Los Tigres del Norte

Grammy winners Los Tigres del Norte (1987; Best Mexican-American Performance; Gracias! America Sin Fronteras) is one of the most popular Mexican norteño bands from Rosa Morada, Sinaloa, Mexico. They even have a street with the

Grammy winners Los Tigres del Norte (1987; Best Mexican-American Performance; Gracias! America Sin Fronteras) is one of the most popular Mexican norteño bands from Rosa Morada, Sinaloa, Mexico. They even have a street with their name and they appear in a mural. The group was started by Jorge Hernández, two of his brothers (Raul and Hernan), and a cousin (Oscar Lara). They started playing with the instruments of one grandparent, and started playing in cantinas, until they went to the USA, where a police called the "THE LITTLE TIGERS", giving them their actual name. In the United States they recorded their first albums, but their real hit was a song in the early 1970s about a couple of drug runners. After getting permission to record this song, Los Tigres del Norte released "Contrabando y Traicion" (Contraband and Betrayal) in 1972. This kind of song was unheard of and too controversal for the modern public (at that time), mostly because it talked not only of drug traders, but of love and betrayal, and how a woman killed a man for feeling hurt. That song was also recorded by, who is by far considered one of the premier norteño artists in the history of the genre, Ramon Ayala. At the time, America's youth were getting high in large numbers, and Mexican immigrants were seeing drug trafficking daily as they crossed the border. The song quickly hit huge, kicking off one of the most remarkable careers in Spanish-language pop music. In the year 2000 many rock bands joined to make a tribute to their music. The career downfall for Los Tigres del Norte has not started, proof of this is that they continue taking their music to different countries and they keep releasing CD's. Los Tigres Del Norte are a real living inspiration for many Norteño and even rocker singers. They're about 36 years playing their music. Los Tigres Del Norte are and will keep being one of the most important Norteño groups.

In Norteño/conjunto form, Los Tigres del Norte have been able to portray "real life" in a manner that most of the Americas can relate to, but also in a way most Americans are afraid to interpret through music. Most of their songs consist of tales or corridos about life, love, and the struggle to survive in an imperfect world. They regularly touch on the subject of illegal narcotics and immigration, but they've also shared stories of love and betrayal between a man and a woman. Together, the band and its public has turned norteño music into an international genre. The band has modernized the music, infusing it with boleros, cumbias, rock rhythms, waltzes, as well as sound effects of machine guns and sirens integrated with the music. In the process, they made a pop style out of an accordion-based polka music indigenous to dusty Northern Mexico cantinas.