Mexican singer Carín León will release a country music album after “stomping his feet” with this genre in the United States, particularly on the stages of Nashville, which he links to ties with regional Mexico, he announced Monday at Billboard’s Latin Music Week.
“There’s the second part of ‘Boca chueca’ that we did, of the album, and the country project, which is what I’m most excited about, or the best thing I’ve done, of everything I’ve done, next year,” the artist revealed at The Fillmore theater in Miami Beach.
The performer announced this album after becoming in June the first Latin artist with his own track listing in the Spotify House at CMA Fest, a country festival in Nashville, Tennessee, in the southern United States, where he also debuted in 2024 at the Grand Ole Opry, the genre’s main stage.
In addition, he released the duet ‘She Hurts Like Tequila’ with country icon Cody Johnson last March, which he considers to be “making a splash in the community” that listens to this music, originally from the southern United States.
“I have always had respect (for country music) and I have always said it, there is a very important communion between our root genre, which is Mexican regional music, and one of the root genres of the United States, which is country music,” said the singer, originally from Sonora, a state on Mexico’s northern border.
Carín León: The first Latino in The Sphere
Carín León, with more than 28 million monthly listeners on Spotify, will also be the first Latin artist to perform at The Sphere in Las Vegas, where tickets for his first three dates sold out in an hour, said his manager, Jorge Juárez.
The success of the creator, whose real name is Óscar Armando Díaz de León and started with a local band 20 years ago, is due to his versatility, according to Juárez, as he incorporates rhythms such as rock and R&B into regional Mexican music, and has performed duets with artists as diverse as Kanny García, Maluma and Bon Jovi.
Despite his current popularity, the artist revealed that at the beginning “there was a lot of criticism” towards his music, his clothes and his expressions “because it was something new”.
“Whenever there is something that changes things, a blow or a crash, there always has to be a bit of controversy, people have to question whether it is right or wrong,” he said.
But the performer insisted that he sees no “limits” in regional Mexican music, arguing that accordion music, a distinctive instrument of the genre, can be included in pop or rock songs.
Carín León was the featured guest on Monday at the kickoff of Billboard Latin Music Week 2025, considered the most important meeting of the Spanish-language music industry, which will have its awards night on Thursday, reported Agencia EFE.
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