Popular band fined $36,000 for glorifying drug cartels
A popular Mexican band has been fined more than $36,000 for performing songs glorifying drug cartels, authorities in the northern city of Chihuahua announced Wednesday.
At a Los Tucanes de Tijuana performance on Saturday, nearly a third of their songs were "narcocorridos" glamorizing drug traffickers, according to city official Pedro Oliva.
The songs "glorified crime or alluded to the perpetrators of illegal acts," Oliva said in a television interview.
Los Tucanes were banned from performing in their home city Tijuana from 2008 to 2023 for alleged shoutouts to two drug traffickers during a concert.
Several states across the country have imposed restrictions on the controversial subgenre of regional music, which is growing rapidly, even beyond Mexico's borders. In April, the ban sparked a riot during a concert after a singer refused to perform some of his most popular songs.
Peso Pluma, who blends corridos with rap and hip-hop, was the seventh most-streamed artist in the world in 2024, according to Spotify.
President Claudia Sheinbaum has rejected the idea of banning "narcocorridos," preferring to launch a music competition "for peace and against addictions" to counter the influence of drug culture among young people.
Two months ago, the United States revoked the visas of the band Los Alegres del Barranco for showing images of a wanted drug lord during a concert.
"I'm a firm believer in freedom of expression, but that doesn't mean that expression should be free of consequences," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said at the time. "The last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists."
At the end of May, members of Grupo Firme canceled a concert in the United States, saying their visas were under "administrative review" by the U..S embassy.
Musicians in Mexico sometimes get caught up in cartel violence themselves. Last month, the bodies of five Mexican musicians from the band Grupo Fugitivo, were found in Reynosa along the Texas border. At least nine alleged cartel members were arrested and later drugs and weapons were seized in connection to the murders.
In January this year, a small plane was reported to have dropped pamphlets on a northwestern city threatening around 20 music artists and influencers for alleged dealings with a warring faction of the Sinaloa drug cartel.
In 2018, armed men kidnapped two members of the musical group "Los Norteños de Río Bravo," whose bodies were later found on the federal highway connecting Reynosa to Río Bravo, Tamaulipas.
In 2013, 17 musicians from the group Kombo Kolombia were executed by alleged cartel members in the northeastern state of Nuevo Leon, allegedly because of links to a rival gang.
Sneak peek: Where is Jermain Charlo?
Baldwin grills McMahon on unallocated funds for students, schools, approved by Congress
Hegseth orders Navy to rename USNS Harvey Milk, Jeffries calls it "a complete and total disgrace"
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
2 hours ago
- UPI
'Eternal Queen of Asian Pop' sings last encore from beyond the grave
To the delight of millions of fans of the late Teresa Teng, the track titled 'Love Songs Are Best in the Foggy Night' will appear on an album to be released June 25. Photo by Van3ssa_/ Pixabay Several years ago, an employee at Universal Music came across a cassette tape in a Tokyo warehouse while sorting through archival materials. On it was a recording by the late Taiwanese pop star Teresa Teng that had never been released. The pop ballad, likely recorded in the mid-1980s while Teng was living and performing in Japan, was a collaboration between composer Takashi Miki and lyricist Toyohisa Araki. Now, to the delight of her millions of fans, the track titled "Love Songs Are Best in the Foggy Night" will appear on an album to be released June 25. Teng died 30 years ago. Most Americans know little about her life and her body of work. Yet, the ballads of Teng, who could sing in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and Indonesian, continue to echo through karaoke rooms, on Spotify playlists, at tribute concerts and at family gatherings across Asia and beyond. I study how pop music has served as a tool of soft power, and I've spent the past several years researching Teng's music and its legacy. I've found that Teng's influence endures not just because of her voice, but also because her music transcends Asia's political fault lines. From local star to Asian icon Born in 1953 in Yunlin, Taiwan, Teresa Teng grew up in one of the many villages that were built to house soldiers and their families who had fled mainland China in 1949 after the communists claimed victory in the Chinese civil war. Her early exposure to traditional Chinese music and opera laid the foundation for her singing career. By age 6, she was taking voice lessons. She soon began winning local singing competitions. "It wasn't adults who wanted me to sing," Teng wrote in her memoir. "I wanted to sing. As long as I could sing, I was happy." At 14, Teng dropped out of high