Grupo Firme

Grupo Firme is a banda septet from Tijuana who play a 21st century hybrid of Mexican Regional Music that straddles banda and norteño. Their stylish videos and streaming covers of songs by other Latin artists helped to establish their considerable popularity. While El Barco, their 2017 debut album, performed well at radio and streaming, their 2019 breakthrough version of Calibre 50′s “El Amor No Fue Pa’ Mi” registered 200 million views on YouTube and broke through to audiences on both sides of the border. That same year, the single “Cada Vez Te Extrano Mas,” in collaboration with El Yaki Luis Alfonso Partida, hit the Mexican Regional airplay charts. Since then, they have netted ten charting singles that include three number ones in 2021: their live “Ya Superame,” “El Toxico” (feat. Carin Leon), and “Cada Quien” (feat. Maluma). Their second studio album, 2020′s Nos Divertimos Logrando Lo Imposible, also placed in the upper rungs at streaming.
Grupo Firme have never fit into categories neatly. While the majority of bandas usually hail from Mazatlán and contain anywhere from a dozen to 16 members, this septet hails from Baja California, Tijuana — which also sets them apart from most norteño groups, who perform as quintets.
They were founded as Grupo Fuerza in 2013 by Eduin Cazares (leader and vocalist) with guitarist Joaquín Ruiz, singer Jhonny Cazarez, harmony vocalist Abraham Hernández, bassist Christian Téllez, accordionist Dylan Camacho, and drummer Fito Rubio. At the time, they were an underground norteño group singing improvised and traditional corridos in informal settings. Their warts-and-all rawness and spontaneity netted viral videos for the songs “Juro por Dios,” “Ni El Dinero, Ni Nada,” and “Pideme.” They changed their name to Grupo Firme in 2014.
They kept posting videos of their informally recorded singles for several years while establishing a reputation for incendiary live performances. In 2017, Isael Gutierrez, CEO of indie regional Mexican music label Music VIP, caught them live in Tijuana after seeing their videos. He loved them but imagined them in a different space than the one they occupied. He approached them with a very different proposition: to transcend the raw corridos in favor of a hybrid approach to Mexican Regional music. They issued the studio album El Barco that year; it performed respectably at streaming and garnered airplay regionally. In 2018, while on tour, they released En Vivo Desde Medellín Colombia.
Their 2019 single, “Cada Vez Te Extrano Mas,” featuring El Yaki Luis Alfonso Partida, went to number eight. In October, Grupo Firme’s live collaboration with Banda Coloso on a cover of Calibre 50′s “El Amor No Fue Pa’ Mi” went to number 17. In February 2020, they collaborated with Lenin Ramirez on the single “Yo Ya No Vuelvo Contigo”; it went all the way to number one, and their collaboration with La Maquinaria Norteña on the single “En Honor a Ti” went to number six that same month. In August, they collaborated with Enigma Norteño on the number four hit “No Estoy Perdiendo Nada.”
They followed with the live album En Vivo Desde Anaheim, CA, and the live, revue-styled effort Viva Mexico with Luis Angel and “El Mimoso" Luis Antonio Lopez and Grupo Codiciado. Their prolific year ended with their second studio album, Nos Divertimos Logrando Lo Imposible. The 12-song set included notable collaborations with Espinoza Paz, Max Peraza, and Horacio Palencia. They also covered Karol G’s “Tusa” live; its video garnered more than one hundred million views.
Though touring with any regularity proved impossible in 2020, they hit the road again in mid-2021. They issued the chart-topping single “El Toxico,” featuring Carin Leon, in May; it spent two weeks at number one. In September, Ramirez returned the favor and sang on the band’s number 11 single “En Tu Perra Vida.” In December, the single “Cada Quien,” in collaboration with superstar urbano singer and rapper Maluma, went to number one and spent several weeks in that position. In April 2022 they performed at Coachella with Karol G and Anitta. That same year, they took home awards in five different categories at the Latin recording industry’s Premio Lo Nuestro ceremony. ~ Thom Jurek