NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Why Harry Styles and The xx love Latin America

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

Harry Styles just finished a 5-night run in Mexico City. You know who else had a 5-night run in Mexico City? Michael Jackson in 1993.Mainstream artists have a long history of being enticed by the energy of performing for a Latin American crowd … which means there’s also a long and less-known history of big pop stars making music for that audience.Did you know Michael Jackson has a Latin track? So does Madonna. A few actually.As early as the '50s, Nat King Cole experimented with Spanish and released an entire record, Cole Español, writing songs in partnership with legendary "Bésame Mucho" composer Consuelo Velásquez.This week’s Alt.Latino is a pop takeover. We’re mythbusting the idea that there’s only been one kind of crossover — from Latin to mainstream — and walking through a long history of mainstream wanting to go… Latin.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Just a warning, this episode contains explicit language. From NPR music, this is Alt Latino. I'm Anna Maria Sayer, Let the Chisembe begin. Okay, so two big pieces of Chisemey. One is that Felix is out this week. He's been sprinting on the amazing Grateful Dead series that he did. You should really go check it out. So we're giving him some time away.

Now, since he's away, I figured, great moment to talk about another really exciting thing that just happened. Harry Stiles just completed a five-show run in Mexico and I was lucky enough to make it to his final night. The energy was truly unreal, which was amazing to experience, but also very unsurprising to me knowing that Mexico and Latin America in general have an extremely long history of loving mainstream pop. There's a long of people across Latin America loving all kinds of imported music. In recent years, we've seen or at least been noticing that a lot of big pop artists are doing runs across Latin America.

With genres like reggaeton and regional Mexican making it global, there's been more interest to participate and make that music too. Many began to notice this shift in 2017 with none other than Justin Bieber. We all right to take the track de spasito, it took the world by storm for Latin America. It felt like a big shift in the kinds of places in the mainstream that we could be represented. This got me thinking. because so many people for years have talked about a Latin crossover.

What we haven't talked about as much is the history of people actually, mainstream artists actually crossing over to us. So I'm going to go ahead and take this episode to walk us through some of that history today and play you all a few of my favorite pop tracks. Now, it's important to know I will keep using the word mainstream. It's kind of a complicated word and what it really means, again, it's all relative to where you are in your context. But what it means in the context of today's episode is big U.S.-Canadian European artists who are considered to be important in a U.S.

or global market. Yes, think a Justin Bieber, a Harry Styles, a Taylor Swift. Okay, so here we go. Time to do some myth-busting and tell a new story about a less talked-about crossover. To better explain that, let's go all the way back to 1958 with Nat King Cole's first of three Spanish records, Gol Españo. This is a song called Cachito. So there's a few things about this song and this record to highlight. Obviously for anyone who speaks Spanish,

the Spanish is, well, notably, maybe a little rough. But something that really works for me in this record, but something that really works for me in this record is there is a Latin passion to it that does translate. quite nicely. There's a particular line to me that really stands out. By your side, I don't know what is tristessa and the hours se me passin sin senti. You look at me mirro and I

pierdo the head and the only that I can repeat it. By your side, I don't know what sadness is and the hours slip by without even noticing. You look at me and I lose my head and all I can do is repeat. To me, that felt like, as classic as any of my abuelas boleros in its communication and its lyricism, in the pay,

and the passion. So I did some digging, and I found out it was composed by the famous Consuelo Vasquez, who is known for standards like Beza Me Mucho. The point is, Nat King Cole had incredible success with this record. He started playing shows in Latin America, and people across the two continents really received it well. So he went on to create two more records in Spanish. Record labels obviously want money and there was money to be had in Latin America. So why don't we talk more about the crossover the other way? One theory is that the door seems to always kind of be open to mainstream pop crossover in Latin America.

And that's for a lot of reasons. There's like I mentioned, big years, big appetite, and interest in love for that music is always there. So what happens is it really comes something that's up to the record labels or the artist if they feel like they want to engage in a more direct way with it. Spoiler alert, record labels have forgotten and remembered the value of this audience various times throughout the history of all contemporary pop. It's important to note. From a financial perspective, Latin America is actually a really valuable territory to conquer.

