With a powerhouse voice and a sound that feels nostalgic and new simultaneously, Gabriella Martinez of Tampa, FL, has won the hearts of her listeners and hardcore Tejano music fans with her Tex-Mex cumbias. The Latin GRAMMY nominee and two-time Tejano Music Awards winner released two singles, just dropped “El Amor Se Nos Murió,” an emotion-filled ballad that teases new sounds for her latest album, Yo No Te Perdí, out today (May 30). “This album is heartbreak all the way. But heartbreak you can cry to and dance to,” she tells Remezcla.
From oldies to soundtrack as you cruise down the boulevard with your girls after your man did you wrong, to Colombian cumbias with whispers of tropical sounds in the background that will have you on the dance floor at the sound of the first beat, and the electric sounds of her techno-cumbias, Martinez’s new album has it all. Born to a Colombian immigrant mother from Buenaventura and a Puerto Rican-Korean dad, her music represents her multicultural background. “I’m not Mexican. I get that a lot because of the music I play,” she explains. “So any chance I get, I do love to shout out where I’m from and where my parents are from.”
While she grew up with parents who always taught her about her roots and embraced all three cultures, she didn’t always feel connected to them. “I grew up in a neighborhood where there weren’t a lot of people who looked like me. There weren’t a lot of Latinos, so it was hard for me to feel connected to my culture outside of my home,” she says. “At home, music was everything; it was how my mom expressed herself, and where I learned about some of my favorite Mexican, Colombian, and Tejano artists. It’s because of her.”
However, her first real introduction to Tejano music was when she watched Selena for the first time. The late singer’s fashion, personal journey as a woman in the industry, and her on-stage presence ignited something in Martinez. “It was the first time I saw someone who looked like me,” she recounts. “And how she persevered through all the obstacles that one goes through as a woman in a male-dominated industry moved me.” She then discovered other Tejano artists, like Shelly Lares. Martinez also recalls watching old Johnny Canales videos, a popular show by the Mexican Tejano singer featuring rising acts from Mexico and the U.S. throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s. This opened her to new bands she hadn’t yet heard of. “I decided to start posting on TikTok about how I was learning these songs. And after a lot of work and deciding to make the big move to Texas to commit to the music in the state where it was born, we are here,” she shares.
While she’s been signing online for years, it wasn’t until after the pandemic that she debuted as a Tejano music star with her own EP, Siempre Gabriella. The 23-year-old cites the ballads that woke many children of immigrants up on the weekends as inspiration. From Rocío Dúrcal’s tear-jerking songs of loss to Selena Quintanilla’s tracks about forbidden love and Juan Gabriel’s emotion-filled classics, they are all incorporated into the fabric of her sound.
Her music has also become a learning tool for Martinez, using it to perfect her Spanish. “It’s true; I’m a no sabo kid,” she shares jokingly. Growing up, she could feel the emotion in the songs her mom used to listen to, but she didn’t understand the lyrics, which she admits bothered her. “There are so many people out there like me, but it’s never too late to learn. Yes, you’re going to mess up pronunciations and mix words up, but that’s you trying, learning, and connecting with a language that’s yours too.”
“It’s true; I’m a no sabo kid. There are so many people out there like me, but it’s never too late to learn.”
It’s yet another aspect that connects her to Quintanilla. “She’s such an inspiration to me because of her journey with Spanish. And ‘Como La Flor’ is the first song I fully learned and sang,” she says. “I’ve always looked up to her; she’s the Beyoncé of Latin music.” Her covers of Quintanilla’s music initially got the attention of her TikTok viewers, who often commented on how much her voice resembles the late singer’s. When asked about the comparisons, Martinez says it’s one of the biggest compliments she can receive. “It makes me happy that there are people who can go back to that time and that my voice feels nostalgic to them, because they did grow up in the ‘90s and got to see her perform,” she says.
However, she wants to carve out her own lane, which she’s doing by incorporating the accordion riffs of vallenato, the classic sound of techno cumbia, and ‘90s Tejano music with lyrics about heartbreak, empowerment, and moving forward. “At times, it gets scary to push these boundaries of adding new sounds to something classic like Tejano music, because Tejano music is so timeless,” she says. “This album is a mix of everything. There’s ballads where you can genuinely hear the pain in my voice because I let everything out in the studio.”
Fans can also expect an ’80s-style Tejano song that will take listeners back to the days of La Sombra and La Mafia, where the keyboard reigned supreme. Other songs will include rancheras and cumbias. She hopes the mix of music in her new album and her tackling of the Tejano music industry will inspire other generations to connect with their culture. “I want this music to be around for the next generation. I don’t want it to die,” she says. “So for me to go out there and be proud of my skin, where I’m from, and show it with my music and voice, it’s everything.”
Yo No Te Perdí is out now.
