De Los is heading back to SXSW. Here's who's playing at our music showcase
We had so much fun that we're doing it again.
On Thursday, De Los announced via Instagram the list of acts performing at our upcoming showcase. While 2024's lineup featured a sampling of various Latin music genres, this year's selection of artists has a strong emphasis on música Mexicana, which has been dominating the streaming services over the last 12 months.
If you're in Austin for SXSW, join us at Mala Fama, located at 422 E. 6th St., Austin, on Tuesday, March 11 starting at 8 p.m. And if you're not going to the festival, I encourage you to check out these acts anyway. Who knows, you might just discover your favorite new band.
Here's who's playing at the 2025 De Los showcase.
Conjunto Rienda Real
One of the fastest-growing subgenres within música Mexicana is norteño sax, which, as the name suggests, utilizes the alto saxophone as its main instrument. With more than 2 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Conjunto Rienda Real is among the acts leading the charge. Originally from San Luis Potosí, a state in central Mexico, the band has won over fans with their love-laced ballads and their penchant for collaborating with other norteño sax groups (La Pocima Norteña, Los Primos del Este).
Noteworthy track: 'Nadie Va A Pensar En Ti Mejor Que Yo' (Ed Maverick cover)
Arsenal Efectivo
It could very well be that Arsenal Efectivo is your favorite música Mexicana artist's favorite música Mexicana act. The trio — composed of L.A.-based Francisco 'Shrek' Rodriguez, Francisco 'Poncho' Alfonso and Javier Bojorquez (the latter reside in Phoenix) — is considered the originators of 'trap corridos,' a fusion of narco ballads and hip-hop. The band's 2015 EP 'Vida Peligrosa' set the template for the subgenre, which has since blown up on a global scale thanks to a slew of younger artists like Natanael Cano and Peso Pluma.
Noteworthy track: 'LoLo Félix'
Sultanes del Yonke
I won't lie, I was sold on Sultanes del Yonke solely on the strength of their name, which in English translates to 'Sultans of the Junkyard.' It's a fitting one, too! The band, which hails from the Ciudad Juarez/El Paso borderlands, plays a brand of music that takes scraps of genres like cumbia sonidera, funk and pop to create something wholly unique. It is sonic rasquachismo at its finest.
Noteworthy track: 'Corazón de Troquero'
Midnight Navy
Midnight Navy is a one-man act, the artistic moniker of Francisco Jose Rosales, a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter producer and saxophonist who incorporates Chicano Soul, R&B and indie pop. Rosales has earned the praise of local media outlets, including the Austin Chronicle, Texas Monthly, NPR affiliate KUT and Austin Monthly.
Noteworthy track: 'Corazón' (featuring Grace Sorensen)
Edgar Alejandro
The son of two mariachi players, Edgar Alejandro seems as if he was destined to take the extremely popular Mexican genre and refashion it for the TikTok age. And that's exactly what he's done with his fusion of mariachi-backed románticas, jazz, Bossa nova and salsa. The 23-year-old born in Guadalajara and now based in Los Angeles blew up on Tiktok thanks to the release of 'A Tu Lado,' a timeless track that could have very well been performed by the likes of the legendary Pedro Infante.
'I was like that one dude,' Alejandro told Times staff reporter Nathan Solis last October of his proclivity for the sounds of a bygone era. 'I mean I've always loved modern music, but I would start putting all my friends onto older music.'
Noteworthy track: 'A Tu Lado'
Bolo
Born in the Bay Area and now based in San Diego, Bolo (real name: Edgar Avalos) has made space for Latin sounds in the world of electronic dance music. In the last year, he's performed at high-profile festivals like Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas and Hard Summer.
Noteworthy track: 'Tuku Tu'
After decades in prison, he transformed himself into the Inland Empire's homeboy news anchor
In the Inland Empire, where local news has been severely diminished, Ahmed Bellozo's 'On the Tira' local news videos, inspired by Huell Howser, are resonating on social media. This article is part of a De Los initiative to expand coverage of the Inland Empire with funding from the Cultivating Inland Empire Latino Opportunity (CIELO) Fund at the Inland Empire Community Foundation.
