(AUSTIN, TX – May 10, 2022) – C3 Presents announced today that local Latin pop sensation Lesly Reynaga will make her Austin City Limits Music Festival debut in the fall of 2022.
Reynaga has spent the past two years working on her soon-to-be released, first full-length album of 12 self-composed tracks. The new material being performed at ACL Fest features a wholly unique, cross-cultural, Latin beat-driven pop sound that’s immersed in her mariachi roots.
Called by Stax Records/Motown legend Al Bell a “one-of-a-kind” artist with the potential to be a “rare superstar,” Reynaga’s new music reflects the independent nature of an immigrant whose voice echoes the timeless cries of the Mexican grito in a search for joy in times of struggle.
“I’ve poured my heart and soul into my new record, and the opportunity to debut my new sound onstage at ACL Fest is truly an opportunity of a lifetime,” said Reynaga, who composed all lyrics on the album.
With “catchy dance beats that carry powerful lyricism,” as the Austin American-Statesman described her 2019 EP “Dual Passport,” Reynaga borrows from mariachi musical traditions of her native Mexico and blends them with modern rhythmic beats in a dark, volcanic burst of passion.
Reynaga collaborated on the album with the Austin/Los Angeles-based production team, "Invisible City," led by Nick Clark (Kanye West, JoJo) with Andrew Schindler and Nate Villegas, and Los Angeles-based mixing engineer Billy Hickey (Ariana Grande, Lana Del Rey) and mastering engineer Jett Galindo (Selena Gomez, Barbra Streisand).
Reynaga spent the better part of the COVID pandemic recording at Austin’s Orb Studios, accompanied by hip hop, rock and mariachi players, and experimenting with ballet folklorico dancer’s footwork used for percussion.
The new material from the Monterrey born artist, now based in Austin and Los Angeles, includes songs performed in Spanish with a few English titles mixed in.
The album’s lyrical themes mirror Reynaga’s musical and personal journey from Northern Mexico to the U.S. In a decisive, self-assured path forward, Reynaga yields a sense of self-reliance while reconciling with the dichotomy that Americans live to work, while Mexicans work to live. She asserts that the Mexican identity is a complicated one, facing its own inequalities in the shadow of a wealthy country while finding joy in the culture that makes it unique. It is through mariachi music where Mexico discovers its elusive national identity.
Reynaga is delivering on the promise that led the Austin Chronicle to call her “one of Austin’s most formidable pop songwriters,” whose compositions “traverse genre, culture, and language with transcendental grace like her predecessors Selena and Shakira did before her.”
###
For general press inquiries on Lesly Reynaga, please contact:
512.538.4115
info@leslyreynaga.com
The artist is available for interviews (in English and Spanish).