The San Bernardino group, a 12-time finalist this year, is being honored for taking música mexicana places it had never been.
Fuerza Regida started in 2015 as a regional Mexican band from San Bernardino, California. Eleven years later, Billboard is giving it an award with the word “vanguard” in the name.
On Monday (Oct. 5), Billboard and Telemundo announced that the group will receive the Billboard Vanguard Award at the 2026 Billboard Latin Music Awards, held Oct. 22 in Miami and broadcast live on Telemundo. The band will also perform at the ceremony. With 12 nominations, it is this year’s third most-nominated act, behind Peso Pluma with 17 and Tito Double P with 15.
The award honors innovation and an unconventional creative vision, and in Fuerza Regida’s case the proof is on the charts. In 2025, the group’s ninth studio album, “111XPANTIA,” debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, right behind Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.” It became the highest-charting Spanish-language album by a duo or group in the chart’s history and the highest-charting regional Mexican album ever. That same week was also the first time in the Billboard 200’s 69 years that both top spots belonged to albums in Spanish. The title, by the way, combines the angel number 111 with “ixpantia,” a Nahuatl word for manifestation. It seems to have worked.
The numbers have kept climbing: more than 46 million monthly listeners on Spotify, 35 billion career streams and 16 entries on the Billboard Hot 100. Away from the charts, the band has gone where regional Mexican acts rarely go. It was the first regional Mexican group to play Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw, and it brought Mexican music to Paris Fashion Week, where frontman Jesús Ortiz Paz, known as JOP, sat in the front row at KidSuper’s show.
“We know who we are and where we come from,” JOP said in a statement, adding that the band has never been afraid to take its music somewhere people might not expect it.
Fuerza Regida joins the night’s other special honorees: Rosalía, who will receive the Billboard Hall of Fame Award, and Rubén Blades, this year’s Icon Award recipient.
From San Bernardino to a Paris front row is a long way for música mexicana. Fuerza Regida made it look like a short drive.
Sources: Billboard · Billboard, May 2025
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