Grupo Frontera's hybrid Mexican music went global. On a new album, their genre-melding has no limits

BY MARIA SHERMAN
Updated 9:24 AM CDT, May 10, 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — A lot can happen in two years. Just ask Grupo Frontera, who released their highly anticipated sophomore album, “Jugando Que No Pasa Nada,” Friday.

The sextet began as a local band in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, playing events like quinceañeras — a hobby for its members who held very different jobs: wedding photographer, car dealership manager, gate repairer and so on. Then, viral fame arrived in 2022 when their spirited cover of “No Se Va” by the Colombian pop-rock band Morat made the rounds on TikTok and later, the Billboard Hot 100.

Eventually, they quit their jobs, and the hits — and accolades — kept coming. They linked up with superstar producer Édgar Barrera, who hails from their corner of Texas and worked on both their albums. Last year, Grupo Frontera released their biggest track to date, “Un x100to,” a collaboration with Puerto Rican reggaetón superstar Bad Bunny, peaked at No. 5 on Billboard’s all-genre Hot 100. That song earned them a Latin Grammy.

They’ve sold out arenas and by the time their debut album, “El Comienzo,” was released last August, they’d already established themselves one of the most exciting new voices in Latin music.

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