At the core of Ivan Cornejo’s songs is the infusion of rock and folk with regional Mexican music. He incorporates mariachi, corridos, and norteño music, much like his contemporaries such as Peso Pluma and Fuerza Regida. The 20-year-old started his career by releasing songs on YouTube. Viral fame came in 2021 with the “Esta Dañada.” The track became the second regional Mexican song to debut on the Billboard Hot 100. He won Best New Artist at the Billboard Latin Music Awards the following year, making him the youngest recipient of the accolade. Cornejo’s first arena tour across North America starts on August 23.
Cornejo is a Riverside native who spent part of his early years in his parents’ home state of Michoacan. There, he learned about his Mexican roots and language, he tells KCRW. At age 7, he started taking mariachi classes at church, learning to play the violin. Then through YouTube, Cornejo taught himself how to play the guitar.
“I remember being 8-years-old, learning as many riffs as I can, like old-school songs.”
He continues, “My first guitar, it was almost the size of a ukulele. It looked like a little toy. But I grew up and my dad finally got me a better guitar. … A Fender was one of my first guitars.”
Cornejo’s work falls under the category of sierreño, a regional Mexican music subgenre known for Spanish guitars and lyrics steeped with the pain of love.
In “Herida Abierta” — a track off of his new album, Mirada — Cornejo sings about the open wounds of a romance lost: “It's a story of a heartbreak, giving someone everything, and then wanting to give them the sky, and feeling like you're on the ground.”
The song is a collaboration between Cornejo and songwriter and producer Edgar Barrera, known for his work with artists such as Bad Bunny, Maluma, and Karol G.
“We just understood each other, and we came from a similar background and [had] similar taste in music. … For a while when I recorded my first two albums, it was just me in the studio with an engineer and my cousin helping me record the bass.”
He adds, “This last album was the full album with an actual producer. I just felt finally like I had someone to get me that sound that I had been looking for. I think we just make a great duo.”
Cornejo pivoted to making music full time at 16, when he dropped out of high school during his junior year. At the time, classes were virtual due to COVID-19.
“They were assigning big packets. And it sounds so easy, but it's very time-consuming. I was trying to record my covers and get myself out there. And that was when my videos were sparking up on TikTok. I took the leap of faith,” Cornejo explains.
Today, his parents support the decision. “They were devastated at first. But they managed to understand slowly that this wasn't just a little hobby of mine, and it was becoming my career.“