Over 25 years later, Shakira's MTV 'Unplugged' concert is available for streaming
Shakira's beloved performance on the MTV series 'Unplugged' has been released from the vault and is now streaming on Paramount+. Recorded live in 1999, the famed episode paved the way for Shakira's first Grammy win. In my humble opinion, it also features the best version of 'Ciega, Sordomuda.'
Rancho Humilde, Sony will collaborate on music label's feature film debut 'Clika'
Music mogul Jimmy Humilde's record label Rancho Humilde is teaming up with Sony to release the film 'Clika' on Aug. 15. The movie, directed by Michael Greene, tells the story of a musician fighting to carry on his family's legacy, and will star Herencia de Patrones frontman Jay Dee.
Daddy Yankee files lawsuit against ex-wife for $250 million in business damages
According to court documents reviewed by The Times, the reggaetonero — whose legal name is Ramón L. Ayala Rodríguez — filed a lawsuit earlier this week in a Puerto Rican court alleging breaches of fiduciary duties and of contract, as well as damages against ex-wife Mireddys González and her sister, Ayeicha González Castellanos.
Commentary: Latinos often struggle to keep their footing in the middle class. The fires made it even harder for these families
For some Latino families, owning a home in Altadena was a symbol of upward mobility. The Eaton fire left them grappling with how to recover.
Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso chase Tiny Desk fame with new EP 'Papota'
What happens after a Tiny Desk performance goes viral? If you're the edgy Argentine duo Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso, you simply build on the momentum. Since their iconic performance, the duo have embarked on a world tour, are slated to make their Coachella debut and have released a new EP, 'Papota.'
Rimas Entertainment acquires 'significant stake' in Dale Play Records
Rimas Enterntaiment, the label behind global superstar Bad Bunny, has acquired a significant stake in Dale Play Records, one of the leading forces in Spanish-language music.
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Vox
3 hours ago
- Vox
The taboo that Americans just can't seem to break
is a lesbian journalist and author based in New York City. Her work has been featured in New York Magazine, Cosmopolitan, the New York Times, and many others. When Alana Romero was a child, they'd leave their bed in the middle of the night, sneak through her family's darkened home in South Florida, and slip into her sisters' bedrooms. But they didn't want to play, gossip, or otherwise annoy her siblings — she wanted to make sure they hadn't died in their sleep. 'I would wake up, crawl to my sister's room, just put my hand under her nose and make sure she was still breathing,' Romero, now 26, recalls. 'If she was snoring, that was a good sign.' Romero would then check on her little sister one room over. Is she breathing? Yes. Reassured for the moment, Romero would return to their own bed. Romero didn't know exactly why she was making these anxious nighttime visits at the time — she kept them to herself. What they did know was that in their Catholic, Latino family, death wasn't something that was acknowledged, much less discussed. 'It's like, don't talk about death, don't do the taboo things, maybe don't even prepare for [death] because if you just don't talk about it, don't prepare for it, maybe it won't happen,' Romero says. Vox Culture Culture reflects society. Get our best explainers on everything from money to entertainment to what everyone is talking about online. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. When a loved one did pass, the circumstances of their death, and the events of their lives, weren't brought up again, at least not with Romero. It felt like once a family member was gone, they were gone for good. So, like many other children with questions but no answers, Romero carried on as best as they could. She worried, she wondered, she woke up in the middle of the night. In the US, we've long approached death with secrecy and silence. Despite the fact that, according to one survey, nearly half of Americans think about death at least once a month — and a quarter of them think about it every day — many keep these thoughts to themselves. When asked to rank their willingness to talk about various taboos, from money to sex to religion, respondents ranked death dead last, at 32 percent. Furthermore, a 2018 survey conducted by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement found that while 92 percent of Americans agreed that discussing their end-of-life preferences was important, only 32 percent actually followed through. In other words, people struggle to bridge the gap between an internal awareness of death, and the actual external preparation for it. 'Death is the ultimate loss of control. It's the ultimate uncertainty.' There are any number of reasons why people avoid these conversations. You may not know where to begin. You may not want to upset others. You may not know how to answer your child's questions. You may be afraid of aging, illness, the callous indifference of insurance companies, and the creeping of medical debt. You may be superstitious. You may feel too young or too old to worry about it. Or you may hate to confront, once and for all, that you are afraid of what you can't prevent, contain, or wish away. 