When it comes to música Mexicana’s global rise, there is a time before “Ella Baila Sola” and a time after.
On this week’s episode of “The De Los Podcast,” hosts Fidel Martinez and Suzy Exposito speak with the man behind that critical pivot point — the Central Valley vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Pedro Tovar.
In 2023, Tovar’s group Eslabón Armado and Peso Pluma made Latin music history when their ballad “Ella Baila Sola” peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the first regional Mexican song to reach the Top 10.
Tovar admitted that the inspiration for the mega-hit was part musical ingenuity and part divine intervention.
“I prayed and was like, ‘Please God, please give me a number-one song,’” he said. “I literally said that, those exact words, word-for-word in Spanish … and a couple weeks after that I came back from playing golf, I picked up the guitar and [it came] out of nowhere.”
After composing the track, Tovar said he “knew the song was going to be a hit” when he sent over the recording to Peso Pluma.
Three years later, Eslabón Armado released their ninth studio album, “Nocturno,” in June and reunited with the “Lady Gaga” singer for the track “Amigos Con Derechos”
Tovar said Peso Pluma played the song 20 times in a row before accepting the collaboration and clarified that there is no beef between the two — no matter what the internet says.
“We’re homies now, people think we’re not, but yeah,” he said. “They project beef.”
The singer-songwriter also spoke about some of his earliest musical and songwriting influences, including one early 2000s romance film that left an impression on him.
Tovar attributed Ariel Camacho as being one of his biggest idols growing up and said that his music inspired him to pick up the guitar.
“One day going to school I heard Ariel Camacho on the radio … and I heard Ariel with the guitars and the tuba and something sparked in my ear where I [thought], ‘I want to pick up an instrument now,’” he said.
He learned to play the guitar in elementary school and received full support from his parents. Tovar said he initially wrote corridos but was inspired by the rise of artists like Natanael Cano and Junior H to transition into more sentimental fare.
“Out of nowhere, I was like, ‘I need inspiration,’ so I watched ‘The Notebook’ for the first time in my life,” Tovar said. “That was the first movie that made me fall in love with romanticism. So I wrote a song called ‘Con Tus Besos’ inspired by that movie.”
The track blew up on social media during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and became Eslabón Armado’s first entry on the Billboard charts.
From that single to now, the group has accumulate a litany of awards and hit tracks, which has given Tovar the opportunity to explore business ventures outside of music.
“My mom always wanted to save up and invest our money, but I think 100% that music is not forever,” he said. “So she said every year to invest in commercial real estate property and just put our money in there instead of buying watches or crazy things that are not going to hold their value.”
So in 2024, Tovar bought a Golden Corral Buffet & Grill in Hesperia.
“I was like, ‘Put the money there, it’s real estate, it’s always going to appreciate in value,’” he said. “People think that I’m dumb with my money because I always post my cars … but every year we invest all of our money in real estate because [my mom] wants to build a future for [her kids] and for my future family too.”
The post ‘The De Los Podcast’: Pedro Tovar talks ‘Ella Baila Sola,’ his musical influences and owning a Golden Corral appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
