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'Los Tigres del Norte' is one of the most popular norteño bands, from Rosa Morada, Sinaloa, Mexico. The group was started by Jorge Hernández, his brothers, and a cousin, and began recording after moving to San Jose, California in the late 1960s, when all the members were still in their teens. They were sponsored by a local record company, Discos Fama, owned by an Englishman named Art Walker, who took them under his wing and helped them find jobs and material, as well as recording all of their early albums.
The Tigres were at first only locally popular, but took off after Jorge and Art Walker heard a Los Angeles mariachi singer perform a song in the early 1970s about a couple of drug runners, Emilio Varela and Camelia la Texana. There had been occasional ballads (corridos, in Mexican terminology) about the cross-border drug trade ever since Prohibition in the 1920s, but never a song as cinematic as this, featuring a woman smuggler who shoots the man and takes off with the money. After getting permission to record this song, Los Tigres del Norte released "Contrabando y Traición" ("Contraband and Betrayal") in 1972^[1]. The song quickly hit on both sides of the border, inspired a series of movies, and kicked off one of the most remarkable careers in Spanish-language pop music.
In Norteño/conjunto form (a style featuring accordion that originated along the Texas border region), Los Tigres del Norte have been able to portray "real life" in a manner that most of the Americas can relate to, but also in a way most Americans are afraid to interpret through music. Many of their most popular songs consist of tales or corridos about life, love, and the struggle to survive in an imperfect world. They regularly touch on the subject of narcotics and illegal immigration, but they have also shared stories of love and betrayal between a man and a woman. Together, the band and its public has turned norteño music into an international genre. The band has modernized the music, infusing it with bolero, cumbia, rock rhythms, waltzes, as well as sound effects of machine guns and sirens integrated with the music.
This band has performed before the United States Armed Forces in Japan and South Korea^[2]. This band has earned several Grammys, the first for "Gracias America--Sin Fronteras" in 1986, and more recently for Best Norteño Album (''Historias que contar''^[3] and ''Directo al corazón''^[4]), and sold 32 million records^[5].

Contents

Members

Former Members

Discography

References

External links

Members

★ Jorge Hernández: Director, Lead Vocals and Accordion

★ Hernán Hernández: Electric Bass, Vocals

★ Eduardo Hernández: Accordion, Saxophone, Bajo Sexto (12-String Norteño Guitar), Vocals

★ Luis Hernández: Bajo Sexto (12-String Norteño Guitar), Vocals

★ Oscar Lara: Drums

Former Members

★ Raúl Hernández: Bajo Sexto (12-String Norteño Guitar), vocals

★ Guadalupe Olivo: Saxophone and Accordion

Discography

This list excludes many "greatest hits" compilations.

★ ''Cuquita'' (1971)

★ ''El Cheque'' (1972)

★ ''Contrabando Y Traición'' (1974)

★ ''La Banda Del Carro Rojo'' (1975)

★ ''La Tumba Del Mojado - Internacionalmente Norteños'' (1976)

★ ''Pueblo Querido'' (1976)

★ ''Vivan Los Mojados'' (1977)

★ ''Numero Ocho'' (1978)

★ ''El Tahúr'' (