'Death is the ultimate loss of control. It's the ultimate uncertainty,' says Claire Bidwell Smith, therapist, grief counselor and author of Conscious Grieving: A Transformative Approach to Healing From Loss. 'We can really get very clear and focused and organized about so many aspects of our lives, yet death is the one that we cannot. We can't predict it, we can't control it.' This studious avoidance of death has real consequences: Less than half of US adults have a will, which dictates financial and estate preferences after death. Likewise, only about 45 percent of adults have a living will, which dictates wishes around medical care. These numbers may be surprising given the Covid-19 pandemic, which exposed a generation of Americans to the existential dread, systemic failures, and grief of a global death event. But after a brief uptick in estate planning during the pandemic, interest waned. These cultural seeds have long been sown by organizers, spiritual leaders, academics, medical and funeral professionals — and much of this work pre-dates the pandemic. The contemporary death positive movement, which advocates for a transparent, unabashed approach to death and death care, began in earnest in the early 2010s when author and mortician Caitlin Doughty founded the advocacy group The Order of the Good Death. This movement has deep roots in the hospice care, green burial, and home funeral movements. Still, despite the pandemic's fresh lessons — and the ancient knowledge that death comes for us all — many of us still cannot bear to talk about death. Even when we know it's important. Even though we may want to. So why not? And what would we stand to gain if, instead, we learned to speak about dying more openly? How death became laden down with euphemism American attitudes around death and dying are fairly modern creations, taking root in the 19th century. Until then, most people died at home. Rites were carried out by community members, bodies were washed and displayed in the home for mourners, and funerals were cheap, intimate and hands-on affairs. That is, until the Civil War. In the early 1860s, people were, for the first time, dying away from their homes en masse. To address this, embalming — the process of slowing down decomposition by replacing the body's blood with chemicals — was used to preserve bodies long enough to transport them back to those families who could afford it. Sarah Chavez, a writer, historian, and activist who is the executive director of Order of the Good Death and founding member of the death scholarship organization The Collective for Radical Death Studies, says embalming didn't truly captivate the American imagination until the death of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. 'When [Lincoln] died, he was embalmed and went on a multicity tour, like he was a music artist,' Chavez says. 'People came out in droves to see the funeral train and his body. That really kind of cemented embalming as this new, American thing.' Embalming became more widely popular and laid the foundations for a new paradigm: dead bodies cared for outside the home by a buttoned-up, for-profit class of embalmers. Over the next few decades, embalmers and funeral workers, who Chavez says signaled wealth and elegance by setting up shop in Victorian-style homes, slowly gained a foothold in the United States. At the same time, during the turn of the 20th century, medical care was also leaving the home and entering more firmly into the purview of trained doctors, nurses, and hospital systems. 'The funeral industry and the medical industry rose up together and kind of partnered to position themselves as these guardians of health and safety,' Chavez says. (Seeking trained medical professionals has obvious benefits for the living, but keep in mind that dead bodies aren't dangerous, and embalming services aren't necessary for health or safety.) By the 1930s, the modern funeral industry had taken off and sold a new, 'dignified' version of death — one that rapidly isolated the living from their own dead. 'Their definition of what a [dignified death] was, is expensive, away from the home amongst professionals, devoid of signs of death through embalming,' Chavez says. 