Maria Barrios is a contributor to GRAMMY.com.
"Rock icon" and "legend" are often thrown around liberally when describing an artist’s stature or output. In the case of Argentine musician Fito Páez, the proof is there for anyone to see. Páez was only 21 when he released his first solo album, Del 63; the highly influential . Giros came out just a year later and made Páez a…
The Marías had undergone a seismic change by the time they started working on Submarine, their second full-length album. Lead singer and songwriter María Zardoya and drummer and producer Josh Conway had ended their eight-year relationship, uprooting their lives and creative partnership in the process. Instead of being subsumed by the breakup's emotional waters, the L.A.-based pop band took a…
In just two years, Grupo Frontera have gone from playing weddings in their native Texas to joining Bad Bunny on stage at Coachella and performing on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." No matter how rapid their rise to fame has become, the Texas sextet has held the same ethos: celebrating their Mexican heritage while embracing the American culture they…
"I am a music fetishist, I have a great obsession for sound," says composer and multi-instrumentalist Eblis Álvarez, founder of the Colombian neo-tropicalista group Meridian Brothers. The group, which performs as a five-piece band, has been steadily producing innovative cumbia records since 1998 and spoke to GRAMMY.com from Bogotá ahead of a performance. Álvarez’s obsession is so deep and imagination…
For Colombian singer/songwriter Nidia Góngora, performing isn’t only about showcasing her talents. "I feel pride in being able to present another side of Colombia, the Pacific region, which is also Colombia and is hardly ever shown," she says, speaking via Zoom from the remote town of Timbiquí. Góngora, who grew up in Timbiquí, is a champion of the Pacific coast’s…
