Becky G’s ‘Encuentros’ marks the next chapter of singer’s career

Edging toward the dusty cliff of Angels Point in Elysian Park, the music video crew sets up its last scene at the picturesque overlook of sprawling Los Angeles, cueing the twinkling song about renewed tenderness, “Otro Capitulo,” once again.

Becky G shifts her feet in a one-two-and-three-step motion while an artificial gust powered by leaf blowers turns the scene into a hazy fog, all while she rotates to embrace the city that raised her with open arms.

I meet the Mexican American singer, whose real name is Rebecca Marie Gomez, in her trailer up Elysian Park’s main road. She’s switched out her silky bandanna top for a more comfortably fitted baby pink tee. Still tethered around her neck is a dainty gold chain with the name of her fourth studio album, “Encuentros,” released Oct. 10.

Still catching her breath following the serotonin-exuding shoot, Becky reveals she is happy and ready for a new chapter in her life, hence the title of “Otro Capítulo,” the only cumbia track on her new LP.

“The song embodies something that I’ve been feeling for a really long time, which is the turning of the new leaf,” she said. “I feel like I’ve just shed so much skin.”

The earworm of cosmic bliss and new beginnings is also the name behind her sophomore headlining tour, Casa Gomez: Otro Capítulo, which kicked off Oct. 11 at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom.

The song is situated in a larger collection of conflicting emotions, a varying negotiation of personal values amid heartache.

“‘Encuentros’ was like really this place of embodying,’No, no, we’re angry. No, no, we’re terrified. No, no, we’re confused. No, no, we’re joyful,’” Becky said, becoming alive with every emotion as she said it.

In March 2023, infidelity rumors regarding longtime partner Sebastian Lletget began to swirl on the internet, prompting a public statement by the FC Dallas midfielder where he apologized to Becky and announced that he was committing himself to a mental wellness program. Becky did not publicly address the flurry of gossip that ensued on social media.

“I think there was a moment where my silence was confused for weakness, and it was a choice and it’s important for me to honor that,” she said.

A couple of years ago, the 27-year-old believed she knew all there was to know about life, an understandable dose of faith for someone who has spent most of her teens and early adulthood in the public eye.

“More of my life has taken place on the internet now than it ever did before, which is so strange to think about,” she said.

By age 14, Becky G had reached a record deal with Kemosabe/RCA Records after uploading a zealous rap freestyle over Jay Z and Kanye West’s “Otis” beat on YouTube. She professed her desire to hustle beyond her short-lived stint in G.L.A.M., a pop girl group. “Wrong label, wrong time,” she rapped.

It wouldn’t be long before she itemized her career aspirations in her 2013 JLo-inspired freestyle, “Becky From the Block,” asserting “I won’t stop till I get to the top.” Then came “Shower,” her 2014 feel-good pop wonder about a persistent crush that propelled her debut on the Billboard Hot 100.

“The song embodies something that I’ve been feeling for a really long time, which is the turning of the new leaf. I feel like I’ve just shed so much skin,” Becky G said of “Otro Capitulo,” a track off of her latest album, “Encuentros.”

(Jill Connelly / For De Los)

“I felt like a mujercita already, I thought I knew everything,” said Becky. “The older I get, the more I recognize that I know nothing at all. That’s so exciting for me.”

Though her first album, “Mala Santa,” wouldn’t be released until 2019, Becky G quickly found her lane in collaborating with top industry artists like Pitbull, Banda MS, Daddy Yankee, Snoop Dogg and Bad Bunny. She’d often flex her linguistic skills in both English and Spanish and across genres like pop, trap and reggaeton, opening for main acts like J Balvin, Katy Perry and Demi Lovato.

“The music I’ve made throughout all of my career really reflects my playlists growing up,” said the Inglewood-raised artist. “It was a genre-less playlist from salsa, merengue, rancheras, pop/rock en español, to hip-hop, R&B and pop music.”

Last year, she ventured into a new realm with the release of her first música Mexicana album, “Esquinas,” which honored her Mexican roots in covers of drunken-sung ballads like “Un Puño de Tierra,” “Cruz de Olvido” and “Por Un Amor.” She also paid tribute to her late grandfather, the catalyst of her dreams, in the tear-jerking elegy “Querido Abuelo.”

“It represented culture, community, connection to the things that raised me. From my abuelitos to my siblings, to the two flags and languages that I identified with growing up,” she said. “I had to go deeper to this place of acceptance as well that I’ll never be a baby in my dad’s arms while he listens to Chalino and Ramon Ayala.”

The “Sin Pijama” singer teased her transition to the genre during her 2023 Coachella set, donning a cerulean tejana hat and a rhinestone bralette. The stage opened the door to what she considers to be “Casa Gomez,” the familial energy one feels when attending a carne asada cookout. She brought out special guests Marca MP for their lento 2022 remix of “Ya Acabó” and Fuerza Regida frontman Jesus Ortiz Paz (also known as JOP) for a raw rendition of their 2023 “Te Quiero Besar.”

Then out came a nascent Peso Pluma for their duet “Chanel,” the leading single for “Esquinas” that debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 55. The raspy Mexican vocalist would go on to perform at Coachella in 2024, this time bringing Becky G as a special guest to the desert stage.

“More of my life has taken place on the internet now than it ever did before, which is so strange to think about,” said Becky G, who has spent more than a decade in the limelight.

(Jill Connelly / For De Los)

“She was the first woman who lent me a hand in this industry,” announced Peso Pluma to the crowd of thousands.

