Controversy over concert in Mexico: They sing the praises of stylish SUVs and guns

Is he allowed to appear? In any case, Natanael Cano's fans have no doubts about it. The cheapest tickets are almost sold out. So if you want to see the musician in the Francisco Villa baseball stadium in the Mexican city of Morelia in November, you have to hurry. Tickets are still available for 1,500 pesos, around 76 euros, the more expensive ones cost three times as much. A lot of money, but Cano is also one of the big stars of the “Corridos Tumbados”, that mixture of reggaeton, hip hop and Mexican ballads that is extremely well received in Mexico, the USA and beyond.

But whether the musician will actually sing in the capital of the state of Michoacán is still up in the air. According to the law, no songs that could be interpreted as incitement to crime may be played in concert halls, stadiums and similar places. And some of Natanael Cano's “Corridos tumbados” would undoubtedly fall into this category. In a sense, they are the modernized version of the “narcocorridos,” in which traditional ballad singers praise the mafia and the macho criminal life.

In contrast to his fellow singer Peso Pluma, Cano does not admit to occasionally working for the Sinaloa cartel, but he too can get a lot out of the narcos' lifestyle and pays homage to their leader. “Long live the company,” he sings, making it clear that he means a criminal cartel. In his songs he likes to send someone to the cemetery with his Glock pistol: “That’s the life I like and I enjoy it.”

Cano's songs like this are heard by over 25 million listeners every month on the streaming provider Spotify. He was also nominated for the official soundtrack of the 2026 Men's World Cup. Modern folk culture – at its best. I think of children who told me about the terror of the Sinaloa Cartel in contested regions and who talked about their classmates who celebrate mafia killers as heroes. Or I think of the young people who joined the mafia because they believed in a chic life and are now dead or missing.

Michoacán is one of the states in which large areas are controlled by criminal organizations. Bombs explode here, farmers have to pay a “tax” to the criminals for every lime they sell, and young people are forcibly recruited. Seen from this point of view, it is understandable that the municipality of Morelia wants to examine Natalean Cano's setlist and then decide whether he can perform. The artist is used to it and can live with it. He might just have to cross one or two things off his list, he says. Nevertheless, he criticizes the censorship and emphasizes: “It won't change anything if the corridos are banned.”

Which of course he is right. Bans do not change the conditions from which criminal structures arise: poverty, corruption, patriarchal structures and, last but not least, the power of the gun barrel. Nevertheless, it would be naive to underestimate the importance of (socio-)cultural aspects for the attractiveness of the narco. The chic SUV plays just as much a role as the openly carried gun or the appropriate corridos that boom in every relevant bar.

The drug ballads have long been controversial; the conservative government at the time wanted to ban them as early as 2010. Of course in vain. Today, left-wing President Claudia Sheinbaum focuses on education and awareness-raising, as she recently said again. And not just with texts that glorify violence, but also with texts that despise women. Furthermore, it leaves the decision to the regional authorities.

After all, 10 of 32 states have banned the glorification of crimes. Mexico City's parliament also voted 44-0 in favor of sanctions. What you don't have to see so closely. The first concert in the capital next Friday is already sold out, but there are still tickets available for the second.