Lamenting to an accompaniment of an acoustic bass and a twelve-string guitar, lead singer Yahritza from the band Yahritza Y Su Esencia beautifully croons the lyrics to their hit single “Soy El Único.”
Qué triste es amar a otra persona (How sad it is to love someone else)
Que no te sepa valorar (Who doesn’t know how to value you)
Que tengas que empezar desde cero (To have to start from scratch)
Sólo pa’ que seas feliz, una vez más (Only to be happy, once again)
A hot emerging Latin music band, Yahritza Y Su Esencia released the song “Soy El Único” on their first-ever album, “Obsessed,” in April 2022. The record recounts a tragic love story through its seven-track playlist. Gaining traction after going viral on Tikok, the album quickly soared to the top of Billboard’s Regional Mexican Albums chart and soon after ranked seventh on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums.
Yahritza Y Su Esencia is composed of a young sibling trio from Yakima, Washington: Yahritza (fifteen), Mando (24), and Jairo (seventeen) Martinez. Mando, who plays the twelve-string guitar for the band, picked up the instrument only six months before their premier album was released. Jairo, the acoustic bass (bajaloche) player, began playing the instrument over the summer, and Yahritza only began playing the guitar a year ago.
“Soy El Único” was the first song Yahritza ever wrote and is an extremely powerful breakup ballad. As she was only thirteen when she wrote the song, she herself had not yet experienced heartbreak, and therefore drew inspiration from TikTok break up stories. Yahritza found inspiration from one video in particular, in which the speaker said “you’re not going to find anyone better than me.” This theme reoccurs continually in the song in lines like “Búscate a otro que te pueda dar lo mismo que yo” (find someone else who can give you the same as me) and “sabes que nadie te puede tratar como yo” (you know that nobody can treat you like I do).
Interestingly, the band got their start on TikTok after releasing a cover of artist Ivan Cornjeo’s song “Está Dañada.” When the cover went viral, the band was quickly signed to Lumbre Music. In addition to being a social media platform, TikTok promotes trends, has created/destroyed/maintained celebrities, and has even become somewhat of a current events news source (for better or for worse). While there’s no doubt TikTok has countless downsides, the ability for young people to promote their talents to a global audience is certainly one positive result of the popular app, and the rise of Yahritza Y Su Esencia is one example of this; everything about their rise to fame is rooted in TikTok, from their discovery to their popularity to their musical content.
In short, Yahritza Y Su Esencia is a band worth listening to. Inspired by a healthy mix of traditional Mexican music, lofi, and TikTok, the band produces love songs that feed the soul, even for non-Spanish speakers. Yahritza’s voice is irresistible, pulling you in with its melancholic beauty. The accompanying strings complement her voice, highlighting the yearning in her drawn-out, vibrato-less notes. Earlier this month, Yahritza Y Su Esencia came out with a new song in collaboration with Ivan Cornejo called “Inseparables.” I highly recommend a listen.
