Rising regional Mexican star Ivan Cornejo talks about how he started singing, started his career on TikTok, how Natanael Cano inspired him to make local Mexican music, which artists and producers he wants to work with, the future of local Mexican music and many other!
Ivan Cornejo:
It's a good feeling to know you're influential. And I remember feeling like I wanted to be a musician, it's a good feeling when I hear kids tell me they picked up the guitar because of him.
Ivan Cornejo:
I started playing guitar around seven years old, it was like my way of making 20 bucks for the weekend or something my dad would tell me to learn like Joan Sebastian songs and like the old songs, it would be like and you give five dollars for each song. And at the age of seven, five dollars is a lot of money. So I was collecting my small royalties back then. Back when the T3R Elemento was dropping music. “Rafa Caro”, I remember as if I heard it.
Ivan Cornejo:
And like, it stood out to me so much that I think I was just like hmm. I really like this. At the time, I wouldn't really listen to local music. It was more like my dad's Mariachi music and like the old school stuff. A few years later, Natanael Cano throws, you know, corridos tumbados. It's definitely like a pioneer for this new genre you call salsa reino and like the corridos tumbados, so many people were inspired by it, it really took a big step and just changed the whole corridor, feeling like a lot of people adapted to it. quickly. I started with TikTok and Instagram, you know, just posting my videos. After I started to identify with covers, seeing a lot of comments that support me, you know, it motivates you to just write your own music and I started writing my own songs, I dropped my first song, signed to a label, and put out two album with this label. Now I'm just working on my third album, it's been a big change. For me, I love these tech talks. And then, you know, it's like the labels are reaching out. It was like a mini dreamland. You know, it was what I always wanted.
Watch the full video above!
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/video/ivan-cornejo-the-future-of-regional-mexican-billboard-cover/