Griselda Flores: I would say that because of the lyrics, which are very modern and super Bad Bunny-esque (even the title is so him - he named his first album X 100pre), he does sound at home. Do you think he sounds at home in the genre in “un x100to,” or are his contributions to the song more in terms of the added exposure he brings? Bad Bunny has little left to prove in his superstardom at this point, but he’s less established within regional Mexican as a collaborator. The fact that “Un x100to” zoomed to the top five in its first week of release means more about Grupo Frontera’s rising profile and increasingly mainstream-embraced sound than it does about their global superstar collaborator’s golden touch, I think.Ģ. 68 on the Hot 100, while “Gat de Noche” with Nengo Flow reached No. Obviously Bad Bunny is Bad Bunny, but when you look at his other collabs from the past six months you can see that they’re not all automatic smashes just due to his presence - “La Jumpa” with Arcangel only peaked at No. Their collaborations with Carin León “Vuelve” and Fuerza Regida “Bebe Dame” were also viral hits that kept pushing them onto the international radar.Īndrew Unterberger: I think so. They first gained traction in the summer of 2022 with their norteño cover of Morat’s “No Se Va” - which, thanks to its massive virality on social media, reached corners outside of the states. I don’t doubt “un X100to” is making them a known name globally ,but the truth is, Grupo Frontera was a force to be reckoned with way before the Bad Bunny collaboration. Jessica Roiz: I’d want to say it’s 50/50. This success makes Grupo Frontera a household name beyond original regional Mexican music fans. Thinking back to 2019, when Natanael Cano was buzzing on SoundCloud and beyond, Bad Bunny jumped on his remix “Soy El Diablo” - and I believe that became a turning point for Cano and corridos tumbados, without sacrificing the integrity of the regional style. Although Grupo Frontera were well on their way to bigger success in their own right - and with their nearly quarter-billion streaming “Que Vuelvas” (2022) alongside Carin León, among other big hits - this collab sees the Mexican stars become supernova-like. Bad Bunny’s turn on “un x100to” has undeniably broadened its appeal, and whether Grupo Frontera helped engineer a smash or simply benefited from his presence is in the eye of the beholder as the song starts its chart run, it will be interesting to see if Grupo Frontera downplays the commercial gains of this collaboration, or grabs hold of their brighter spotlight. Jason Lipshutz: Hard to say: Grupo Frontera has scored Hot 100 hits before this, both on their own (“No Se Va”) and with other artists (“Que Vuelvas” with Carin Leon, “Bebe Dame” with Fuerza Regida), but they’ve never come close to the top five of the Hot 100 prior to “un x100to,” which just happens to be a team-up with one of the biggest stars on the planet. However, collaborating with Bad Bunny obviously gives them that global push. So, I would argue that they were already local stars in their own right. tour, their first-ever trek following their breakout just last year. 1 on Hot Latin Songs and Latin Airplay with their Fuerza Regida team-up “Bebe Dame.” They’re also currently on a 23-date U.S. Then, a few months later, they scored their very first No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart in November. Griselda Flores: I want to say that because of their massive success with “No Se Va,” they were already stars stateside. Does this success officially make them stars, both stateside and globally? Grupo Frontera have already had several hits of increasing size in the past year, but “un x100to” sees them reaching a new level entirely. What does the song’s success mean for the respective artists? And just how much will regional Mexican continue to grow? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.ġ. While it’s far from Bad Bunny’s first such hit, it’s his first integrating his Latin trap sound into his collaborators’ cumbia-norteño framework. The song moves 15-5 on the Hot 100 this week (dated May 6) in its first full week of release, marking the first top 10 hit for the regional Mexican group.
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