Yahritza Y Su Esencia

Yahritza y Su Esencia are a sibling trio from Yakima in Washington State. They are fronted by singer, songwriter, and acoustic guitarist Yahritza Martinez, who is backed by her older siblings Jairo on acoustic bass and Mando on the 12-string guitar. Their music weds formal Mexican Regional sounds drawn from the ranchera and corrido traditions to acoustic folk-pop. After formally playing together for less than a year, a snippet of their breakup ballad “Soy El Unico” went viral on TikTok in February 2022. After the song was formally released by Lumbre Music in April, it raced to number one on the Hot Latin Songs chart and eventually placed at 20 on the Hot 100. It topped streaming charts and made the 15-year-old Yahritza the youngest Latin performer ever to enter Billboard’s all-genre industry chart. The group issued the follow-up “Esta Noche” in March and the five-track EP Obsessed in April, which contained both singles. It topped the digital charts almost immediately after release. A sequel, Obsessed, Pt. 2, arrived the following year, followed by “Te Fui a Seguir” from their debut album. Mando was born in Jiquilpan in Michoacán, the same town his parents were from. A family of migrant workers, they emigrated to the U.S. before their youngest child was born. The three youngsters grew up listening to the many flavors of Mexican music. Their father and uncles played together in a band that Mando joined as a keyboardist when he was ten. All three children learned to work the fields, picking apples, cherries, and pears. At five, Yahritza was already singing corridos and rancheras to accompany Mando’s keyboards. Obsessed with music as she grew older, she began accompanying him at family gatherings and parties. At 13 she began writing her own songs, and a year later, taught herself to play the guitar. Jairo picked up the bajoloche, a four-string acoustic bass. Mando expanded his musical reach when he picked up a requinto, a smaller, nylon-string classical guitar; he taught himself to play from listening to records and eventually switched to the 12-string bajo sexto. Yahritza became proficient enough on the guitar to accompany herself playing covers of contemporary songs by Engima Norteno, Caliber 50, Ed Maverick, and others. Soon after, she posted her cover versions to TikTok, and her brothers started accompanying her. They rehearsed playing their sister’s original songs in addition to covers. One video, a cover of Ivan Cornejo’s “Está Dañada” featuring only Yahritza and Jairo, went viral, and they began receiving attention from label execs and A&R figures. They were nonplussed by what was on offer until they heard from Ramón Ruiz and Alex Guerra, two fellow musicians from Legado 7; the pair founded and ran Lumbre Music. They and filmmaker David Cruz traveled to Yakima. (Reportedly, the siblings chose the name Yahritza y Su Esencia just hours before the label trio arrived.) Ruiz was taken by the emotional power in Yahritza’s voice, and he recognized his ability to subvert the dominant frame from a male’s point of view to a woman’s with authority. Ruiz and Guerra recorded three songs by the sierreño trio (two guitars and a bass plus vocals), while Guerra filmed the entire meeting. They signed the trio to a record deal, and in February, a 15-second visual snippet Cruz filmed of them performing “Soy El Unico” — a breakup song Yahritza wrote at age 13 — went viral within hours. The full video registered some 19 million views. The single, on the other hand, registered tens of millions of listens at streaming, topping the charts of several platforms. In March, the single “Esta Noche” followed and performed equally well. The next month, the entire five-track EP, Obsessed, was released and shot to the top of industry Latin and streaming charts. The trio kicked off 2023 with the single “Cambiaste” from their sequel EP, Obsessed, Pt. 2, which reached number 31 on Billboard’s Latin chart. Released in November, “Te Fui a Seguir” served as the first single from Yahritza y Su Esencia’s debut album, 111. Two more songs followed in 2024, “Tu Cárcel” and “Tu Orgullo.” ~ Thom Jurek