school to focus entirely on music, signing with the local label Yeu Jow Records. Soon thereafter, she released her first album, Fengyang Flower Drum. In the 1970s, she toured and recorded across Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Southeast Asia, becoming one of Asia's first truly transnational pop stars. Teng's career flourished in the late 1970s and 1980s. She released some of her most iconic tracks, such as her covers of Chinese singer Zhou Xuan's 1937 hit, "When Will You Return?" and Taiwanese singer Chen Fen-lan's "The Moon Represents My Heart," and toured widely across Asia, sparking what came to be known as "Teresa Teng Fever." In the early 1990s, Teng was forced to stop performing for health reasons. She died suddenly of an asthma attack on May 8, 1995, while on vacation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at age 42. China catches Teng Fever Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Teng's story is that Teng Fever peaked in China. Teng was ethnically Chinese, with ancestral roots in China's Shandong province. But the political divide between China and Taiwan following the Chinese civil war had led to decades of hostility, with each side refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the other. During the late 1970s and 1980s, however, China began to relax its political control under Deng Xiaoping's Reform and Opening Up policy. This sweeping initiative shifted China toward a market-oriented economy, encouraged foreign trade and investment, and cautiously reintroduced global cultural influences after decades of isolation. Pop music from other parts of the world began trickling in, including Teng's tender ballads. Her songs could be heard in coastal provinces such as Guangdong and Shanghai, inland cities such as Beijing and Tianjin, and even remote regions such as Tibet. Shanghai's propaganda department wrote an internal memo in 1980 noting that her music had spread to the city's public parks, restaurants, nursing homes and wedding halls. Teng's immense popularity in China was no accident. It reflected a time in the country's history when its people were particularly eager for emotionally resonant art after decades of cultural propaganda and censorship. For a society that had been awash in rote, revolutionary songs like "The East is Red" and "Union is Strength," Teng's music offered something entirely different. It was personal, tender and deeply human. Her gentle, approachable style -- often described as "angelic" or like that of "a girl next door" -- provided solace and a sense of intimacy that had long been absent from public life. Teng's music was also admired for her ability to bridge eras. Her 1983 album, Light Exquisite Feeling, fused classical Chinese poetry with contemporary Western pop melodies, showcasing her gift for blending the traditional and the modern. It cemented her reputation not just as a pop star but as a cultural innovator. It's no secret why audiences across China and Asia were so deeply drawn to her and her music. She was fluent in multiple languages; she was elegant but humble, polite and relatable, she was involved in various charities, and she spoke out in support of democratic values. A sound of home in distant lands Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the Chinese immigrant population in the United States grew to over 1.1 million. Teng's music has also deeply embedded itself within Chinese diasporic communities across the country. In cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, Chinese immigrants played her music at family gatherings, during holidays and at community events. Walk through any Chinatown during Lunar New Year and you're bound to hear her voice wafting through the streets. For younger Chinese Americans and even non-Chinese audiences, Teng's music has become a window into Chinese culture. When I was studying in the United States, I often met Asian American students who belted out her songs at karaoke nights or during cultural festivals. Many had grown up hearing her music through their parents' playlists or local community celebrations. The release of her recently discovered song is a reminder that some voices do not fade -- they evolve, migrate and live on in the hearts of people scattered across the world. In an age when global politics drive different cultures apart, Teng's enduring appeal reminds us of something quieter yet more lasting: the power of voice to transmit emotion across time and space, the way a melody can build a bridge between continents and generations. I recently rewatched the YouTube video for Teng's iconic 1977 ballad, "The Moon Represents My Heart." As I read the comments section, one perfectly encapsulated what I had discovered about Teresa Teng in my own research: "Teng's music opened a window to a culture I never knew I needed." Xianda Huang is a doctoral student in Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California-Los Angeles. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The views and opinions in this commentary are solely those of the author.
Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago man charged in deadly Hammond crash
A Chicago man is charged in a drunken deadly Hammond crash in March. Joellic Herron, 30, is charged with Causing Death When Operating a Motor Vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .08% or More, Causing Catastrophic Injury When Operating a Motor Vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .08% or More and Causing Serious Bodily Injury when Operating a Motor Vehicle with a blood alcohol content of .08% or More. He has not been apprehended. When arrested, he is ordered held without bail. When Hammond police arrived just before 1 p.m. March 15 on the 3000 block of Michigan Street, they concluded Herron went into the east lanes and hit another car head-on. Rosa M Lopez, 72, a passenger in the other vehicle, was later pronounced dead. She died from abdominal injuries from the crash. Lopez's husband had four fractured ribs and a fractured leg. A female in Herron's vehicle was also injured. Lopez's husband said they went to the Ameristar casino in East Chicago for a few hours that morning and were headed to Cline Avenue to go home to Illinois. 'It all happened too quickly,' he said. 'All I remember saying is Mamma Mia. I grabbed the steering wheel and then my mind went blank.' His wife said she couldn't feel her legs. She was crying from the pain. A native of Mexico, she lived in south Chicago, then the south suburbs and was a beloved mother and grandmother, according to her obituary. She was the 'cherished backbone' of the family — who made delicious Mexican food, loved the casinos and had an 'unparalleled talent for spreading happiness.' A new court date is not yet set.
Hypebeast
2 hours ago
- Hypebeast
Best New Tracks: Lil Wayne, Turnstile, Little Simz, and More
As the week in music comes to a close, Hypebeast has rounded up the best projects for the latest installment of Best New Tracks. Albums come fromLil Wayne,Little Simz,Turnstile,Addison Rae,and MARINA, withJPEGMAFIAexpanding hisVeteranLP. Singles, on the other hand, stem fromLil Yachty,Ty Dolla $ign,Pi'erre Bourne,Kevin AbstractxDominic FikeandGlorilla. Lil Wayne has shared the sixth installment of hisTha Carteralbum series:Tha Carter album arrives almost seven years after its predecessor and featuresBig Sean,2 Chainzand many others. Spotify|Apple Music The sixth studio album by English rapper Little Simz has surfaced. EntitledLotus, the initially delayed LP featuresObongjayar,Moses Sumney,Sampha, Yusef Dayes and more. Spotify|Apple Music Turnstile has shared the audiovisual albumNever Enough. Also set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, the album is produced by the band's Brendan Yates and tracks 'SEEIN STARS,' 'BIRDS,' 'NEVER ENOUGH' and 'LOOK OUT FOR ME' all land on the tracklist. Spotify|Apple Music Addison Rae has made her formal debut as a solo musical artist with her first studio album:Addison. Spanning 12 tracks, the album features 'Headphones On,' 'Aquamarine,' 'High Fashion' and 'Diet Pepsi.' Spotify|Apple Music Marina Diamondis – now just MARINA – has presented her sixth studio album:PRINCESS OF POWER. Spotify|Apple Music Leave it to Lil Yachty to sample everyone's favoriteMaggie Rogerssong. On Boat's first solo release of 2025, he samples Rogers' 'Alaska.' Spotify|Apple Music After announcing the news earlier in the week, JPEGMAFIA has lifted the curtain on theDirector's Cut(deluxe edition) of his iconic second studio albumVeteran Spotify| Apple Music In February, Ty Dolla $ign tapped ye for 'Wheels Fall Off.' Today, the multi-hyphenate is back with his second solo single of the year 'ALL IN.' Spotify|Apple Music Pi'erre Bourne has shared new single 'Blocs' – his first solo studio release in a few years lifted from his imminent LP, dropping at the end of the month. Spotify|Apple Music The first single from Kevin Abstract's newBLUSHventure has transpired at last. The high-octane 'Geezer' offering features 'Peach' collaborator Dominic Fike. The track isn't on streaming services yet.
