GALINDO: You know, he actually lived a lot of the life that he sang about. SHAPIRO: Paint a picture for us of what this guy was like. That's more times than Selena Quintanilla's "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom," Frank Sinatra's "Strangers In The Night," even Biggie's hypnotic party anthem "Get Money." His biggest hit, a seminal ode to unrequited love called "Las Nieves De Enero" (ph), which roughly translates to "The Snows Of January," has been streamed nearly 100 million times on the popular music platform as of June 2021. GALINDO: Three decades after his death, more than 2 million listeners still tune into his Spotify channel each month. SHAPIRO: There's one moment in the first episode of this podcast where you give a sense of this guy's importance for people who might not be familiar with his music. And then you're like, oh, this is a good feeling. But then you calm down, and then you just kind of absorb it. You know, we describe it like maybe the first time you smoked marijuana, where, like, you're like, this hurts. And he, like, inspires others to think they can sing.Ī lot of people don't like his voice, but eventually it grows on you. But in that way, he's so passionate and real.
He really does kind of sound like somebody singing in the shower. GALINDO: Chalino did not have a trained voice. Sanchez spun tales of folk heroes who were sometimes drug lords. SHAPIRO: That's Erick Galindo, one of the hosts of the podcast "Idolo: The Ballad Of Chalino Sanchez." This singer-songwriter was basically responsible for popularizing an entire musical subgenre, the narcocorrido. (SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "IDOLO: THE BALLAD OF CHALINO SANCHEZ")ĮRICK GALINDO: At age 31, the self-made music mogul, rumored cartel hitman, acclaimed singer-songwriter and beloved father of two is dead, and the mystery surrounding this ghastly murder is about to turn this poor immigrant from a tiny Mexican pueblo into the most famous Mexican American singing outlaw that ever lived. But there's much more to his story, as a new podcast explores. musicians became all the more famous after they died young, and that's true of Chalino Sanchez.
Well, Chalino was performing at Los Arcos nightclub that day when Eduardo Gallegos climbed on the stage and started firing at the singer.Ĭhalino Sanchez reading the death note handed to him by an audience member, realizing this will be his last performance. Reportedly, the second reason is the Coachella incident in 1992. Hence, Chapo’s gang might have taken revenge. Two years later, he saw him and shot him.
The first reason dates back to 1975 when Chalino’s sister got raped by Chapo Perez. Indeed, netizens were unaware of these facts. On Reddit, a user has found three possible reasons why he could have died.
Interestingly, his songs earn millions of streams and are quite trending among young Hispanic listeners. Even today, we are unsure who killed him.Īfter his demise, Chalino’s music started getting popular. The next day, his body was discovered near Highway 15, Los Laureles, Culiacán. After a while, they were pulled over by a few armed men and their cars were unmarked. That night, Chalino was driving home along with two brothers, a cousin, and some young women. According to Wikipedia, the note revealed that he was going to die once he was done performing. Well, there are several theories regarding his demise.