

Mazatlan" (a duet with Gerardo Ortiz) and "Callejero y Mujeriego," helped propel their 2010 debut album, Renovar o Morir, to a strong chart showing and also the Lo Nuestro Award for Regional Mexican New Artist of the Year. Founded in 2010, the band started on the stages of small restaurants and local parties, where their theme song, "El Infiernito," opened the doors to airplay. Even though many of their narcocorridos are officially banned from airplay in their home country, word of mouth and streaming have served to get their music to an ever-growing audience.

Their provocative name ("armor-piercing bullet") was chosen as a symbol for their music, whose strength they hoped would carry them across the border from Mexico north to the United States and south across Latin America. The latter features the now-classic line “If you didn’t exist, I would invent you,” a perfect encapsulation of the band’s over-the-top but still irresistible charm.Calibre 50 are an award-winning norteño quartet from Mazatlan, Sinaloa founded in 2010 by Eden Muñoz (vocals, accordion), Armando Ramos (guitars, vocals), Martín López (tuba), and Augusto (drums). They’d subsequently take this sound to greater heights in songs like 2016’s “Siempre Te Voy A Querer'' and 2019’s “Simplemente Gracias,” two of their most recognizable numbers. “El Tierno Se Fue,” included in their 2011 sophomore effort, De Sinaloa para el Mundo, would be their first standout number, reflecting the sound that made them a household name: earnest, heart-on-sleeve romantic ballads, punctuated by hard norteño brass and adorned with just the right amount of sexual innuendo. The opening track, “El Infiernito,” served as their first true single, an upbeat corrido clocking in at just over two minutes that is infectious enough to warrant repeated listens.

The aptly titled Renovar o Morir (2010) (translated as Renew or Die) marked the group’s arrival on the scene-which was as impactful as a 50-caliber bullet. Originating in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, in 2010, as an offshoot of frontman and accordeonist Edén Muñoz’s earlier project, Colmillo Norteño, the norteño-banda group-–which was initially comprised of members Armando Ramos (guitars, vocals), Martín López (tuba), and Augusto Guído (drums)––quickly found its niche within the growing popularity of romantic banda ballads in Mexico and beyond. Calibre 50 are as likely to soundtrack a whisky-fueled romper as a balmy, romantic date night.
