The Golden Touch
Songwriter of the year nominee Edgar Barrera revels in innovative collaborations
Edgar Barrera is a Grammys rarity: The Mexican American, Texas-born producer and songwriter is the only (and first) Latino act up for songwriter of the year at the 2024 awards. Less happily, he is also the only Latin act to appear in a Grammy category that isn’t Latin music-specific. Be that as it may, those feats speak to his towering achievements: He has become the go-to songwriter for top-charting acts looking to expand their musical range (he’s responsible for pairing Bad Bunny with the Tejano band Grupo Frontera) and shares songwriting credits with Madonna, Ariana Grande, Maluma, Karol G, Shakira and Peso Pluma, among numerous others. Here, Barrera shares the philosophy behind his songwriting style and reflects on his blockbuster year.
A common thread in the songs you’ve worked on features artists testing sounds that they aren’t known for. What is that like? I have a lot of fun taking an artist out of their comfort zone. It makes my job interesting. [“De Vuelta Pa’ La Vuelta”] with Marc Anthony is a salsa record and it wouldn’t have worked as anything else, but Daddy Yankee fit right in as a feature. There’s also Shakira’s song with Fuerza Regida, and Manuel Turizo with Marshmello — I worked on something like 70 songs that got released this year and they are all different styles. That speaks to how massive Latin music has become.
And yet, you’re the only representative in the major categories… It sounds cliché, but I already feel like a winner for that reason. It means a lot to be nominated in this category — one, because the Academy recognizes that this all starts with the songwriting, and on top of that, I’m nominated for Spanish-language songs.
For the song “Mi Ex Tenía Razon,” did Karol G come to you with the idea of a Selena-style melody? Yes! Karol came to me with that request since she is a huge Selena fan. I started researching to try and figure out what synths to use, what drum sets and what keys were used for the [Selena] songs. It was fun for me because it became a puzzle — we wrote the lyrics and then produced it.
Karol previously told Variety she felt anxious about trying música Mexicana for fear of it coming across as inauthentic. I get that. There were moments where Latin music was leaning urban, and although I’m not Puerto Rican, I gave it my best shot but there’s nothing like working with someone who gets it. Every time I’m working with Shakira, we’re listening to music and I’m playing her stuff I’m working on — music she’s probably not used to hearing. That practice has proven itself to be fruitful more than once. Like with Carin León and Maluma’s “Según Quién” — that started because Maluma expressed his desire to work with a Mexican artist, and I was already working with Carin. It’s a process of trial and error. What we’re doing is experimental.
Did you build “un x100to” knowing Bad Bunny wanted to jump on a cumbia song? No, because I had written that song with another writer called Rios about a year and a half ago — but that version had the wrong arrangement. We had pitched it to different artists, and nobody wanted to cut the song.
I was kind of venting to Grupo Frontera about how no one wanted the song. Out of curiosity, they asked to hear it but I didn’t want to play the demo; instead, I played it on guitar and sang. That led to us recording the song and Payo (Frontera’s singer) had the idea to get Bunny. I was like, “That would be like trying to throw rocks at the moon — not going to happen, bro.” Two weeks later, I went to the BMI Awards and I met MAG — Bunny’s producer. I sent him “unx100to” and the day after, he called to tell me Bunny wanted in.
What do you think has been the key to your success? Collaboration. I’ve always felt like the older generation of [Latin] songwriters aren’t used to collaborating. But at this year’s Latin Grammys, for example, I have written with every single person I was nominated against in the songwriter category.