Christian Nodal has mixed feelings about the modern world. On the one hand, he probably wouldn’t have his career without it—a fact to which his millions of heart-emoji-posting social-media followers can attest. On the other, his is an art forged deeply in the past, a gentle pushback against contemporary sounds in favour of older styles of Mexican music combined in novel but reverential ways. His fans see him as the great hope of regional Mexican, an artist keeping the flame of tradition alive for listeners on both sides of the border. To Nodal, he’s just an old man in a young man’s body. Born in 1999 in the Sonoran city of Caborca, bordering Arizona, he started playing music as a child and was writing his own songs by middle school. His highlights—“Aquí Abajo”, “No Te Contaron Mal”, “Adiós Amor”, “Te Fallé”—channel the romanticism of classic Mexican singers like Vicente Fernández and Juan Gabriel, but also reflect a clever blend of styles: mariachi, norteño, cumbia, even country. He’s not trying to cross over. But as demographics change, Nodal has gained a foothold with Latinx communities everywhere, not by assimilating his sound, but by keeping it pure.