FILE – Becky G performs on NBC’s “Today” show at Rockefeller Plaza on Aug. 25, 2023, in New York.
Being Chicana is essential to Becky G’s artistry.
“It’s inspired everything, even just the way that I exist — how passionate I am about what I do and every opportunity,” the 27-year-old singer tells TODAY.com.
For over a decade, Becky (born Rebbeca Marie Gomez) has been entertaining fans with hits across rap (“Becky from the Block”), pop (“Shower”), and reggaeton (“Sin Pijama,” “Mamiii”).
Most recently, the genres she’s most focused on are Mexican influenced: mariachi and ranchera-tinged tracks that she says feed her soul in a way her previous works have not. Her second regional Mexican album, “Encuentros,” will be released on Oct. 10, which includes the heartbreak-fueled leading single, “Como Diablos," about an unfaithful partner.
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The genre, she says, came “second nature” to her after growing up in Inglewood, California, from a family that hails from Jalisco, Mexico.
“Singing with the mariachi and the little conjunto that they would hire, the little bandas,” she says. “I always knew in the back of my mind that it would happen one day.”
With grandparents “so present and so influential” in her life that helped raised her, she knew that she wanted to honor them with her craft.
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage
“I remember when I finally became a signed artist, my grandma on my mom’s side in particular, she’s like, ‘OK, I get it. You want to be a rapper, you want to be a pop singer. Pero, cuando la música regional mija?’ Like, when are we going to (do regional music)?’” she recalls. “And I’m like, ‘yeah, we’ll get there.’”
Becky says the death of her grandfather — abuelito Miguel — changed everything.
“Losing him, I think was really the catalyst of like, 'This is the time. This is as raw as I’ve ever felt,'” she says. The result was her first regional Mexican album and third Spanish-language studio album, “Esquinas,” which she announced during her TODAY Citi Concert in August of 2023.
“When I look back at when I started working on ‘Esquinas’ and when we started dabbling with certain sounds, ‘Por El Contrario’ was actually one of the very first songs,” she says of the recently-Latin Grammy nominated hit with Ángela Aguilar and Leonardo Aguilar. “It just aligned with the universe.”
Regional Mexican music began experiencing a global surge in 2023. In April of that year, Eslabon Armado and Peso Pluma’s “Ella Baila Sola” became the first regional Mexican song to enter the top five on the Billboard Hot 100. Then there was Grupo Frontera's collab with Bad Bunny, “un X100to,” which topped the Billboard Global 200 in May 2023. From there, artists like Maluma, Karol G, Shakira and even Snoop Dogg dabbled in the genre.
However, many Mexican and Mexican American people — including Becky — grew up with their family playing banda, corridos, mariachi and many subgenres of what is considered Mexican music.
“This big wave of música Mexicana just taking over in a mainstream way, it just felt like, ‘Wow. What a beautiful time to really be aligned with myself in this way,’” the “La Nena” singer says. “It also feels like the universe was like, 'this is perfect.'”
Becky is proud and excited about what she’s created in the Mexican genre, “because obviously growing up listening to it is one thing, but to actually create original songs and to go deep within yourself — because that’s really what regional music is — it’s folk, it’s storytelling, right? — That’s what ‘Esquinas’ was. That’s what ‘Encuentros’ is. It’s the love letter to the music that raised me.”
That’s what ‘Encuentros’ is. It’s the love letter to the music that raised me.
Becky recently shared the cover art for her upcoming album. It's symbolic in many ways and, once again, ties back to her roots and love for her grandparents.
With a long braid swept to the side, the singer is seen sitting on a chair in front of a bright blue backdrop, while the Los Angeles skyline is off in the distance.
Another meaningful shot is a re-creation of a photo of her late grandfather sitting in front of an aqua wall. Becky puts her own Chicana twist in her own version.
“My dad sends me this picture of my grandpa, and I’m like, No, I actually need to re-create this exact photo!” she recalls, calling it “stoic.” “There’s just something there that just really embodied everything that we’ve been creating.”
Becky describes the album art and the upcoming music as “a Becky that is at peace with herself, she’s more mature, she discovered and learned to embrace these parts of herself.”
“Encuentros,” she says, is a “continuation of this evolution of my storytelling” and discovering new emotions that “fortunately aren’t forever, and unfortunately too.”
She continues: “I wish I could be happy all the time, but you’re not happy all the time. You have other emotions besides joy. You have anger, you have fear, you have all these complex things, right?”
She’s since cut her hair into a short bob as a symbol of “all the things that I now want to offer to this album.”
Among the new songs in her upcoming album, Becky reveals, are some that “you will feel just how vulnerable I am.” One is dedicated to her younger sister, Stephanie, whose 21st birthday made Becky very emotional.
“I was a mess,” she says as the eldest of four siblings. “It’s wild, this love that I feel. I can’t even imagine how I’m going to feel for my own kids. I’d do anything for my siblings.”
She says this specific song is the equivalent to “Quierido Abuelo” from “Esquinas,” which would make her cry almost every night while on tour. Becky is embarking on her “Casa Gomez: Otro Capítulo Tour” on Oct. 11.
“Once we announce our track list, once you see it, you’ll be like, ‘I know exactly which one it is!’” she teases. “I wrote it dedicated it to my siblings.”
Additionally, during the Patrón Cristalino launch in Los Angeles, Becky revealed a collaboration with Tito Double P is also featured on the album. That night, Tito Double P and Gabito Ballesteros took the stage with Becky to raise a toast to Mexican culture and the future of música Mexicana.
“(Tequila) tastes like my first heartbreak — very true on brand Mexicana for me. There’s a tradition in what it means to actually share with the people around us... It’s a way to connect,” she says. “This whole identity crisis that you grow up with as a young Chicana growing up here in L.A., of not being Latina enough, and ni de aquí, ni de allá...where do I belong? When I’m drinking my tequila... and I’m really enjoying it, it’s like, no, (being Mexican) is actually really in my blood.”
“For me, it’s an opportunity to connect with my culture... and it’s a beautiful thing.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