But Becky G’s venture into música Mexicana has also come with pushback from outsiders who claim she is only Mexican when it’s convenient.

“I laugh because I’m like, con el nopal en la frente,” she said, lightly slapping her forehead after uttering a colloquialism often used to emphasize someone’s evident Mexican roots via their appearance. “It couldn’t be more obvious that I’ve been proud of my roots since day one.”

Negative comments fuel her to keep going, especially as she’s witnessed— and helped — other Southern California contemporaries popularize the genre.

“I had a conversation with Ivan Cornejo about this, same thing with JOP. We are having a whole conversation in English, and singing in Spanish,” she said, halfway laughing. “We feel like we have this thing to prove.”

“She inspired me to have a voice,” said Cornejo, the Riverside-born singer who collaborated with Becky on the sad sierreño duet “2ndo Chance.”

“Coming into the music industry, I was a bit nervous, because I’m [both Mexican and American] and she helped me embrace [it],” he added.

Becky G also sought a collaboration with Delilah Cabrera, the budding 16-year-old singer signed to Los CT, the record label launched by corridos tumbados pioneer Natanael Cano.

“I think that she is very inspiring to all the Mexican Americans,” said the Wenatchee, Wash., teen. “I see her as a big sister.”

The two belt heartfelt lyrics on the tender-strum ballad “Todo,” which details a cautious approach to a new love.

“Brick by brick, we’re continuing to build this bridge that artists like Selena Quintanilla started and couldn’t finish,” said Becky. “I hope that we can help kids who grew up like us feel more OK to be themselves.”

(Jill Connelly / For De Los)

“Encuentros” is a vulnerable, unrelenting and unfiltered compilation at the crux of heartache and healing that Becky G has experienced this past year. She opens the album with the brash “Xlas Nubes,” a corrido tumbado fleshed with the distressing tolls of agony. She then carries her grief through “Desierto,” a banda ballad that hexes a past love to an eternity of dreary karmic payback. The LP’s lead single, “Como Diablos,” is a formal reminder to an ex that from one to 10, she’s “a f— hundred.”

Songwriter and producer Hector Guerrero, who has composed for regional giants like T3R Elemento, Grupo Firme and Los Tigres del Norte, helped Becky craft the hard-hitting corrido tumbado beats of “Encuentros.” Most notable on the charts is the album’s lead single “Mercedes,” featuring Mexicali’s Oscar Maydon, which raced to the top spot on Billboard’s Regional Mexican Airplay shortly after its release.

“Becky explained what she has gone through, which was very emotional. She injected us with those ideas when she would leave the studio,” said Guerrero. “What she has lived through is what is reflected in this album.”

But the rage, breakup-esque tunes are also paired with glimmering tracks of hope like “Muchas Gracias,” which includes an angelic interlude that poses the eternal question: How does one heal a broken heart? “Robando mas corazones? Quebrando más corazones? O sanando mi propio corazón?” (Stealing more hearts? Breaking more hearts? Or healing my own heart?).

And then there’s the bubbly techno tune, the one that was caught in an infinite loop the day of the interview, “Otro Capitúlo.” It is the nucleus of “Encuentros,” packed with a killer electric guitar solo, a nod to La Factoria’s 2006 reggaeton hit “Perdóname,” and sprinkled zest of the late Tejana singer Selena Quintanilla. “Lo que pasó, baby, ya pasó, Vamo’ a empezar otro capítulo” (What happened, happened baby, let’s start a new chapter).

The song also foreshadows what’s to come in Becky’s life.

“I’m ready to open my heart up again, I think you have to as an artist. We’re such lovers. We love love,” she confessed with a glimmering smile. “I think if you go through life so guarded with your walls up, it’s not really a life worth living.”

Now in the makeup room, re-touching her face for the second time in the day, Becky brings up the significance of possibly winning a Latin Grammy for her song “Por El Contrario,” a heartstrung ballad paired with the Aguilar siblings, Ángela and Leonardo, which is nominated for regional Mexican song. She started penning the composition in 2020 alongside songwriting juggernaut Édgar Barrera, winner of 21 Latin Grammys and best known for writing and producing songs for Shakira, Grupo Frontera, Maluma and more.

“Brick by brick, we’re continuing to build this bridge that artists like Selena Quintanilla started and couldn’t finish,” said Becky G. “I hope that we can help kids who grew up like us feel more OK to be themselves.”

(Jill Connelly / For De Los)

Admittedly, it would be sweet vindication for the Chicana singer born and raised in L.A., someone who is “always feeling like I wasn’t Mexican enough to win a Latin Grammy or to be nominated for a Latin Grammy.”

As the interview reaches its end, Becky takes a breath before quipping a cheeky take likely uttered in silence by every female celebrity whose romantic life becomes the subject of public discourse.

“I’m over here being a jefita chingona, busting my a— and that’s what people want to focus on?” she said, referring to her love life amid a decadelong career without scandals, five Latin Grammy nominations, four studio albums and two headlining tours.

“Please! Relax,” she added, cracking a puckered smile while she slapped away the wind with her hand, a charming attitude reminiscent of the young Becky from the Block who once dreamed of this life at the top.

The sun has set on Chavez Ravine, but the day isn’t over for Becky, who remained in the makeup room long after our interview concluded. There’s still a second part of the shoot, something involving a car. But after some time, she walks out of her dresser decked in a tan football shirt and a faux fur bucket hat, in her full prowess, ready to start anew.