Yahritza Y Su Esencia

Yahritza y Su Esencia formed as a sibling trio in Yakima, Washington, with singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist Yahritza Martinez at the forefront while her older brothers Jairo supplied acoustic bass and Mando handled 12-string guitar. Their sound fuses traditional Mexican Regional elements rooted in ranchera and corrido forms with acoustic folk-pop textures. Less than a year after beginning formal performances, a fragment of the breakup ballad “Soy El Unico” exploded across TikTok in February 2022. Lumbre Music issued the completed track in April, sending it to the summit of the Hot Latin Songs chart and to position 20 on the Hot 100; the song also led streaming rankings and established the 15-year-old Yahritza as the youngest Latin artist to appear on Billboard’s all-genre tally. “Esta Noche” arrived the following March, and the five-track EP Obsessed followed in April, both singles included; the project immediately claimed the top of digital and Latin charts. The next year brought the sequel Obsessed, Pt. 2, while “Te Fui a Seguir” previewed their first full-length album.

Mando entered the world in Jiquilpan, Michoacán—the hometown of his parents—before the migrant-worker family relocated to the United States ahead of Yahritza’s birth. The children absorbed varied strands of Mexican music during their upbringing; their father and uncles performed together in a band that Mando joined on keyboards at age ten. All three siblings also labored in the fields, harvesting apples, cherries, and pears.

Yahritza was already delivering corridos and rancheras to Mando’s keyboard accompaniment by age five. As her obsession with music deepened, she began performing alongside him at family events and parties. She started composing original material at 13 and, a year later, taught herself guitar; Jairo took up the bajoloche, while Mando explored the requinto before shifting to the 12-string bajo sexto after learning by ear from recordings.

Once Yahritza could accompany herself, she posted covers of contemporary tracks by Enigma Norteño, Calibre 50, Ed Maverick, and similar acts on TikTok, soon joined by her brothers. They also rehearsed her originals alongside the covers. A stripped-down version of Ivan Cornejo’s “Está Dañada” featuring only Yahritza and Jairo went viral, drawing interest from label representatives and A&R personnel. The siblings remained unimpressed by most offers until approached by Ramón Ruiz and Alex Guerra—former Legado 7 members who had established Lumbre Music—along with filmmaker David Cruz, who traveled to Yakima. Reportedly, the group settled on the name Yahritza y Su Esencia only hours before the visitors arrived. Ruiz was struck by the emotional force of Yahritza’s voice and its capacity to invert the prevailing male perspective; the label principals recorded three sierreño-style performances and filmed the session. The trio signed with Lumbre Music, and a 15-second clip of “Soy El Unico”—the song Yahritza had written at 13—quickly amassed tens of millions of streams and views after posting in February. “Esta Noche” followed in March with comparable success, and the full Obsessed EP reached the upper reaches of Latin and streaming charts upon its April release. In 2023 the single “Cambiaste” from Obsessed, Pt. 2 peaked at number 31 on Billboard’s Latin chart; “Te Fui a Seguir,” the first single from the debut album 111, appeared that November. Two additional tracks, “Tu Cárcel” and “Tu Orgullo,” surfaced in 2024.