Grupo Frontera is leading the charge for música Mexicana on a global level.
After taking norteño and cumbia music into the mainstream with last year’s El Comienzo, the Mexican-American group is pushing its sound to new places with the follow-up Jugando A Que No Pasa Nada. Grupo Frontera have also become the go-to hit-makers in Latin music following collaborations with Bad Bunny, Shakira, Maluma, Romeo Santos, and more.
“Grupo Frontera is continuing to reach its full potential and we’re loving every minute of it,” lead singer Adelaido “Payo” Solís III tells Uproxx. “We’re still trying to show you guys everything that we can do and what we love to do.”
Grupo Frontera hails from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The group includes Payo, accordion player Juan Javier Cantú, conga player Julian Peña Jr., bajo quinto player Alberto “Beto” Acosta, drummer Carlos Guerrero, and bassist Brian Ortega. Living life near the US/Mexico border, the music of Grupo Frontera reflects a unique crossover of traditional música Mexicana with genres from the states. In 2022, the guys went viral with their norteño version of the Latin pop-rock song “No Se Va” by Morat. From there, the band’s debut album El Comienzo showed música Mexicana in a new light with the genre-bending “Un 100xto” featuring Bad Bunny. Shakira and Peso Pluma later tapped into Grupo Frontera’s refreshing sound.
In May, Grupo Frontera went more experimental with Jugando A Que No Pasa Nada by adding elements of R&B, country, EDM, and other genres in the mix. They’re continuing to help música Mexicana evolve by embracing elements of bachata in “Ángel” with Aventura frontman Santos.
Amidst an arena tour across the US, Grupo Frontera received two Latin Grammy Award nominations for both albums. While backstage at Inglewood, California’s Intuit Dome, the guys talked with Uproxx about the growth of Grupo Frontera, the stories behind the band’s hits, and what’s next.
How do you guys feel to represent Mexican music and culture through Grupo Frontera?
Payo: It feels amazing! We’re all very proud to be Mexican and to carry the flag of Mexico. That’s something that we’re all very proud of because Mexico is a very special place to all of us. It deserves to be heard. I love to be able to literally and figuratively carry that flag and show it proudly.
Being from a border town, what does it mean for you guys to also represent the Mexican-American community?
Julian: That’s the perfect example of who we are because that’s where we were born. We were raised five minutes from the border. Every other night that we wanted to, we would cross the border, go visit our families, talk with them, and have some food. We grew up with both cultures. Most of us actually lived in Mexico, so we know what life is like over there. We know what life is like over here. Luckily, we got to learn both languages pretty well… except for Beto [laughs].
How would you describe going on this journey as a band with Grupo Frontera?
Julian: As a band, it’s been the best experience, because we’ve heard from other artists that they travel alone and it becomes really lonely. With us, it’s never boring. There’s never a dull moment.
Payo: A bunch of artists that we’ve collaborated with and their managers tell us that it gets very lonely for those artists, and that it’s hard to travel alone, do all these things by yourself, and not share it with anybody. Us as a group, we’re six guys, so everything that we do, we share it. We live it together. If one of us gets out of hand, the rest of us bring them back down.
What was the experience like to explore genres like R&B, country, and EDM in Jugando A Que No Pasa Nada?
Juan: It was a whole experience. We were in the studio experimenting with all these different sounds. Payo was experimenting with his voice and trying to get it to fit with different styles of music. All the music was different from the first album. I remember we were spending a weekend in Miami, recording the album, and it was a whole other experience. Everyone was feeling new to something.
After becoming famous with your cover of Morat’s “No Se Va,” how did you guys feel about working with Morat on the song “Los Dos”?
Carlos: Honestly, it was amazing. It felt surreal. It was something that we never imagined happening. Payo always says it was like a full-circle moment. Making a cover, blowing up with it, and then working with them, it was awesome. They’re good friends of ours.
Shakira tapped you guys for the song “(Entre Paréntesis).” How would you describe the experience of working with her?
Beto: To work with Shakira was amazing! We met her here in Malibu, California. The whole experience of meeting her, getting together, and working on “(Entre Paréntesis)” with her was a very big moment for us. You can feel that in the song. That’s how it also felt when she was making the music video with us and doing her dance moves. The way she worked was a lesson for us. The lesson is that she is a very big artist because she works harder than anyone else. For her to be collaborating with us while we’re still fairly new is a big deal for us.
Maluma also entered Grupo Frontera’s world of música Mexicana. How did the song “Por Que Será” come together with him?
Juan: He’s the nicest person ever. He’s really cool. We all clicked with him really quickly because he had mezcal with him. He got us all drunk. Well, that was part of it. We just felt great vibes with him. We thought we were just going to go record the song and that’s it, but it was a whole other experience with him.
Now you guys are fusing bachata into your sound with “Ángel.” What was the experience like to work with Romeo Santos on that song?
Julian: We love every type of music and everything that we do. Every single that we release and everything that we do is because we love music. It doesn’t just have to be cumbia to enjoy it. We have all these types of music in our songs. Working with Romeo Santos was another legend that we can check-off the list. It makes us really happy knowing that we’re making people dance, making them cry, and be filled with emotions just by singing along to this song.
El Comienzo is nominated for Best Norteño Album and Jugando A Que No Pasa Nada is nominated for Best Contemporary Mexican Music Album. What does it mean for you guys that both of your albums are nominated at the Latin Grammy Awards in November?
Carlos: I speak for everyone when I say it’s a dream come true, first of all. It’s a milestone that we never thought we’d reach, but we’re there. Honestly, from here on out, it’s just riding the wave and hoping for the best. We’re extremely honored by the Latin Recording Academy to be nominated like that. It’s something that we always dreamed of, so we’re enjoying it as we’re going along. It’s a big feeling.
How do you feel about your norteño and cumbia songs connecting with millions of listeners?
Payo: It feels pretty cool because during this tour, we’ve had a lot of people at our meet-and-greets that are gringos. Honestly, we’ve seen every race and ethnicity and they’re with their Mexican partner. They’re like, “I love your music because my Mexican girlfriend or boyfriend got me into it.” That feels really cool because all these different cultures and ethnicities are listening to our songs. That makes me feel accomplished.
What do you guys want to accomplish next as Grupo Frontera?
Julian: We want to stay in people’s hearts forever. A big example we use is Bobby Pulido with the song “Desvelado.” That song came out almost 30 years ago and it’s still current today. It’s still a song that you put on during a barbecue, a party, or any time. We want to do that. We want to make music that’s going to stay forever, and hopefully we’ll stay forever as well. That’s something we want to accomplish.
What do you see for the future of música Mexicana?
Brian: This is only going up. What the past couple of years have shown us is that we can only go up. Together, we’re doing a lot more than what they used to do back in the day when everyone was trying to pull their own weight. We figured out the formula. We’re all together, we’re pulling our weight together, and we’re going to get farther and farther. We’re going to keep growing.