started a musical revolution, and there’s no stopping it, regardless of what local governments throw at them. Rafael Acosta Morales, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina who specializes in Latino studies, told Pollstar in late 2023 that the genre is resonating with audiences “because a lot of music doesn’t say anything,” and corridos tumbados portray “the reality of people living in Mexico,” even if it’s only a small sliver of the population.

“It will grow because corridos are an inalienable part of Mexican and Mexican American culture,” he said. “What I think is most notorious is what those corridos are about. They track changes in society, so you find a lot of corridos that speak of gruesome crimes. Well, there are a lot of gruesome crimes. Not only in Mexico, but in the U.S., too.”

The genre has always been associated with border culture. Some of the earliest corridos were penned in territories that are now in the U.S. with music written about Mexican outlaws and folk heroes like Juan Nepomuceno Cortina and Joaquín Murrieta — much like Georgie Fame did with “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde” or how dozens if not hundreds of rap tunes reference the Scarface or other mobsters. Songs like these were written to document history and keep the tales of these rebellious figures alive for people who had no access to a printing press.

As Mexico and its relationship with the U.S. have evolved over time, so has the corrido, covering topics like immigration, drug trafficking and violence, and so has the structure of the music. While brass, accordions and 12-string guitars have traditionally been associated with the genre, what artists like Fuerza Regida and Tito Doble P have done to take corridos in a new direction is infuse trap and hip-hop into regional Mexican, creating a vibrant, urban sound that broke into mainstream thanks to Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s hit single, “Ella Baila Sola,” in 2023.

“These performers are very, very young. It definitely has a lot of the culture of trap and gangster rap, which has also taken hold in Mexico and other parts of Latin America,” Ana Sánchez-Rojo, a music professor at Tulane University, told Pollstar in late 2023. “If you listen to Santa Fe Klan and watch his videos, there’s definitely overlap — the tattoos, the way they dress, the attitude and the atmosphere and the use of drugs. There is a lot of that in the U.S.

“The way the vocal melody takes these elements from trap, it’s slower than regular corridos, and it’s very noticeable,” Sánchez-Rojo added. “Usually, corridos, since the beginning of time and to this day, are in major keys, and they sound very different because they introduce minor keys. Those are new, very different sounds to the traditional corrido. On the other hand, you have that minor key and the slower pace the delivery of the vocal melodies that has some trap influences. You also have singers with a raspy voice, or they’re more into that nasal sound.”

It’s Mexico’s new rock and roll, one that older generations are struggling to get behind, not just lyrically but also musically and aesthetically, much like parents couldn’t fathom seeing Elvis Presley shake his hips on television in 1956. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has admitted that she’s not a fan of the lyrics in narcocorridos, but she also doesn’t believe in censorship at the federal level.

“I am not in favor of prohibitions in this case,” Sheinbaum said during a press conference in April. ” …From my point of view, it’s better for society to educate and train itself to put aside these musical contents than prohibit them. It is better to continue spreading and promoting a culture of peace.”

Peace is something everyone strives for, but for the young musicians at the forefront of corridos bélicos, they don’t see it in their beloved country, parts of which have been riddled with violence, kidnappings and disappearances.

In another Instagram story after having his show canceled, Junior H further criticized the Mexican government for not focusing on more pressing matters.

“Why don’t you look at the good things we do for our own immigrant people, for our people? In Mexico, we also help our neighborhoods, and we don’t need to go around uploading it online because we do it from the heart, something you don’t do!” he said. “There are many more important and sad issues that are happening in the world, in the United States, in Mexico! And they divert a topic just because we sing about what happens in real life? In the streets? … Do you think music is the problem? You are! Damn heartless people. You hurt me, Mexico.”