'They come in and they whisk away your person and they return them to you as if they look alive, as if they're sleeping.' If you've ever said 'passed away' instead of died, 'loved one' rather than dead body, or 'memorial park' rather than cemetery, you'll begin to see how thoroughly death has been obscured. There are, of course, vibrant counterexamples of this attitude across American culture. For marginalized communities in particular, elaborate, public displays of death and grieving offer the dead a dignity and power society never offered them in life. Homegoing rituals in Black communities, which often blend African and Christian practices, and political funerals and 'ash actions' during the AIDS crisis both come to mind. Still, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, death became laden down with euphemism for large swaths of society. This was often encouraged by the funerary industry, whose professionals developed language to avoid talking about death while, paradoxically, talking about death. If you've ever said 'passed away' instead of died, 'loved one' rather than dead body, or 'memorial park' rather than cemetery, you'll begin to see how thoroughly death has been obscured from the common lexicon. This language, or lack thereof, can make every aspect of death more secretive and more confusing, from the actual physiological process of dying itself all the way down to funeral prices. These factors — embalming practices, the expansion of a for-profit funeral industry, and a developing taste for euphemism — gave birth to the modern American death taboo. The cost of silence When we avoid talking about death, we risk living and dying in ways that don't align with our values and needs. If you don't discuss end-of-life medical treatment, for example, you may receive invasive and expensive care you never wanted. Or as a caregiver, you may be forced to make quality of life, death care, and estate-related decisions based on your best guess rather than falling back on the information and documentation needed to confidently honor someone else's wishes. ' Many of us know so many people who've died and didn't have a plan,' says Darnell Lamont Walker, death doula and author of the Notes From a Death Doula Substack. 'And so when they die, the family is falling apart and everyone is thinking, Oh well this is what I think they would have wanted.' In that situation, it's easy for conflict to break out among even the most well-meaning family members. Talking about the logistic aspects of death ahead of time — including your legal and medical rights during and after dying — can help you, your loved ones, and your community act with clarity and conviction. But for some, talking about the logistics of death is the easier part — there are steps to follow, forms to fill out, bills to pay. Instead, it's the emotional consequences that are far more difficult to grapple with. This was the case for Kayla Evans, whose dad died in 2013. Growing up, her family didn't talk about death unless it was about practical matters. 'There was a very utilitarian response,' Evans recalls. 'Like, it's sad, but we have to move on.' From her mother, there was an unspoken message that 'people who were very sentimental about death were silly.' 'Nobody taught me how to deal with grief and nobody taught me how to deal with death.' Then, when she was 18, during her second week as a college freshman, Evan's father died unexpectedly. 'Nobody saw it coming,' Evans, now 30, says. 'As he was dying, my mom was like, We need to transfer your name over to these financial documents … the administrative tasks that follow death, things like that, were very well taken care of. I don't think any of us together processed the emotional side of it. That was something I had to do on my own.' Without anyone to talk to, Evans turned to 'extreme productivity' as a coping mechanism in the months after, piling on projects and jobs and schoolwork — a strategy that came at the expense of her relationships and emotional wellbeing. ' I would like to say I grew from [my father's death] or something, but honestly it was just really fucking hard,' Evans says. 'Nobody taught me how to deal with grief and nobody taught me how to deal with death.' Twelve years later, 'I feel it still trails [my mother] especially, and it trails me, too,' Evans says. Talk about death is, weirdly, life-affirming It's not always easy to have conversations about death. But, clearly, it's not easy to avoid them, either. If you want to start grappling with the reality of death, the first step is to ask yourself questions about the end of your own life, though it can feel scary. What does a life well-lived look like for you? How do you want to die? How do you want to be remembered? Taking the time to reflect on your own can help you clarify what you want and better prepare you to tell others what you need. When approaching loved ones about end of life wishes — either your own or theirs — Kathryn Mannix, physician, palliative care specialist, and author of With the End in Mind recommends breaking down the conversation into two parts: the invitation to talk and the conversation itself. For example, you may say something like, Dad, I want to be able to step up and care for you when the time comes. Do you think we could talk about the care you do and do not want towards the end of your life? Could we talk sometime over the next few weeks? 'Talking about our wishes at the end of life is a gift to our future self and to the people who love us.' Alternatively, if you'd like to start the conversation about your own wishes, Mannix suggests something like: Kids, I'm not getting any younger and there are things I'd like to talk about to put my mind at ease. When can we talk? This approach matters because it allows the conversation to happen when all parties have had time to think and prepare. 