Chicano indie star Cuco dropped a delightful mariachi reimagining of his 2016 song “Amor de Siempre” last week, and now a colorful and equally charming music video for the track is getting all our stomach butterflies aflutter. Produced in partnership with Red Bull Music, the clip was shot across Los Angeles in turnpikes, laundromats, grocery stores, and bedrooms, capturing the city’s vibrant black and Latinx youth culture while anchoring it in familiar local imagery.
The video opens with a series of short confessionals where people share love stories gone wrong, giving “Amor de Siempre” an intimate and tactile feel. Commenting on the clip during a behind-the-scenes interview, Cuco shares, “We had people who actually went through their own love crisis and just being able to incorporate them as part of the shoot, I think that’s really dope.” Mija Management’s Doris Muñoz is also featured, describing “Amor de Siempre” as “a documentary style look into different stories of how we love or go about love.”
There is a giddy freshness about this “Amor de Siempre” rework, largely due to the involvement of Mariachi Lindas Mexicanas, an all-female mariachi group from Boyle Heights who orchestrated the track and feature prominently across the video. The mariachi concept struck a chord with Cuco because he heavily associates the traditional ensembles with parties his grandparents used to host. “To be able to make something that is very much my culture into also something that I created,” he says, “definitely puts two worlds into one kind of really great crossover. ” Muñoz also points out Cuco’s time playing in a mariachi band when he was younger, highlighting the poetic full circle journey of his career thus far.
Watch the video below: