Extraordinary moments have defined the career of Billboard’s 2023 Latin Groundbreaker, who grew up near the border between Roma, Texas, and Ciudad Miguel Alemán 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. “I swear there are photos of me playing a guitar that was bigger than me,” he says with a laugh. “And I would write songs too. The first ones were really bad — they were about teddy bears — but come on, I was a little kid.” Source
How Edgar Barrera got Bad Bunny and Grupo Frontera together.
It was Barrera’s bet to introduce Bad Bunny to regional Mexican music — and, in the process, work with an artist with whom he had always wanted to enter the studio.
“It’s very difficult, when the artist is so good at what he does, for example, Bad Bunny is one of the best (expletive) composers the industry has and with the best results,” he said. “What can I contribute to Bad Bunny, what can I send him to make him look at me again? He doesn’t need anyone’s help.”
Fortunately for him, the Puerto Rican reggaetonero had wanted to do something with a Mexican touch for a long time.
On the other hand, there’s Grupo Frontera, until recently a relatively unknown band who Barrera encouraged to go from its beginnings playing cover songs at parties to performing at Mexico City’s Zócalo during the Mexican Independence Day festivities in September. (“From playing for 20 people last year in April to playing for 220,000 is a great achievement,” Barrera said.)