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 parts of digital and punk with reggaeton, he additionally lyrically pushes boundaries as an overtly homosexual musician. Looking for to search out himself after just a few years of fleeting fame, Blue’s authenticity as an artist led him to signal with Common Music Group final 12 months. After releasing an album about being in love with a straight man, he continues to remain true to himself along 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 house 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 turning into one among Mexico’s freshest new voices, Blue Rojo was born Santiago Ogarrio in San Diego, California. As a toddler, he grew up within the border city of Tijuana, the place he was in a position to embrace the popular culture of each the USA. and Mexico. Blue cites MTV’s TRL as the inspiration 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 stunning and it is plastic-y, and I prefer it.”
Blue moved to Mexico Metropolis along with his household at age 11, and he later discovered his first alternative to make his desires of turning into a musician come true. After The Voice turned 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 compelled him to sing Juanes’s “Me Enamora,” which resulted in zero celeb coaches choosing him for his or her staff. When Blue was invited again to audition once more three days later, he instructed them, “Certain, however I’ll decide my tune.” His acoustic model of Don Omar’s reggaeton traditional “Salio El Sol” gained 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 form 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 along with his precise expertise. He left Mexico Metropolis for Guadalajara after a buddy invited him on the market. “I obtained form 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 really am and what I wish to say. That is the place I began my inventive creation of Blue Rojo.”
With a recent perspective from spending a 12 months 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 concerning 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 by means of 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 wish to be free with this undertaking,” Blue says. “I really like homosexuality. I believe it is a phenomenal factor. In each sense, I believe everybody has to like who they’re. I really like that and I wish to protect that for myself as a result of life is brief.”
“Soy Tu Payaso Papi” caught the eye of Mexico Metropolis-based A&R Diego Urdaneta, who assembled a staff 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. “It’s important to belief your intuition as a lot as you may,” Blue says about making the album. “It’s important to imagine in your self. You gotta threat 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 spiritual upbringing with a magnetic crush. By means of the surging electronica, he cries out to God, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary for steerage. 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 all the time wish to use it,” Blue says. “I felt like I used to be on hearth after I was singing that tune, like a volcano.”
Earlier this 12 months, Blue lived out one among his highschool fantasies by means of his music video for “No Te Kiero Olvidar.” On the soccer area, he sings the synthpop anthem with eyes for the staff 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. In class, 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 by means of Whatsapp that the man he is seeing has a girlfriend. “This tune is extra enjoyable,” Blue says. “I just like the pop drama.” Towards the top, 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 tune, it is tremendous stunning,” 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 fun, “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 return this 12 months, he is already onerous at work on his second album. “I really like being Blue Rojo from now at this level in my life,” he says. “I wish to make a little bit of a controversial album with a pop idea. I wish to be an artist that has a voice. I wish to maintain speaking about ideas which can be very private however that additionally matter in society.”
