Music
Sammy Arriaga on breaking barriers as a country music Latino star
Country Latino artist Sammy Arriaga has built a career blending music genres with his Hispanic roots. Ahead of Red Bull Jukebox, he reflects on breaking barriers in the country music scene.
It’s not every day the next great Country artist hails from Hialeah, Florida, especially one born into the maximalist rambunctiousness of hip-hop and the unabashed sensuality of R&B before ever hearing any Country music. Years before being chosen to open for multi-platinum country star Jordan Davis at Red Bull Jukebox’s first Texas event, Sammy Arriaga had an obsessive entry into Country music in 2011 through Rascal Flatts’ Billboard US Hot Country Songs #1 record, “Bless The Broken Road.” It was then he recognized that the intersection of all of the disparate musical genres he was beginning to love was what has come to define his career now: storytelling.
“I realized really quickly that country music is storytelling – stories about life, family, and everything. I saw a place for myself in the genre. I noticed there weren’t a lot of Hispanics in the genre when I first got into Country music, and I saw it as a great opportunity to embrace my roots, come to Nashville, and become a representative of my community and my culture.”
Miami-born Sammy Arriaga found his voice in Nashville
© Courtesy of Sammy Arriaga
His father was the one who originally planted that idea in his head, encouraging the young aspiring singer to believe that his story as a rare Country Latino artist would help him stand out on American Idol. Less than a year after committing himself to learning the Rascal Flatts classic song, Arriaga impressed the judges enough with his delicate yet unique rendition of the song to make it out of the regional qualifications and into the first round of the Hollywood auditions. Fortune favors the bold, and his elimination from the competition did nothing to dissuade him from daring to dream.
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How Sammy Arriaga found country music
With $300 to his name, songs on his heart, and a goal on his mind, Arriaga packed up and moved to the home of Country music, Nashville, and dove pen-first into the intimidating pool of stellar songwriters. He pummeled imposter syndrome with the sheer volume of writing sessions he accepted. He honed his sound over seven years by performing original songs in hotel lounges to see whether his music was resonating with people outside his tight circle.
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Blending Latin culture with Nashville storytelling
Sammy Arriaga blends country and Latin influences live
© Courtesy of Sammy Arriaga
During these developmental days of finding himself in music he began finding a middle ground between his Hispanic heritage and the country landscape. His 2017 debut EP Meet in the Middle was some of his earliest attempts at this hybrid sound, including the vibrant “Banjos and Bongos” where he woos a love interest by showing the beauty that can come from compromise with lyrics like, “You be the y’all, I’ll be the hola” and “You be the Shania [Twain], I’ll be Enrique [Iglesias].” The creative freedom in holding space for all parts of himself is central to his sound being embraced by Texas, a state whose population is 40.9% Hispanic and 37.3% non-Hispanic white, according to Census data.
“I always tell my team I want to make sure we’re including instruments you wouldn’t normally hear in a Country song that are common in the Latin world,” he says. “We’ll hit them with a curveball and say, ‘Oh, we’re going to have an accordion solo here, or we’re going to bring in a congas player here to play some bongos and congas, and add a little flair you normally wouldn’t hear on Country radio.”
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How social media helped Sammy Arriaga grow
It wasn’t until the pandemic, when the world forced artists to isolate away from their fans, that he finally took full ownership of his sound thanks to the creative sovereignty afforded to him by social media. Instead of being beholden to major label release schedules, budgetary cuts, and expectations, he was able to expand his fanbase exponentially by feeding them (and the algorithm) all of the songs he wrote over the seven years when he was building himself. His Facebook account grew above 500,000 followers in a year by “being unapologetic about this fusion we’re working on.”
“God willing, we’ve been posting all of these Spanish covers, not knowing what the reaction would be to some of these country songs in a new language. It was absolutely life-changing. Just from 2023 until now, our TikTok went from 300k to 950,000 followers. It’s more than tripled.”
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From Boots x Beats to Heart in Texas
Storytelling remains central to Sammy Arriaga’s music
© Courtesy of Sammy Arriaga
Thanks to that success, he was able to self-fund and self-promote his debut album, Boots x Beats, in 2021, releasing it through his indie label Dead Rose Records. The 22-track opus is largely sung in English with Spanish and Spanglish versions sprinkled throughout the bottom half of the album. Once he released his 2025 album, Heart in Texas, he eschewed the sequencing separation of his two styles of music by mixing them together, ensuring that music fans who increasingly are becoming more prone to listen to albums on shuffle couldn’t avoid the fusion. He made who he is, in its totality, undeniable.
This propensity for fusion is what makes him perfect for a Red Bull Jukebox event built around meshing styles in unexpected ways and finding the commonality between musical tastes. To him, shows like these are gamechangers for artists moving forward because acts are putting themselves in front of an audience that’s ready to find new talent and someone they can grow with.”
“My sound fits that concept so perfectly [with Red Bull Jukebox] because we are breaking so many rules with our music. We are a country music act, but if you dive into our music recorded and live, you’re going to get an experience you’re probably not going to get anywhere else, very similar to the Red Bull Jukebox event.”
Enjoy watching him live his story.