México Canta 2026: These Are the Winners of the Binational Talent Contest

Mexican Bryan Soto and Mexican-Americans Lizandro Espinoza and Tiffany Galaviz emerged on Sunday (Sept. 13) as the winners of the second edition of the binational talent contest México Canta (Mexico Sings), after garnering the highest number of public votes — over one million votes received, according to figures from the Secretariat of Culture of the Government of Mexico, the organizing body.

As a result, the three young artists will receive a record deal to produce their first studio album, and will perform at the Independence Day concert in Mexico City’s Zócalo — headlined by Texan band Intocable — which will lead the national festivities in the country’s main public plaza on Tuesday evening (Sept. 15).

“Yesterday, the finalists for México Canta were announced,” Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum said during her morning press conference on Monday (Sept. 14). “One million people participated in the voting. It was truly excellent.”

The contest’s finale — an initiative by the Mexican government to promote songs by young performers that are free of content glorifying violence and drugs — was broadcast live on Mexican public television from the National Auditorium. The ceremony featured guests such as Banda El Recodo de Cruz Lizárraga and Majo Aguilar, who made her debut as a host during this edition of the show. For the second year, México Canta was coordinated by the Mexican Music Council.

Bryan Soto, originally from Valle de Chalco municipality in the State of Mexico, near the Mexican capital, shone alongside his band Clave 5/7 with a banda music performance. Accompanied by trombone and guitar, he performed the song “Labios de Cereza.”

Lizandro Espinoza, born in Portland, Oregon, won over viewers with his song “Pena de la Buena,” a ballad in the sierreño style that pays homage to his Mexican roots, inspired by legendary performers Juan Gabriel and Antonio Aguilar.

Meanwhile, Tiffany Galaviz, from Glendale, California, paid tribute to mariachi music with “Cosa Fina del País,” a style with which she has felt deeply connected since childhood, and which she formally studied at an academic level.

México Canta 2026 brought eight young talents to the stage for the finale, four from each side of the border. In addition to Soto, Espinoza and Galaviz, they included Mexicans Luna López, Belle “La Malixita” and Fátima Cuevas, as well as Mexican-Americans Rosalba Valdéz and Joshua Soto.

Following an intense selection process in Mexico and the U.S., the contest stood out for having a semifinal in each country, culminating in a grand finale in Mexico City. Los Tigres del Norte, La Arrolladora Banda El Limón de René Camacho, Armando Toledo Rosas “El Bogueto” and Californian rapper Snow Tha Product, among others, supported the initiative in its second edition.

This year, the contest focused on regional Mexican music, as “it is the genre most listened to by young people” in the country, as Claudia Curiel de Icaza, Secretary of Culture, said previously in an interview with Billboard Español.

The government-backed contest comes at a time of significant change for regional Mexican music, following the prohibition of songs that glorify drug trafficking — particularly corridos tumbados — in at least 10 of Mexico’s 32 states. Although not a new phenomenon, this reached its peak in 2025 after an unprecedented move by the U.S. State Department, which revoked the work and tourist visas of Los Alegres del Barranco in April of that year, after the Mexican corridos group displayed images of the late leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes “El Mencho,” during a concert at the University of Guadalajara auditorium.

President Sheinbaum has repeatedly stated that her administration does not ban musical genres, including so-called narcocorridos, and insists that the restrictions have been decisions made by certain state and municipal governments, as she told Billboard in April 2025.