Featherweight and the first Grammy for lying corridos: why so much controversy?

Two Mexicans triumphed at the 66th Grammy Awards, in which the United States National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences recognizes those it considers the best artists, compositions, recordings and songs in the industry of the year. In this editionthe awarded Mexicans were Natalia Lafourcade and Featherweightwhose triumphs were received in a diametrically opposite way by public opinion.

During the gala held at Crypto.com Sand from Los Angeles, California, singer, songwriter, producer and arranger Natalia Lafourcade won the sixth Grammy of her career, in the category of Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album, with its production Of all the flowers. The award was unanimously celebrated, for highlighting the name of her native Veracruz (located on the east coast of Mexico) and because she consolidates herself as one of the great Latin American artists.

Peso Pluma triumphed in the category of Best Mexican Music Album with Genesis, the third of his career and which has been acclaimed by music critics. During the award ceremony, he was even a 'trending topic' on X, but unlike Lafourcade, he divided opinions again. Just as they congratulated him, they criticized his clothing, his hairstyle or the gold coverings on his teeth.

The Grammy comes to him in the midst of a boycott by sectors of Chilean society, who accuse him of advocating crime in his songs and ask him to cancel his March 1 participation in the Viña del Mar festival.

The criticism is supported in Mexico, with statements by politicians, articles, editorials and journalistic cartoons, who see the bullfights as a celebration of drug trafficking culture and which promote drug consumption among young people and recruitment to drug cartels. , although there are no data or studies to support it.

Did the reviews for Featherweight overshadow Lafourcade's harvest?

During the 2024 Grammy ceremony, Natalia Lafourcade, 39, marked a milestone by tying in an unprecedented way with the Colombian, Juanes, but she also beat the Argentine Fito Páez, the Puerto Rican Eduardo Cabra and Diamante Eléctrico, a band also from Colombia.

However, the one who monopolized the conversation was Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija, Featherweight's real name. His album 'Génesis' came out ahead of works by Ana Bárbara, Lila Downs, Lupita Infante and Flor de Toloache, but he did not go on stage when Lafourcade declared him the winner and was asked to give him the golden gramophone. The gesture has not yet been clarified and adds to the criticism for supposedly not being up to the musical standards of the Grammys.

“Traditionally, the Grammys have reflected popular taste. There will be those who are dissatisfied and uncomfortable with the focus that corridos tumbados might have, but the music that young people listen to has always been a thorn in the side of purists: this is what happened in recent years with reggaeton and, at the time, with rock,” says Arturo J. Flores to France 24, editor of Playboy Mexico and expert in music industries.

The Grammy of Genesis It represents a blow to the table on the part of Mexican music with the corridos tumbados, a variant of the corridos that emerged in the last five years and that has positioned itself within regional Mexican music, with millions of daily reproductions on streaming platforms. streaming'. Featherweight alone has 58.9 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

Regarding the musical value of the award that the Mexican obtained, Flores adds that these awards “have always also recognized commercial success (that is why in this same edition, not only did Featherweight win, but also Metallica or Taylor Swift), but at the same time Finally, although I personally don't like Peso Pluma's music, it has returned to the organic execution of instruments and that has value (…)Whoever wants to find fine arts in the Grammys, surely also looks for nutritional elements in Master Chef.”

Corridos and incitement to crime

The presence of Peso Pluma, 24, at the Grammys adds to the list of controversial episodes in the short but atomic career of the singer originally from Zapopan. Just on January 8, the Chilean sociologist Alberto Mayol questioned his presence at the Viña del Mar Festival because he is a character who, he considers, gives voice to drug trafficking, while on all sides the Chilean Government maintains a fight against drug trafficking. drugs.

These criticisms are shared in Mexico, where a relationship is attributed between the corridos and events such as the 4% increase in drug dealing figures that occurred last year or the 72% increase in murders of young people that occurred in the first half. of the current Government.

Germán Martínez, senator of the conservative National Action Party, attacked Peso Pluma for the content of its lyrics and supported its cancellation in Chile. “I find it absolutely horrendous, from the costumes to the songs that hurt women, that exalt violence, that exalt drug traffickers, that exalt the virile member… let's see where he has the most followers and then compare that map with violence,” the congressman stated on February 3 during a radio program.

For his part, the cartoonist Alarcón reacted to the Featherweight Grammy with a satire where members of the drug trafficker celebrate the award and added: “the corrido tumbado is innovative, catchy, fun music and I like it, but its lyrics are the problem, there are “Many young people who admire hitmen and have turned it into a cult and, apparently, there are many.”

Even the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has criticized the corrido tumbados singers. In the morning press conference he offered on June 26, 2023, he said that they praise the figure of criminal leaders, advocate crime and encourage drug consumption, which is why he promised to share a list with songs that young Mexicans can listen to. as an alternative to corridos.

Regarding the link between corridos tumbados and organized crime, political scientist Itzel Maya, a specialist in drug policy and the economics of criminal violence, rejects the position of Chilean sociologist Mayol and tells France 24:

“There is no evidence that there is a causal relationship between a cultural product such as corridos tumbados and recruitment into organized crime groups… What I do believe there are risk factors in the people who listen to them, such as poverty and inequality ”.

The prohibition of war corridos shows

In September 2023, Peso Pluma was forced to cancel a show in the border city of Tijuana, Baja California, after receiving death threats attributed to the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel, a criminal group he talks about in the song 'His house'included on the disc Genesis.

This commotion led the state government of Baja California to follow in the footsteps of the states of Sinaloa, Quintana Roo and Chihuahua and prohibit the so-called war bullfights, in an attempt to stop their promotion. Currently, these states apply fines for those who sing or play this type of music at public events and some artists, such as Natanael Cano, Junior H and Gerardo Ortiz, have already been sanctioned.

“Prohibition does not solve anything. Banning corridos tumbados is not going to solve anything, it will not make people stop listening to corridos tumbados. On the other hand, prohibition creates illegal markets. So what they do is begin with the diversification of criminal organizations, therefore more presence of organized crime groups and, therefore, violence,” Ytzel Maya details to France 24.