Intro:
Collaborating with top artists like Bad Bunny and Natti Natasha, Becky G has beaten the charts with her unique taste in music. Becky G is an American singer and actress of Mexican ethnicity, she is one of the most popular singers known worldwide. Her up-to-beat music has conquered the world, singing both in English and Spanish she has a range of music to listen to such as rap, pop, and reggaeton. You have probably heard Becky G’s top hits such as Shower and Mayores who have gained so much popularity and overall made Becky G who she is now. But how exactly did she get so far? Let's take a look.
Background:
Rebbeca Marie Gomez most well known as Becky G was born on March 2, 1997, in Inglewood, California to her parents Alejandra Gomez and Frank Gomez. Becky G has 3 siblings, one with autism, and is part of the second generation to be born in the United States in her family.
Obstacles:
Becky G started to become interested in the entertainment career at the age of 9 when her family lost their home and moved to her grandparent's house where her family lived in a small converted garage. Being the oldest of her four siblings Becky G felt she had to help out her parents economically so she began working part-time jobs in commercials, modeling, and voiceovers. Due to the stress caused by the jobs, Becky G suffered from anxiety and still is today. At her public school nothing would go as good either, Becky G became a victim of bullying caused by her involvement in the entertainment industry; it was so bad that she ultimately had to be homeschooled. “I got beat up sometimes in the girls bathroom” she states in an interview. Through all this chaos happening in her life she never gave up and continued with what she wanted her music career.
On Her Way To Success:
Becky G made a few appearances in films such as El Tux and La estación de la Calle Olvera in 2008, she also joined girl groups starting in 2009 one called G.L.A.M to get comfortable singing and being on stage till she knew she could sing by herself. After getting comfortable she began covering top songs during that time and began uploading them on youtube one of her covers Otis got attention from Dr. Luke is a producer who worked with top stars such as Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus. Becky G signed with RCA Records and immediately started work on her debut album. Her first song Problem was remixed to Problem (The Monster Remix) for the famous film Hotel Transylvania a Sony Pictures Animation. Following her first song, Becky G was featured on several other artists' songs for example with Michel Teló and his remix on “Ai Se Eu Te Pego”. Becky G made her version of the song “Jenny From The Block” by Jennifer Lopez in 2013, the song was a total hit and Jennifer Lopez made a cameo in her music video. Getting known from other artists' songs ultimately led Becky G to come out with one of her most heard songs Shower which made the top 20 on Billboard Hot 100. Through this song, Becky G gained popularity not in the U.S but also in multiple other countries and was awarded a multi-platinum certification. Becky G was cast for the film Power Rangers (2007) as “Trini” as well as appearing on Empire for two episodes casting as “Valentina Galindo”.
Downfall?:
The song Shower was a big success to her until she realized that she was to other people “the girl who sings Shower” Becky G says. “The biggest lesson I took away from it is that the song was bigger than me,...” Becky G states, through this Becky G found it difficult to beat her biggest hit song Shower, and very slowly started to lose interest in music. In 2016 Becky G decided to switch her preference in language for her singing career and began to make songs written in Spanish. Switching from the English language to Spanish does not in any case have happened before Becky G. It is usually the other way around but Becky G was confident and being able to speak another language to potentially change her future so she worked with Sony music Latin. Becky G states, “I was left with no other option but to sing in Spanish. I felt so stuck in my career. What 18 year old should feel like that's the end? So I was like, ‘Man, thank God I can kind of speak another language”. On June 24, 2016, Becky G released her first Spanish-written song Sola, a song about women's independence and taking a stand against men. Following this song Becky G collaborated and made more Spanish music stumbling a few times but kept getting up.
Latin Pop Star:
Due to her not giving up in 2017 she made the worldwide successful song Mayores featuring Bad Bunny. Mayores was a global hit everyone was listening to, thanks to this song Becky G became a Latin Pop Star, the song won numerous awards as well as stayed on the charts for 44 weeks. The following year Becky G came out with her second global hit Sin Pijama featuring Natti Natasha. Sin Pijama won and received numerous nominations and awards such as the Lo Nuestro Award for Urban Song Of The Year. The leading roles for reggaeton music were originally male-dominated however Becky G proved with just two songs that she has talent and so much to offer to cement herself in one of the leading roles in Latin music. Becky G has made well known to people that she is a star and will continue breaking records and creating her taste in music she released Mala Santa, her first solo album, in 2019. Throughout the years following, Becky G made epic new songs such as Fulanito released in June 2021 collabed with El Alfa. Becky G has made collaborations with several new and popular artists such as Tangana, Maluma, Maria Becerra, Karol G, and even BTS J Hope. The song Chicken Noodle Soup is a collaboration of J Hope and Becky G, the song contains 3 languages: Korean, English, and Spanish. You can catch Becky G singing in both English and Spanish. It's a very cool and catchy song. The most recent hit collab with Becky G is Karol G’s new song Mamii on February 10, 2022, the song has over 120 million views on YouTube in just a month.
Impact on Society / Music Industry:
Becky G has partnered with Pop Sockets to donate 50% with every sale to Autism Speaks, she holds this partnership close due to her sibling having autism.
Becky G has supported DACA in protecting the dreamers and even made a statement on her social media page when the supreme court denied Trump's administration to remove DACA. “Literally have tears in my eyes after seeing that the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration & in favor of the DACA program.”
Becky G has supported “Go Red For Women” which is the American Heart Administration movement in ending heart disease and stroke in women.
Becky G formed a part of Activate: The Global Citizen Movement in ending poverty and spreading gender equality. You can find a video of her talking about the struggles she even faced on YouTube.
Becky G supported the Black Lives Matter movement to remove racism and colorism.
Becky G has received the Agent of Change Award and dedicated the award to COVID-19 essential workers, Vanessa Guillen, and Breonna Taylor.
In the music industry, Becky G has inspired other women/girls that they can get to the top in the Latin industry even though it's mostly dominated by men Becky G showed that everything is possible and that we as girls can get to their level if not even better.
Posted By: Laydie Fluent
Written By: Gabriela M. (Spring '22 New York H.S. student intern)
Comments