Lesly Reynaga

Latin pop trailblazer Lesly Reynaga’s dazzling debut album “Valerosa” captures a unique, modern, mariachi-influenced pop sound that has made waves from Austin City Limits Music Festival to Lollapalooza. The KUTX Artist of the Month for September, the Mexican-born, Texas-based artist is making a striking first impression as a “one-of-a-kind” artist, claims Stax Records/Motown legend Al Bell, while earning the reputation of an artist with the potential to be a breakout star.

National press gushed about her recent Lollapalooza performance, describing her set’s “sultry charm,” “unique sound” and “bright, mesmerizing, volcanic burst of passion.” Valerosa, released in partnership with Spaceflight Records, is brimming with infectious dance beats and compelling lyricism, including “A Lo Alto,” a breakout single on KUTX98.9. Valerosa features a production team led by Nick Clark (Kanye West, Janelle Monáe), Andrew Schindler, Nate Villegas, and Reynaga with Billy Hickey, mixing (Ariana Grande, Lana Del Rey), Jett Galindo, mastering (Selena Gomez) and was recorded at Austin’s Orb Studios.

Already considered an important figure by ethnomusicologists for bridging a musical terrain that connects the dots from Lydia Mendoza to Lola Beltrán to Linda Ronstadt to her own contemporary beat-driven sound, Reynaga is called a new “stalwart of Mexican American music” in the new volume, “Corazón Abierto: Mexican American Voices in Texas Music.” Reynaga blends a timeless voice and an old soul’s perspective with Latin pop designs. On Valerosa, the young Mexican immigrant reflects on the spirit and experiences of Latin Americans across the ages, of their legacy of suffering, heartbreak, survival, and hope. Inspired by these roots, her songs celebrate Mesoamerica’s cultural endurance despite a history of exploitation. She asserts that through music—distinctly mariachi—she can discover an elusive identity. With themes ranging from calls to political action to meditations on magical realism to musings on her spiritual relationship with nature, Reynaga writes on her own initiative.

Her Austin City Limits Music Festival performance in 2022 garnered high praise, including the Austin American-Statesman’s assertion that her “performance certainly was among the most colorful at the festival, serenading the crowd with songs built on engaging Latin rhythms and the horns-and-strings accents of her mariachi compatriots.” And from Austin Vida, “Reynaga blazed trails with a historic ACL Music Fest performance. The Mexican-born singer-songwriter became one of the first artists in the festival’s history to feature a full mariachi band.” The Monterrey, Mexico native is also opening new horizons as an international music ambassador for Major League Soccer’s Austin FC and supporting numerous charities while musically being hailed by the Austin Chronicle as traversing “genre, culture, and language with transcendental grace like her predecessors Selena and Shakira did before her.”

Reynaga’s acclaimed 2019 “Dual Passport” EP delivered on the promise that led the Austin Chronicle to call her “one of Austin’s most formidable pop songwriters.” A highlight of the EP was recordings with her mentor, Al Bell. “I have been associated with many rare and successful artists (from Otis Redding to Mavis Staples) that have excited me and that I’ve been proud of,” said Bell, who likens Reynaga’s talent to Prince, who he worked with on the hit single, “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World.” “But it is always a delightfully shocking phenomenon to me when I meet that artist that I can identify as the world’s next rare superstar.”

Rollins Studio Theatre will be converted into a movie soundstage for this one-of-a-kind evening. An ensemble of musicians, actors, and dancers will be filmed performing “Valerosa” in its unique settings.