Joss Favela

Sinaloan Joss Favela is a charting, award-winning songwriter and recording artist equally diverse in Mexican folk music traditions such as banda and norteño. He was the youngest person ever to win a Composer of the Year award from ASCAP and has been nominated for several Latin Grammys. Though he began recording at 13, he established himself as a producer and writer of top-shelf Mexican Regional artists including Gerardo Ortiz, Alejandro Fernandez, La Banda el Recodo, and many more. His 2016 album Hecho a Mano was nominated for a Grammy in 2017 as Best Regional Mexican Music Album.
Favela was born in Culiacan in December of 1990. At nine he began learning to play the guitar, and by 12 he was already writing songs. As he entered his teens he won a competition and got to perform on the Televisia reality show Código Fama; based on the response he received, he was signed to a recording contract. He released two solo albums over the next two years, La Reynalda (banda songs) and Andar Conmigo (norteño ballads). He moved to Monterrey at age 15, and joined the pop group 3Ball Mty (with Antonio Hernandez and Erick Rincón), and began working as a songwriter in earnest. Over the next decade, his songs graced Mexican television and films and were recorded by Los Recoditos, Noel Torres, Gerardo Ortiz and Kevin Ortiz, Larry Hernandez, La Arrolladora Banda el Limón, and Banda el Recodo, to name a few — all were chart hits. Favela has won two ASCAP awards — he was the youngest person ever to win the Composer of the Year award in 2015 — and he’d won it three times by age 27. He has also been nominated for several Latin Grammys.
Near the end of 2015, Favela returned to recording. Now signed to Sony, he issued his debut the single for the label “Me Gusta Verte Arrepentida.” It peaked at number 25 on the Regional Mexican Songs charts and placed inside the Top 20 on streaming charts. A follow-up single, “Cuando Fuimos Nada,” was issued early in 2016, peaked at number 20, and preceded the hit album Hecho a Mano in August that reached number six at Mexican Regional albums. He spent the next several years touring, writing for others, and occasionally releasing charting Top 20 singles including “Cuando Fuimos Nada” in 2016, “No Vuelvas a Llamarme,” and “Porque No Te Enamoras” in 2017, and “Me Hubieras Dicho” in 2018. After four long years, in June of 2019, Favela released his sophomore Sony Music album Caminando, for which he wrote all 13 songs and produced. On two songs he was backed by El Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, and collaborated with Becky G on “Pienso en Ti.” The album peaked at 18 on the Mexican Regional Albums chart. ~ Thom Jurek