You're talking about a whole two continents that, yes, there's many languages embedded across Latin America, think indigenous ones in Portuguese, but overall has a pretty uniform dialect and way of communicating itself through rhythm. So yeah, you cross over into the territory and you have a pretty big market to play with. I'm about to walk you through some of the crossover ebb and flow over the years. But while I do, I want you all to keep in mind a question that's been crossing my mind because the more of these examples I see, of course the first thought that comes to mind is business opportunity. But it's important to think, are there other factors at play here? keep in mind the artist the context the art itself so leaving nat king cole behind cole

we're going to fast forward to the 80s and a moment of reignited interest in incorporating latin sound with the one the only madonna here's her track called isla bonita i don't know if you all can recognize that very distinct guitar but that is indeed the one and only carlo santana playing on this track you have this nice Marimba, almost a flamenco sounding guitar. Madonna has a long history of experimenting with a lot of different cultures and sounds in her music. I mentioned a couple episodes back, her experimentation with the Portuguese Cabo Verde artist Dino di Santiago, the way that he produced for her a lot of different sounds from African electronic music. This was a really important moment for a lot of

people because it opened up lines in the really big mainstream MTV era of pop for there to be Latin sounds and people singing in Spanish. Another track that she did at the time was this one called You'll See. With this track, it's a lot more subtle in its quote Latin-ness, but there is an element of flamenco guitar and nods to tropical sounds as well. I will say lyrically, despite the fact that it's in English, there's something about the indignation to me that feels very Latin. In 1993, you'll see that Michael Jackson actually decides to go and tour in Mexico for the first time. He does five nights sold out in the Estabio Esteka. Mexico is absolutely enamored with Michael and other people take notice. You start to see an uptick and all kinds of artists

at the time the biggest name starting to tour in Mexico. Think Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and our girl Madonna. Michael ends up paying homage to his Spanish language fans eight years later with this song called Whatever Happens. Once again, we have a feature of our amazing Carlos Santana. Now, obviously we're talking about mainstream non-Latin, non-Spanish-speaking artists who are doing more Latin sounds, but it is worth mentioning artists like Carlos Santana

who really served as a throughline or bridge for some of these artists to experiment. Mexico at this point is absolutely glued to MTV. Throughout the entire 90s, they're fascinated by the American and otherwise big mainstream pop sounds. Now, in the early 2000s, we do see some of this energy die down. I think it's also worth noting that that's when we see artists like Shakira start to do more intense crossovers. 2001 is also when Shakira releases her all-English, blonde record laundry service. So it's kind of like in tandem as we see more Latin American artists pushing over in their crossover, which is the crossover we love to talk about. We see less mainstream artists pushing over to the Latin space.

So with this focus on Latin artists to make it mainstream, it seems we have a lot of, a slowdown in the reverse. People are more focused again, like I said, on that story of how do we get a Latin American artist into a U.S. market? That is until about the 2010s. I'm going to play you this track, Romeo Santos Bichata song from 2014 called Odieo, featuring Drake. As we can see, this is a straight ahead Romeo Santos signature Batchata record, but we just

have Drake rapping on it. You were the one. You've been the one from the moment I've seen it. Sometimes I question if this is all real, then I grab on that ass and I firmly believe it in you. Look like you drawn by our artist, no you. You look like Bernie Sinjaris, but both put together. Those are some girls that I know from back home.

If you saw them, you get it. Look, don't worry about it. Keep speaking Spanish. I get it. Translady. You know you, my baby. Anything for you. Anything, baby. I do not want to be enemies, baby.

I would just much rather give you a baby and buy you a house so I live with you, baby. Don't stay with this new guy. I really go crazy. I really go crazy. Now, everyone likes to think that reggaeton came to the mainstream pop world with some of the big regettoneros. No, I like to say it started with this Justin Bieber track called Sorry. Else explicitly Latin about this track, Justin isn't singing in Spanish, he doesn't have a Latin feature.

