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.
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.
“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.”
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