No Corridos at Junior H’s Coachella 2025 Set – Is This Censorship?
Junior H performs during the first weekend of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club on Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Indio, Calif. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)
Did Junior H intentionally play it safe during his first performance at Coachella 2025? The Mexican singer, known for his sad sierreño and corridos tumbados, steered away from performing explicit corridos on his highly anticipated first weekend of Coachella (Apr. 13), which got us thinking – will corrido tumbado artists start to opt out of singing their hits about specific drug lords on their setlists?
Last year, Peso Pluma proudly showed Coachella spectators his love for corrido culture without any censorship. Not only did he sing his narcocorridos like “El Gavilán” on the main stage, but he also invited Junior H to sing their arguably most popular collaboration, “El Azul,” allegedly about Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera. He also showed a tribute video with images of corrido singers like Valentin Elizalde, Chalino Sanchez, and Los Alegres del Barranco, demonstrating that corridos are here to stay.
But a lot had changed in just one year. Los Alegres del Barranco recently got their visas revoked after they showed visuals of narcos while they performed a concert at the Auditorio Telmex in Guadalajara, Mexico (Mar. 29). Rolling Stone reported that the band “was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by Secretary of State Marco Rubio in February,” before Deputy Secretary Christopher Landau announced the revocation.
“I’m pleased to announce that the State Department has revoked the band members’ work and tourism visas. In the Trump Administration, we take seriously our responsibility over foreigners’ access to our country,” Landau wrote on X. Though he said it was because the band “portrayed images glorifying drug kingpin,” it also brings up a slew of censorship-related questions. Are bands allowed to sing their narcocorridos freely in the U.S., or could that, as Mexican nationals, put their visas in jeopardy?
In Mexico, Luis R. Conriquez also endured his own problems with corridos censorship. On Apr. 11, he decided not to perform any corridos at the Feria del Caballo de Texcoco in the State of Mexico, Mexico, to comply with the government’s alleged orders. The outcome was chaotic, as spectators responded with violence against security guards and instruments, throwing objects onto the stage and the musicians. However, it’s worth pointing out that the Mexican president cleared up that she’s not prohibiting a genre but instead wants “a social conscience in our country, that little by little we stop building corridos, corridos tumbados, bands linked to these topics.” She refers to topics about “violence, violence against women, or seeing women as sexual objects.”
Two things can be true at once. For example, Junior H is known for his romantic songs, which he prioritized during this Coachella 2025 set by including hits like “Y LLORO,” “Fin De Semana,” and “Luna” with Peso. But as one of the faces who helped blow up the corrido tumbados movement, it’s equally interesting to see him invite La Doble P and not perform their most popular song “El Azul” nor perform his newest corrido “El Chore,” released two days before Coachella, on such a huge moment. He also didn’t sing other corridos like “El Hijo Mayor” and “El Tsurito,” which are some of his biggest hits. And while the singers performed “El Azul” last year, Peso Pluma performed “Chanel” with Becky G back-to-back (Coachella 2023 and 2024).
In this political climate, will artists fear crossing a line of censorship? Traditional corridos and corridos tumbados are different because the former are seen as more folk stories or narrative ballads, as opposed to the latter, which often talk explicitly about drugs, drug lords, and violence. During his Coachella performance, Junior H did perform corridos tumbados like “Disfruto Lo Malo,” which is perhaps a safe bet since it doesn’t focus on a specific drug lord and the lyrics can be interpreted as fiction.
So is it only OK to sing general corridos tumbados now rather than corridos related to cartel-affiliated individuals? “I had prepared for us to play ‘El Azul,’ but in the end we decided on ‘Luna’ to really play into the sentimental aspect of this full circle moment,” Junior H said in a recent interview about the song choice. “‘El Azul’ brings back so many wonderful memories for us both – it was just the beginning for him, and our team was already on the up-and-up. But ‘Luna,’ which is more of a love song, means a lot to [Pluma] since it was on his first major album and is a favorite for fans of his.”
But one can’t ignore the context in which it happened. Would La Doble P have performed the same Coachella set celebrating corrido culture in 2025? Would it have been categorized as “glorifying” narcocorridos in 2025? While we don’t know if Junior H intentionally decided to scrap “El Azul” before or after Los Alegres del Barranco’s situation, we hope this scare doesn’t usher in an era of self-censorship over fear of state-mandated retaliation, making it a bigger problem for us all. After all, it’s Junior H’s big moment — he shouldn’t be held back creatively.
Moreover, it also brings up another question. How will this change corridos tumbados culture? An X user brought up an interesting point after Junior H included his corrido tumbado with Natanael Cano on the same setlist. The user wrote: “The corridos tumbados were born as an expression in which artists talked about themselves, like in trap and rap. It was not for characters. So maybe that’s where the future lies.”
Will corridos tumbados stars shift focus and only sing general songs about themselves or others without mentioning names? Will Junior H keep the same setlist on week two of Coachella 2025? We’ll keep an eye out.