But this is the first time we really hear a Dembo beat under a mainstream pop track. Now, of course, a year later, Despacito hits and everything changes. The entire waterfall of all kinds of artists experimenting in the Latin space. I'm talking Siza with her collaboration with Caliuchis. Ocean releases in all Spanish track, Cajendo. Not too bash on a little Bash on Frank Ocean Spanish, but it does feel a little reminiscent

to me of Nat King Coles. We have Khalid on a track with Jay Balvin in 2021, Otra Noche Sin Tee. Madonna comes back, because she never really left us, on a track with Tokisha in 2022 called Hung Up on Tokisha. Beyond the fact that obviously there's now a huge Latin explosion, we understand why Madonna would want to do a Spanish track again. Tokisha and Madonna to me is like the perfect foil parallel from Latin America and the American

pop world. Then we have the famous Snoop Dog and Banda MS. Collaboration. Que maldison. Even when I get out, I come right back to the y'all. Now that is Snoop-Dohle when you're on me when I'ma-huehsore always I'm always I love you dearly.

And every time you're gone, I'm always going won't you near me, Snoopy? Now, that is Snoop Dog rapping on a straight-ahead regional Mexican track. As of today, that song has 106 million views on YouTube. So clearly it was something that people enjoyed. Now, there's two really important things to note here. one which I find really fascinating is that a lot of these artists experimenting in the Spanish language

space or the Latin music space are rap, hip hop, soul, R&B artists, which historically is one of the least popular forms of quote mainstream popular music in Latin America. It's just not something that does super well in places like Mexico. Mexico historically loves rock, loves pop, but hip hop, rap, R&B, it just doesn't quite have a compatible flow with Mexican passion. It's hard to explain. But these are the artists that seem the most interested in experimenting in the space. And obviously, they're not doing bad because they keep doing it. I think a lot of this has to do with a genuine curiosity that Mexico has for all kinds of music. I spoke with Ricardo Gomez, who works at Ossesa doing a lot of the international artist booking. Ocessa being basically the

Mexican version of Live Nation. And he told me that Mexico is consistently a top five destination for hundreds of international artists. There's just a ton of music consumption in Mexico. Of course, like I mentioned, 106 million views on que maldison, there's big business opportunity attached to all of these. And it's definitely fair to say that some or all of these songs were motivated at least at first by that. But I would like to argue there's a lot more at play here. There are other motivators for why so many big pop-backs are turning to Latin America. This time, maybe even in spite of big label interests. More on all of that after the break. I want to bring us back to the present talking about two records from 26 that played and

experimented with Latin sound in two very distinct ways with two big names, Bruno Mars and Casey Musgraves. So let's start with the Bruno Mars record. Now, he released his first album in a decade. He called it simply The Romantic, and it's very heavily Latin-leaning. Now, Bruno Mars does have some actual Latin American roots. He has a Puerto Rican dad and also Filipino roots, which has a tie to Spain, and there's a lot of different things mixed in there.

So a lot of people were saying he wanted to make a kind of homage to his lineage, to his legacy, to his culture, in a way. that he hasn't before. I'm going to play the first track off of his record called Risk at All. I first heard this track, and I was a little bit perplexed. It grabs you with some mariachi horns right off the bat. He makes it very clear what he's trying to do in the song and the record. which is paying homage to these roots. Now, like I mentioned, Puerto Rican dad, but he opens with a Mexican rhythm.

Now, he quickly switches into another very famous Mexican rhythm, but not the same one. It's a bolero sound. It's interesting, but it also strikes me as a little odd. It's not something you would hear in a standard, quote, Latin or Latin American track. And he really goes into the Mexican aesthetic. The whole music video is really kind of like a mariachi,

aesthetic has that kind of vibe throughout a lot of the album imagery. Now, to me, it's not necessarily the incompatibility of the rhythms that isn't quite working. There's something about his belt and his vocalizations that don't quite fit for me in a mariachi or bolero track. He has a very strict to me American soul, R&B pop sound that doesn't translate quite as well against a mariachi horn. The lyrics, interestingly, do mimic the intensity of a Latin sound. It's very much what he's known for. I'd catch a grenade for you, throw myself on a train for you. He does a lot of that similar energy here, and you would think it works.