'Talking about our wishes at the end of life is a gift to our future self and to the people who love us,' Mannix wrote in an email. 'Talking about dying won't make it happen any sooner, but it can make it happen a great deal better.' But these conversations shouldn't just be about end-of-life care or medical decisions — it's also an opportunity to give and receive stories, explore your spiritual beliefs, get existential with your kids, and connect over grief, joys, and regrets. For example, you may approach an elder and ask: What are some of the defining moments of your life? You may ask a child, What do you think happens after we die? Or you may ask a friend, Have you ever navigated death and grieving? Finding your own way to incorporate death into your life can also serve as a corrective to a wider culture of silence. 'I'm currently getting more and more comfortable with death through spiritual practice and connecting to my family's roots of Santeria,' says Romero, who checked their sisters' breathing at night. She connected to Santeria, an Afro-Caribbean religion that originated in Cuba and blends traditional Yoruba practices and Catholicism, through her grandmother, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. 'I also find that I'm coping a hell of a lot better than other people in my family because I do have this comfort in knowing that … I will always have a relationship with her, even in the afterlife, through my spiritual practice.' Evans, whose father died when she was 18, decided to talk about death and grief during her wedding earlier this year. In her vows, she talked about the sensation of watching her husband sleep at night, and the 'creeping dread' of knowing he was going to die some day. ' I think that other people appreciate when you talk about things like that, even if it's hard to, and it was important for me,' Evans says. 'I did feel kind of empowered, or at the very least like I had confessed something, you know, it was a relief.' For Evans, talking about her preemptive grief wasn't morbid — it was a testament to her deep regard for her husband.
USA Today
17 hours ago
- USA Today
Prince Royce runs on 'old-school' workouts, video games and action TV
In USA TODAY's The Essentials, celebrities share what fuels their lives, whether it's at home, on set, or on the road. As far as Prince Royce is concerned, the mark of a great song is that it "lasts a lifetime." The multiplatinum Latin pop star, who broke out in the early 2010s with his charming bilingual rendition of the Ben E. King classic "Stand by Me," is tipping his hat to the greats once more on his latest album "Eterno" (out now). The singer reimagines pop standards from the likes of Elvis Presley, the Bee Gees, Backstreet Boys and others with his signature bachata style. But for Royce, it's about more than just throwback jams: "As an artist ... you want to put out music that could go through generations and that can fit in other genres and rhythms and hopefully can just cross the globe." Royce, who grew up in a Dominican family in New York City, says these tropical-infused covers not only "show love and respect" to the original hits but also allow him to share a slice of his bicultural heritage with fans of varying backgrounds. "I grew up listening to American music, but I also grew up listening to Latin music in Spanish and English, and that's just my upbringing, all these rhythms in one place," Royce, 36, says. "And I kind of can bring that mix of my upbringing to (Dominican Republic), to American people, to people who know both languages." Music isn't the only esencial in Royce's life. The singer dishes on some of his beloved staples, from video games and daily workouts to action-packed TV. Prince Royce stays fit with 'old-school' workouts, 'sweet' dog Ruby Who needs a gym buddy when you have man's best friend? Royce stays in shape with a series of daily workouts that span "old-school" weight training with metal free weights to outdoor runs and golfing. As for warming up, the singer gets his blood pumping with morning walks with his Belgian Malinois dog Ruby. "The physical aspect just forces me to be healthier, to wake up early," says Royce of his exercise regimen. "Subconsciously, I wouldn't stay out drinking all night because I know I got to walk my dog and go to the gym, get up early and grind." Royce, who's "never really been that much of a dog person," gushes about his canine pal. "It's like a military dog," he says with a laugh. "She's like 70 pounds. It's my first big dog, but she's a sweet girl." "Originally, it was more like, 'let's get a dog to protect the house' type of vibe," Royce adds. "We kind of got lucky. … We read all these things online that said Belgian Malinois are crazy and they'll eat up everything in the house, but she's been good so far." 10 bingeable memoirs to check out: Celebrities tell all about aging, marriage and Beyoncé Prince Royce is all about the action for gaming, TV faves Royce doesn't play when it comes to his screen time. A self-described "big gamer," Royce often turns to video games as a travel pastime during long flights and hotel stays. Some of his favorites include the action franchises Call of Duty ("It's always the game that never ends") and Assassin's Creed. The singer's love of gaming extends beyond the console. When it comes to TV, Royce has been watching video game adaptations such as "The Last of Us" and "Fallout," with the latter blowing him away with its faithfulness to the game. "The way that they would play classical music while they're blowing something up and people are getting shot up, that's how the game actually was,' he says. "Those things kind of hype me up." Additionally, the Prime Video series' canine protagonist CX404, a Belgian Malinois, was the catalyst for Royce getting his dog Ruby. "It's also the same dog from 'John Wick,' and I like 'John Wick,' too. So then when I saw it in 'Fallout,' I'm like, 'That's it. I'm getting the badass dog.'" Prince Royce is grooving to deep house and this Drake album For Royce, there doesn't have to be a party to keep the beat going. The "Stuck on a Feeling" hitmaker has been listening to the pulsating grooves of deep house, a subgenre of house music known for its ambient and soul influences. "I've always liked it," Royce says, adding that the genre is perfect for "chilling by the pool on a Sunday or on a boat or just at home." "It's kind of chill vibes but still up-tempo." Royce's playlist is also bumping with Bad Bunny's reggaeton banger "Velda," taken from his latest album "Debi Tirar Mas Fotos," as well as the Drake and PartyNextDoor collaboration record "$ome $exy $ongs 4 U." "I'm a big Drake fan in general," he says. "That album was pretty cool." Prince Royce nerds out with self-help books, documentaries Royce isn't one for passive entertainment, whether it's the pages of a book or his channel-surfing destinations. The Latin Grammy-nominated singer recently finished reading "Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee" by Shannon Lee, a self-help biography he says he appreciated for its "motivational" exploration of the late martial arts icon's Zen philosophy: "You put water in a cup, and it just transforms into whatever shape of that cup. It kind of molds into whatever situation." "If I'm going to listen to something, or if I'm going to read something, I really hope that I'm reading something that can make me a better person or better my business or family," Royce says. Royce's thirst for knowledge also influences his viewing choices, citing documentaries as a favorite film genre. "I like learning something," he says. "I'll watch random animal documentaries on the History Channel or something, and those things sometimes interest me more than regular movies."
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
Warner Music Group Names Alejandro Duque New President of ADA
Warner Music Group has named Alejandro Duque as the next president of its distribution arm ADA, the company announced Wednesday. The news comes a day after Cat Kreidich wrote in an internal memo to staff that she'd be stepping down after four years at the helm. More from The Hollywood Reporter Justin Bieber's 'Swag': A Silver Lining for the No. 2 Chart Debut Why Rock Music Is Thriving in the Streaming Era Laysla De Oliveira to Star in 'Cowboy,' the Debut Feature From Midland's Cameron Duddy (Exclusive) Along with his new role at ADA, Duque will continue his role as Latin America president. Latin music is one of the fastest growing areas in the industry, while distribution has become an area of increased focus for labels to grow their market share, putting Duque at the helm of two of the more high-profile divisions of the company. He will continue to be based out of Miami. 'Alejandro's leadership will help us differentiate ADA … providing independent labels and artists with opportunities at a speed and scale they won't find anywhere else,' WMG CEO Robert Kyncl said in a statement. 'He has a proven track record of supporting the indie community, as well as a deep understanding of WMG's reach and resources as catalysts for global superstardom. This combination is going to bring down barriers for ADA's clients, plugging them more directly into our infrastructure, and empowering them to build their businesses.' Prior to joining WMG back in 2021, Duque had roles at Universal Music Colombia, Universal Music Latino, Machete and Capitol Latin. Among the artists he's worked with at Warner Music Latin America are Natanael Cano, Myke Towers, Blessd, Danny Ocean and Elena Rose among others. 'Across the globe, there are dynamic, culture-shifting artists with a wide variety of needs to propel their careers forward,' Duque said in a statement Wednesday. 'We're committed to growing our distribution business and enhancing the ADA brand, through a combination of excellent service, flexible deal-making, and tech innovation. We've done this successfully in Latin America, and now we're taking that holistic approach to the entire business by integrating our independent distribution strategy even more tightly with our teams in the US and around the world.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire Solve the daily Crossword
