By Lucas Villa
Blue Rojo is leaving a colourful mark on Latin pop music. Because the Mexican-American singer continues to take the style to new locations by fusing seemingly disparate components of digital and punk with reggaeton, he additionally lyrically pushes boundaries as an brazenly homosexual musician. Looking for to search out himself after a couple of years of fleeting fame, Blue’s authenticity as an artist led him to signal with Common Music Group final yr. After releasing an album about being in love with a straight man, he continues to remain true to himself together with his newest single “Soy Tu Payaso Papi 3000.”
“It is a dream to sing about homosexual love,” Blue tells MTV over Zoom from his dwelling in Mexico Metropolis. “It is so scorching. It is tremendous passionate. It makes me really feel alive. It is what I’m. I am singing about what I’m.”
Earlier than changing into one among Mexico’s freshest new voices, Blue Rojo was born Santiago Ogarrio in San Diego, California. As a baby, he grew up within the border city of Tijuana, the place he was in a position to embrace the popular culture of each the US. and Mexico. Blue cites MTV’s TRL as the muse of his musical influences. “I used to be tremendous impressed by MTV, the entire prime 10 countdown,” he recollects with a smile. “I watched it on a regular basis.” Amongst his favourite artists have been Britney Spears, Evanescence, Avril Lavigne, and Korn. On the Latin aspect, he was listening to the campy group Kabah, Spanish pop star Belinda, and electro-pop trio Belanova. “I really like all of the pop glam of what a pop artist is,” he says. “It is lovely and it is plastic-y, and I prefer it.”
Blue moved to Mexico Metropolis together with his household at age 11, and he later discovered his first alternative to make his desires of changing into a musician come true. After The Voice grew to become a rankings juggernaut in 2011, worldwide franchises sprang up around the globe, together with in Mexico. In 2013, he tried out for La Voz. For his first unaired audition, he says the producers pressured him to sing Juanes’s “Me Enamora,” which resulted in zero superstar coaches choosing him for his or her crew. When Blue was invited again to audition once more three days later, he instructed them, “Certain, however I’ll choose my track.” His acoustic model of Don Omar’s reggaeton basic “Salio El Sol” received over Puerto Rican duo Wisin y Yandel.
Regardless of making it far within the competitors and having fun with the expertise, Blue says he could not actually be who he was whereas showing on tv. “I used to be already out with my household however I used to be nonetheless sort of scared of claiming it on the present,” he provides. Blue additionally discovered that his preliminary fame, boosted by La Voz, needed to do extra with being a recognizable face on TV than together with his precise expertise. He left Mexico Metropolis for Guadalajara after a pal invited him on the market. “I acquired sort of depressed,” Blue admits. “It was like a shock for who I’m. I began doing an introspection with myself to begin to know who I truly am and what I need to say. That is the place I began my creative creation of Blue Rojo.”
With a recent perspective from spending a yr in Guadalajara, he returned to Mexico Metropolis to make Blue Rojo a actuality. “I am this misunderstood, tremendous mystical homosexual boy in my fantasy,” he says in regards to the idea behind his moniker. (The Spanglish identify displays his bicultural influences from Mexico and the U.S.) In 2019, Blue began independently releasing music that delved into queer identification via euphoric electro-pop tracks like “Niñaboy” and “Bebé.” The reggaeton-infused “Soy Tu Payaso Papi” was his most emblematic video as he was a clown over his crush on a straight man. “I need to be free with this challenge,” Blue says. “I really like homosexuality. I believe it is a ravishing factor. In each sense, I believe everybody has to like who they’re. I really like that and I need to protect that for myself as a result of life is brief.”
Adrián Fierro“Soy Tu Payaso Papi” caught the eye of Mexico Metropolis-based A&R Diego Urdaneta, who assembled a crew of musicians like Venezuela’s Ulises Hadjis and the Dominican Republic’s Diego Raposo to work with Blue on his debut album, Solitario. Throughout the 12 tracks, Blue additional delves into the ache and rejection of his unrequited queer crush on this straight man. Urdaneta shopped the album round with completely different labels earlier than Common signed Blue. “You need to belief your intuition as a lot as you may,” Blue says about making the album. “You need to consider in your self. You gotta danger it additionally. I felt actually good that they appreciated the album. That was a dream.”
In November 2021, Common launched Blue’s Solitario simply because the label execs heard it earlier than they signed him. His operatic voice soars throughout each style that he is blended into the LP. On “Después de la Pandemia Volví a Ser Católiko,” Blue reconciles his non secular upbringing with a magnetic crush. By way of the surging electronica, he cries out to God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary for steering. Within the swaggering reggaeton standout “Eslabón de Bonbón,” Blue is feeling himself as a “puto,” his reclamation of the Spanish-language queer slur. “I just like the phrase and I at all times need to use it,” Blue says. “I felt like I used to be on hearth once I was singing that track, like a volcano.”
Earlier this yr, Blue lived out one among his highschool fantasies via his music video for “No Te Kiero Olvidar.” On the soccer area, he sings the synthpop anthem with eyes for the crew captain. After the 2 get cozy, they share a kiss on display screen. “It was very cathartic,” Blue says. “It was additionally a means of therapeutic. At school, I used to be very shy and stored to myself. I used to be very depressed, so doing this makes me let it go. Now I do know I put it on the market. I expressed what I felt.”
Along with releasing a revamped “Soy Tu Payaso Papi 3000” this month, Blue previewed his subsequent single “La Foto x Whatsapp,” due out in July. Within the dembow-driven dance monitor, he sings about discovering via Whatsapp that the man he is seeing has a girlfriend. “This track is extra enjoyable,” Blue says. “I just like the pop drama.” Towards the tip, a pattern of Belanova’s “Por Ti” emerges. “I used to be a type of children listening to Belanova, and now having them on my track, it is tremendous lovely,” he provides. Within the forthcoming futuristic music video, Blue rides across the metropolis holding onto a motorcyclist. A reference to Rosalía’s Motomami, maybe? He says with amusing, “Tremendous Motopapi vibes.”
Together with Rosalía, Blue would like to collaborate with artists like Frank Ocean, Charli XCX, Grimes, Unhealthy Bunny, Karol G, Björk, and, after all, Britney. With plans for extra singles to come back this yr, he is already exhausting at work on his second album. “I really like being Blue Rojo from now at this level in my life,” he says. “I need to make a little bit of a controversial album with a pop idea. I need to be an artist that has a voice. I need to maintain speaking about ideas which are very private however that additionally matter in society.”
