Mexico’s leading pop star is going through a major career shake-up. After wrapping up a sold-out tour across Latin America and going independent, Humbe has unleashed his new album, Armagedón. On the heels of hits like “Fantasmas” and “Patadas de Ahogado” with Latin Mafia, the rising artist shows a more sensual and experimental side to his sentimental pop, embracing the destruction and reconstruction of this new era.
“When you start to have more confidence in yourself than what people on the outside are telling you, that’s when you enjoy making music the most,” Humbe tells Remezcla. “With this album, I genuinely felt pure peace and calm from start to finish. This is my vision and the way I see life through music.”
Humbe hails from Monterrey, Nuevo León. After sharing videos of making songs on TikTok during the pandemic, he grew a large following across social media. Thanks to the success of his breakthrough album, 2021’s Entropía, Humbe was nominated for Best New Artist at the Latin Grammy Awards later that year. What has set the 24-year-old apart from his Latine pop peers is his genre-bending sound. He seamlessly mixed R&B with pop in “Amor de Cine” and later elevated his soulful sound to euphoric levels with last year’s Esencia album.
Pushing pop to new places comes with the territory for Humbe. “What’s most funny to me is that making music is genuinely a game for me, in a way,” he shares. “I sit down, open a project on [music software program] Ableton, and what I see on the screen is like a playground. It’s gratifying to know that what we’re doing is going straight to people’s hearts with things that you don’t always see in music today.”
Speaking of touching hearts, Humbe has also made a mark with his pop that embraces emotions. He is pushing back on the machismo rooted in Mexican culture with his love songs like “Te Lo Prometo” and the symphonic “Patadas de Ahogado.” “They’re great guys,” he says about collaborating with Latin Mafia. “Like all the songs I make, creating [‘Patadas de Ahogado’] with them was beautiful because it came from a very spiritual and pure place.”
Because of machismo, men are usually discouraged from talking about their emotions and it’s embedded into our heads from a young age that “los hombres no lloran.” Going against that notion, Humbe sings about what he’s going through in his songs and those feelings are all the more palpable with his soaring voice. “I believe we’ve lived in a society where feelings are seen as flaws,” he adds. “Emotions are the most sacred thing that exists. Mental health and spiritual health are the most important. It’s an honor for me to send that message to people and men that crying is not bad. It’s not bad to feel. It’s human. I believe we’re all here to live the complete human experience.”
One song that has especially struck a chord with Humbe’s fans is “Fantasmas.” He originally released it in November 2023 as a tribute to his late grandfather. A year later, the haunting música mexicana ballad resurged on TikTok as the soundtrack for people’s Día de Muertos videos. During the run of his Esencia Tour, which wrapped at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City last month, Humbe performed “Fantasmas” to people in the audience, who held up photos of their deceased loved ones. He also has a small ghost tattoo on his arm in honor of the song.
When you start to have more confidence in yourself than what people on the outside are telling you, that’s when you enjoy making music the most.
“While on tour, it hurt me a little to sing that song, but at the same time, I know it was helping people,” Humbe says. “It’s a song that has genuinely touched hearts, moved people, and saved lives. What I wanted to share with this song, people have reciprocated that with the same amount of love. That’s something you don’t see every day.”
After parting ways with Sony earlier this year, Humbe returned to his indie roots by uploading the demo of “Kintsugi” on SoundCloud. Following the response from his fans to drop the Afrobeats-infused banger, he reviewed more music he had stored away in a vault. The success of “Kintsugi,” which has over 55 million streams on Spotify, inspired him to create the Armagedón album with said songs, like the atmospheric “Astros ⋆ ★ ˚｡⋆” and the sultry “Sagitario A*.” Throughout the ambitious Armagedón LP, Humbe is singing about sex, love, and romance.
“When going through my vault, I realized I had hidden this chapter in my life,” he says. “I didn’t have the maturity or confidence before to show people this very sensual and physical side to myself that comes through in this album. That is a very important part of the human experience that I was leaving out.”
The cover art for Armagedón shows an asteroid about to hit the Earth. For Humbe, it’s an opportunity for an artistic rebirth. He is already planning a new tour for this album, which he hopes will take him to the U.S. In the meantime, Humbe continues to reach for the stars.
“Honestly, with what’s happened with my music, I feel like I already won,” he says. “To see people crying in a concert of mine, that’s an achievement. I’ve achieved touching their hearts so deeply that they can cry. That’s winning. I want to keep doing things well and with love.”
Armagedón is out now.