But there's something about a wrong match of intensity. It just doesn't trade off in the way that honestly a Nat King Cole was able to. He goes on to do another track called Something Serious. Now, I want you all to hear a little bit of this, because I think. I think it works a bit better. The interesting thing to me about something serious is that it is kind of like the gimmicky Latin pop sound, but it's also a throwback to something more naturally American. It has a lot of that soul, but specifically Chicano soul rhythm to it. It kind of works with the way that Chicano's in the 50s and 60s in Southern California were trying to make Latin sounds work with American.

rhythm. For that reason, it's actually more native to him. It's really authentically what he is, which is a mix of Latin in the United States. Overall, the record does fall into his more natural soul pop space, but he does keep coming back to a lot of different rhythms. It's something like what you would recognize from the famous song by war called Lowrider. It's like practically them trying to gimmick the Chicano soul thing, but in a way that's authentic, it's a way that works, because that's what they were surrounded by, and that's what the status of culture was at the time.

And so it tows this line between gimmicky pop throwback, but also something that's really authentic to what he could speak to. Bruno Mars knows what it means to be an actual blend of Latin and America. So it fits. Okay, so that's Bruno Mars in his record. Now, I want to move on to something that had me really intrigued. The new Casey Musgraves album. She set out to make this record with specific and explicit intention of wanting it to have Mexican influence.

I know that she was actually seeking out Mexican artists to be both participants in the record and to tour with her in the United States. Now, she stated in interviews that she does spend half her time in Mexico throughout the year. So it does make sense that she's developed a kind of fascination or love for Mexican music. I mean, it's pretty hard to ignore. But interestingly to me, there are speculations on Reddit that she spends half of that time in Sayulita, which is in Nayarit, which, musically speaking, is to me very distinct from the Mexican sounds you hear on this record. Now, I think you're all going to understand what I mean. when I play you with this track off her record called Uncertain Texas. And mistakenly Mexican, that cowbell cumbia sound comes in, the accordion, and that's a classic

Norteño sound, but Norteño. The sound she's experimenting with on this record at any point, whether explicit like in this track or more subtle in other moments are very clearly and distinctly exclusively from the north of Mexico or not listening to Mariachi from Halisco. But obviously she developed a fascination, she investigated, and this is what she came up with. The thing that I really loved about her experimentation with Latin sound on this record is it actually exposes something a lot more interesting to me, which is this marriage of northern Mexican and southern American sound that I keep hearing all over the map, both in country artists and in northern Mexican artists.

I'm going to play another song off of her album called Back on the Wagon. So the thing that I really love about this song is I don't think it sounds necessarily distinctly or obviously Mexican to any ear. But what it sounds like to me is actually what I hear a lot of contemporary young northern Mexican artists doing right now. It's kind of like this soft country with vaguely Mexican sounds mixed with kind of soft pop, even rock, even rhythm sometimes. It's interesting to me because I don't know if it's intentional on Casey's part. She either is just kind of accidentally bleeding into Mexico in the way that they accidentally bleed into American country. Or she discovered this scene and thought it was something that she wanted to participate in.

Now, obviously, for someone who covers a lot of these smaller, indie, northern Mexican little pop singer songwriters, it's an exciting thing that a Casey Musgraves would find this scene interesting to dabble in. I think we'll continue to see a marriage of these genres. It's something that I keep bringing up, and there really is so much sonic compatibility. The way that she sings too does feel quite compatible with the Mexican heartbreak sound. Even though she has a much softer way of expressing it, her version of heartbreak is distinctly Mexican in its both desperation but also empowerment, which I think people forget is a very integral part of the Mexican heartbreak expression. It's to both be desperate and laid out on

the floor and the bar, but also to be empowered in drinking your suffering away. Now, I think it's also important to note that this is not her first foray into Spanish music. She's clearly been a lover for a while. I remember this cover of Grasias Alida from her 2024 album, To Nassin Gritando, which was a Spanish translation of her earlier record. She has a lot of the same incredible heartbreak energy of some of the greatest Latin American singers. Okay, so that's the music, but I also want to take a second to talk about who's been touring in Mexico this year and how it's been going, because I think it's a pretty good indicator of the kind of direction all of this is going in. Now, of course, like I mentioned, we have a hairy styles, a big star performing with big numbers,

but it's the slightly off-center but still big artists that are really catching my attention this year. Mitzki and Lave both had incredible runs in Mexico recently. They're not artists who are getting airplay on the top 40 radio, and they're not exactly who you think of as the biggest mainstream pop, but they sold thousands and thousands of tickets in Mexico City. selling out some of the biggest venues. I personally was really surprised. When I hear Mitzki's music, I don't particularly think that there's a place for a Mexican teenager to grab onto, but the energy at these shows, the energy around them, the excitement for them has been

absolutely incredible. Now, obviously, again, a lot of this data that was moving a Nat King Cole team and record label to want him to perform in Spanish is even more readily available. A lot of different labels and distributors can see the value of selling tickets in Latin America. Like I said, we love to consume music of all kinds. So, of course, there's great business opportunity. But something I've noticed over the years is it's a lot more than that. An artist like a Mitzky or a Leve or let's say a St. Vincent come to tour in Mexico or in Latin America and they find the audience to be absolutely captivating for them as performers.

It's something that they often say, like St. Vincent herself said, quite literally, become formative musical experiences for them. So much so that in 2024, St. Vincent actually released a Spanish record called Allos Nasing Gritando. Everyone's born yelling. She said that it was actually an act of love and gratitude for an audience that has given her so much. There's I'm going to

I'm getting I'm going to make There's something to There's something to be There's something to be said About the way That Mexicans both live

Heartbreak in their music And also live it in how they consume their music The XX recently said On their first tour stop in Mexico City that they had to start there because there was nowhere else in the world that would give them that kind of energy. Grona Capital, which is a festival that happens every year in November in Mexico City, is one of the most popular of the year and it's almost all international artists. The thing that's really fascinating to me about this story is that it continues to open up.

We're not just talking about reggaeton or even the explosion of regional Mexican. We're seeing that all kinds of mainstream, quote, not just the big Harry Styles' is or Duolipas of the world, like really a Leve, a Mitzky, a Haley Williams, a St. Vincent, all of these popular, but a little off-center American or international artists are having a lot of appreciation and excitement in Latin America. The important thing here is that these shows and the new music seem to be more inspired by feedback from the audience. This kind of organic inspiration takes the labels and business interests out of the equation. And what does that do?

This is allowing for more naturally, jointly creative music in more unexpected or not obviously crossover-ready genres. Take this Latin Mafia Fred Again collaboration from just two weeks ago. This track from that album is called, Te Stoy Correteando. I love me, Quintame that is you of you

I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm because it's a genre that is not exactly in the huge pop mainstream,

but still a big name in a big genre. Now, you don't always think of Mexico for electronic music, but Fred again says he's been a huge fan of Latin Mafia for a while now. They've actually he said, been working on music for years together. Latin Mafia is one of Mexico's most exciting, experimental, big on the rise, but not sounding,

quote, anything Latin artists. Now, when I heard that these two were collaborating, it actually kind of made perfect sense to me, regardless of borders or audience. They have a really compatible sound. So the point is, they sat down in Mexico City for 50 hours saying that they were going to stay on this live stream until they completed an entire. album together. They ended the album with a celebratory show in Mexico City and people were talking about it nonstop. It's become a thing of obsession. This constant zigzag and mutual cross back and

forth seems to becoming more and more normal these days and it allows for really interesting, honest, multicultural music to take form. Like Harry mentioned last night, the love and appreciation for the exchange is real. Why does any of my well, the more artist come to Latin America, and feel its energy, the more this organic creation can grow. From five nights or 50 hours, we're getting more honest good art, which is great for all of us, no matter

what language you speak, we can all appreciate some good music. You have been listening to Alt Latino. This episode was produced by amazing Gifah in chief, Sorah Mohamed, the executive producer of NPR Music. Otis Hart was the editor for this episode, and the executive director of NPR music is Sonali META. I'm Anna Maria Sayre. Thank you so much for listening.