After the Backlash, Karol G Explains Why She Belongs in the Latin Grammy Regional Mexican Category

Karol G’s nomination for Best Regional Mexican Song at the Latin Grammy Awards 2026 for “Ese Hombre Es Malo,” a track from her album “Tropicoqueta,” set off a wave of criticism from Mexican fans who questioned how a Colombian artist could occupy a spot in a category associated with Mexican culture. The backlash spread across social media within hours of the nomination announcement on September 16th, with users on X and TikTok comparing her trajectory to that of artists who have dedicated their entire careers to the regional Mexican genre, while others pointed specifically to Yuridia, who had recently performed two sold-out concerts at the Estadio GNP and was not among the nominees. Yuridia herself responded on Instagram on September 18th, writing that she does not like these kinds of nonsense and asking people to leave Karol G alone.

The controversy, however, rests on a misunderstanding of how the Latin Grammy nomination process actually works. The Latin Recording Academy’s current rules do not condition eligibility on the nationality of the performer. The requirement is that the song contain at least sixty percent of its lyrics in Spanish and conform to the structure of the regional Mexican genre. The nomination technically belongs to the songwriters of the track, Édgar Barrera, Andrés Jael Correa Ríos and Carolina Giraldo Navarro, which is Karol G’s legal name. She competes in the category alongside Intocable, Grupo Frontera, which received two nominations, Xavi and Edén Muñoz with Cristian Castro.

What Karol G Actually Said About Her Connection to Mexico

In an interview with MTV Latinoamérica conducted ahead of her upcoming visit to Mexico as part of the Tropitour, Karol G explained that her relationship with Mexican culture began in childhood through telenovelas. She described that early exposure as the entry point through which she discovered Mexican music and developed an affinity for the themes of heartbreak, romance and emotional intensity that she associated with Mexican identity and storytelling. She said that popular music and mariachi allow her to express herself with the same feeling she grew up with, and that “Tropicoqueta,” released in June 2025, was her way of honoring Latin American culture in its full breadth, which for her was impossible to do without including a genre and a culture that had given her so much and with which she identified deeply.

She was direct about the fact that her connection to Mexican music is not a strategic move toward a new audience but a genuine part of what shaped her as an artist. She described the album as a tribute to everything she has had the opportunity to encounter through years of travel and exposure, and said that leaving Mexican music out of that tribute would have been a dishonest omission given how central it has been to her development. The Colombian artist who built her name in urban music made a deliberate choice with “Tropicoqueta” to step away from those sounds and explore something closer to her emotional roots, and Mexico was a non-negotiable part of that conversation.

The Double Standard the Debate Exposed

The most revealing aspect of the controversy around Karol G’s nomination is not the nomination itself but the selective outrage surrounding it. Mexican group Los Ángeles Azules was nominated in the Best Cumbia/Vallenato Album category in 2021, 2023 and 2024, a category historically associated with Colombian and Venezuelan musical traditions, without generating any comparable wave of complaints from the Colombian community. The silence from one side and the noise from the other exposes a double standard that is worth examining honestly rather than glossing over in the name of keeping the peace.

The regional Mexican genre has a global audience and a global influence, and the idea that only Mexican-born artists can engage with it authentically is a form of cultural gatekeeping that the genre’s own history does not support. Karol G grew up watching Mexican telenovelas, listening to mariachi and absorbing a cultural framework that shaped her sensibility as a performer long before she recorded a single note of regional Mexican music. Her nomination reflects a body of work built on that genuine connection, evaluated according to rules that have always prioritized the music over the passport of the person who made it. The debate is a legitimate one to have, but it should be had honestly, which means acknowledging that the rules apply to everyone equally or acknowledging that they do not and being willing to say so consistently regardless of which community benefits.