Mexican superstar Thalia attended Billboard‘s Latin Music Week to exclusively present four songs from her new EP of Mexican music. Attendees at the “Premiere Party” on Tuesday night (Oct.r 2) were the first to hear the first single “Bebé, Perdón”, released at midnight, in addition to “Te Va a Doler”, “Para Qué Celarme” and “Choro”, part of the album that will be titled A Mucha Honra.
The album, which she said she had been working on for almost two years, will be released in early 2024 under the Sony Music Latin label. Under the production of Jimmy Humilde, it will include collaborations with Ángela Aguilar and Dania from Grupo Sin Límite, the Mexican superstar announced.
Dressed in a monochrome white outfit, blue boots, and shiny gloves, the Mexican singer shared with the deputy editor of Billboard Español Sigal Ratner-Arias, the moderator of the event, details of the creative process with Humilde, one of the promoters of the global phenomenon of the new wave of Mexican music with whom she partnered to produce it, and who also went on stage for a few minutes.
Humilde says that he made his first call with Thalia “trembling with emotion”, because of the admiration he has for her as an artist. However, he found a very calm person and the connection was immediate, he mentioned. They soon began working on the project with which Thalia wanted to delve deeper into her roots as a Mexican.
“The requintos evoke something in the soul, something in the heart, something of longing, something of oblivion, of pain, of love, something distant but close,” she said. “And then accompanied by the lyrics… I needed to sing this type of content in my songs. In this album I have discovered a more heartbroken, spiteful, painful Thalia.”
Regarding the moment that Mexican music is going through, which now enjoys a global reach, the singer noted: “We have always been in fashion. Our music has always been current, and at full strength, we have never stopped in all the musical genres that Mexican music encompasses, which is totally broad, it is beautiful. What is happening now is that the new generation, I feel, is embracing the sounds that move your insides: the requintos, the accordions, they are rediscovering (Mexican music) … I think they are making it their own.”
“That she is adapting and coming to support this genre is incredible,” added Humilde about Thalia’s new foray. “Imagine, having someone with so much name, so much power, so much history entering the new genre that we have in our Mexican music is something super cool.”
To decide who would accompany her to connect with her roots in music with more regional Mexican sounds, Thalia had a very methodical approach. “My father was a criminologist,” the star recalls. “I remember that I would sit on the table and he would tell me: ‘Always ask, always analyze… you look for something that you need to know.’ And when this movement came out, criminologist Thalia Sodi came out, and I said, where did this come from? Who was the precursor? Who was there from the beginning?… and I came to mister Humilde.”
Humilde took Edgar Rodríguez, producer and close collaborator, to meet with the artist to work on the project. Thalia’s words to Rodríguez were: “I don’t bite. I want to sound like me, like Thalia, but not. Help me so I can let go of the crutches that I use, that I love, my styles… Tell me, I’m not going to get angry. I want to learn; I want to change and learn other things. And we did it.”
“I’m happy, excited precisely because tonight, like Cinderella, the float is going to change… We’re going fully in,” said the singer about the first single of the album, “Bebé Perdón,” that is now available.
“This song hurts me, I put it on repeat in the car while I drive… It doesn’t hurt me because of a personal relationship, because it’s not what I’m living. I am very happy, very grateful in my life, but it touches a vein of nostalgia, something that no longer exists, that is already gone, a part of nostalgia for our country, somewhere in our life history”, she said.
On the visual side, the superstar says that the video was recorded in California with 115-degree temperatures that caused the soles of her boots to melt on the pavement while she was alert for the rattlesnakes that inhabit the area. The singer performs the song in an open field, dressed in a silver sequin top with fringes, accompanied by three musicians and a truck.
Celebrated for more than 30 years, the 2023 edition of Latin Music Week includes a Superstar Q&A with Shakira; the Legends on Legends chat with Chencho Corleone and Vico C; Making the Hit Live! with Carin León and Pedro Capó; a panel with RBD’s Christian Chávez, Christopher von Uckermann, and Maite Perroni; Superstar Songwriter discussion with Edgar Barrera and Keityn, among many other panels, Q&As and workshops. See the ultimate Latin Music Week guide here. This year’s Latin Music Week, taking place Oct. 2-6, also includes showcases by Peso Pluma, Mike Bahía and Greeicy, DannyLux, and Fonseca, to name a few. Check out the dates and times for the showcases throughout the week here.
Official partners of the 2023 Billboard Latin Music Week include AT&T, Cheetos, CN Bank, Delta Air Lines, Lexus, Netflix, Michelob ULTRA, and Smirnoff.
Latin Music Week coincides with the 2023 Billboard Latin Music Awards ceremony, which will broadcast live from the Watsco Center in Coral Gables, Fla., on Thursday (Oct. 5) and will air on Telemundo. It will also broadcast simultaneously on Universo, Peacock, the Telemundo App, and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean on Telemundo Internacional.
