Mis Sentimientos
Los Ángeles Azules play cumbia sonidera, a form of Mexican cumbia built on synthesizers, layered percussion and accordion. The Mejía Avante siblings grew up in Iztapalapa, a working-class borough of Mexico City, and began performing at block parties and quinceañeras as children to help support the household. That origin shapes how they play. The music has a forward social momentum, built for bodies in motion rather than headphones. On Mis Sentimientos, the percussion anchors the groove while synthesizer chords fill the space above it. Ximena Sariñana comes from the indie and alternative world, and her voice enters the arrangement from a different angle than the band’s usual register. The chorus opens where the verse stayed close. The song works because the two worlds do not merge so much as find the same current.
The song existed before Ximena Sariñana was part of it. Los Ángeles Azules had written and recorded Mis Sentimientos before the 2013 collaboration album Cómo Te Voy a Olvidar, which brought contemporary Mexican artists in to record with the band. Sariñana was selected for this track. The live video went up on YouTube on August 1, 2014. It spread immediately. Years later, Sariñana gave an interview suggesting the song was famous because of her. Fans of the band were not quiet about disagreeing. They said the song had been part of Mexican cumbia life long before the duet existed. The argument became part of the song’s public record. Two things can be true at once. Sariñana brought the song to a new world, and the song had been living in Iztapalapa long before she arrived.
The live video published August 1, 2014 has accumulated over 1.3 billion views on YouTube, placing it among the five most-watched videos ever made by a Mexican artist. The Cómo Te Voy a Olvidar deluxe edition released that same year reached number five on the Mexican regional music charts. In 2018, Los Ángeles Azules played the Coachella stage in California, becoming the first traditional cumbia group to perform at the festival. The LA Times called it a well-received first at the festival. They had come from Iztapalapa, where the Mejía Avante siblings spent their childhoods playing for whoever needed music. Twelve years ago today, the video went up. It now plays every day in numbers most artists will never reach in a career.