{"id":2270,"date":"2023-09-23T00:17:15","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T15:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/azucar.link\/?p=2270"},"modified":"2023-09-23T00:17:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T15:17:15","slug":"how-edgar-barrera-became-one-of-latin-musics-most-in-demand-producers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azucar.link\/?p=2270","title":{"rendered":"How Edgar Barrera Became One of Latin Music\u2019s Most In-Demand\u00a0Producers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tWhen Edgar Barrera<\/a> first thought<\/strong> of bringing Bad Bunny and Grupo Frontera together for a collaboration, he thought to himself, \u201cWait, what am I even saying? That could never happen.\u201d But like so many of the Mexican American songwriter-producer\u2019s genre-bending ideas, this one didn\u2019t just work out \u2014 it became a smash. The cumbia-norte\u00f1a<\/em> track \u201cun\u00a0x100to\u201d peaked at No.\u00a05 on the Billboard Hot\u00a0100<\/a> in May.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo have the biggest artist, whom I had been wanting to work with, collaborate with a group from my hometown and record a cumbia, which is the music I grew up listening to with my dad, it was crazy and a full-circle moment in my career,\u201d Barrera says today. \u201cSometimes I sound delusional, but the crazy thing is that the impossible happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t2023 Latin Grammys: No Love for Peso Pluma and Other Snubs &\u00a0Surprises\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\t09\/22\/2023\t<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\tTen years into Barrera\u2019s career, his ability to effortlessly move across genres has made him one of the most sought-after songwriters in Latin music, with collaborators including Maluma (\u201cHaw\u00e1i\u201d), Christian Nodal (\u201cNo Te Contaron Mal\u201d), Grupo Firme (\u201cYa Sup\u00e9rame\u201d), Camilo (\u201cVida de Rico\u201d), Becky\u00a0G (\u201cChanel\u201d) and Marc Anthony (\u201cDe Vuelta Pa\u2019 la Vuelta\u201d), in addition to non-Latin stars such as Ariana Grande (\u201cBoyfriend,\u201d with Social House) and Shawn Mendes (his \u201cKESI\u201d remix with Camilo). In January 2021, he topped four genre charts \u2014 pop, rhythm, tropical and regional Mexican airplay \u2014 with four different songs, something no other Latin songwriter had done before. \u201cThat moment was really special,\u201d says Barrera, 33, who also won the 2021 Latin Grammy for producer of the year. \u201cI remember when I heard about it, I kept calling people in the industry asking, \u2018Is this normal?\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tExtraordinary moments have defined the career of Billboard<\/em>\u2019s 2023 Latin Groundbreaker, who grew up near the border between Roma, Texas, and Ciudad Miguel Alem\u00e1n in Tamaulipas, Mexico. At 6 years old, he created a rock band with his brother, cousins and a friend, who were all around his age. \u201cI swear there are photos of me playing a guitar that was bigger than me,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cAnd I would write songs too. The first ones were really bad \u2014 they were about teddy bears \u2014 but come on, I was a little kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was around that time that he also started joining his father, a cumbia artist, at the studio or watching him rehearse with his band. Later, as a teen, Barrera handed out business cards and CDs with songs he had written to artists leaving local radio stations after their interviews. He still has one of those old business cards, which he proudly shows off. \u201cI would go home and just keep hitting refresh on my Hotmail in case someone wrote, but no one ever did,\u201d he says with a shrug.<\/p>\n

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\n\tStill, his hustle landed him an internship across the country in Miami with songwriter-producer Andr\u00e9s Castro. \u201cIt was the best decision I could\u2019ve ever made,\u201d he says. \u201cI started off as an engineer, [but] I remember when artists would come to the studio, I\u2019d make sure to tell them, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m not really an engineer. I\u2019m a songwriter and producer.\u2019 And I\u2019d show them my music. I got into a lot of problems because you\u2019re not really supposed to talk to them directly. But I preferred to ask for forgiveness later than to ask for permission. And it worked: I got what I wanted.\u201d Later, Castro would take Barrera to Sony Music Publishing Latin America, where he was signed by president\/CEO Jorge Mej\u00eda.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow, Barrera is laser focused on BorderKid Records, an imprint he launched in February 2022, with emerging acts Alex Luna and Neeus along with marquee client Grupo Frontera on his roster. When Barrera signed the six-piece last October, it was already a popular local band in McAllen, Texas, and had just landed its first big hit, \u201cNo Se Va,\u201d which peaked at No.\u00a03 on the Hot Latin Songs<\/a> chart.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re from the same place, so we all know each other, and one day, my compadre, who had hired them to perform at his tire shop opening, kept sending me videos telling me that they wanted to meet me,\u201d Barrera explains. Their partnership began with a meet-up at a local Starbucks. \u201cHe believed in us from the start,\u201d says vocalist-accordionist Juan Javier Cant\u00fa. \u201cWhen we first met, he asked us where we saw the group going and we told him, but he told us that we were thinking too small and that we could go so much further. He pushed us to dream big.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nEdgar Barrera photographed on September 6, 2023 in Miami.<\/div>\n

\n\tAnd now, Grupo Frontera is the latest Barrera success story. In August, its debut album, El Comienzo<\/em>, bowed and peaked at No.\u00a03 on the Top Latin Albums<\/a> chart, and in the past year alone, the group \u2014 a 15-time finalist at the 2023 Billboard Latin Music Awards \u2014 has placed eight songs on the Hot\u00a0100.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI promised myself that, from now on, I would work only on projects that I feel really passionate about and make me feel something,\u201d Barrera says. \u201cWith BorderKid, it\u2019s that. I want to be that bridge between new artists, songwriters and producers and their goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEdgar Barrera will speak at Billboard Latin Music Week, taking place Oct. 2 \u2013 Oct. 6. To register, click here<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story will appear in the Sept. 23, 2023, issue of <\/em>Billboard.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Edgar Barrera first thought of bringing Bad Bunny and Grupo Frontera together for a collaboration, he tho […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2271,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-2270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/azucar.link\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/azucar.link\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/azucar.link\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azucar.link\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/azucar.link\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azucar.link\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/azucar.link\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azucar.link\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azucar.link\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2270"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/azucar.link\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Flocation&post=2270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}