Sueños Music Festival Day 2: Grupo Firme, Nicky Jam, Becky G, Eladio Carrión, Young Miko

Mexican band closes out Grant Park fest with familiar rowdy antics and mass sing-alongs.

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Grupo Firme, led by vocalist Eduin Cazares, played to a crowd of over 55,000 fans at Sueños Fest.

Kate Scott/For the Sun-Times

On the second and final day of this year’s Sueños Music Festival in Grant Park, fans showed up wearing cowboy hats, boots and Mexican flags. Sunday was largely about Mexico, with performances from Becky G, Junior H and headliner Grupo Firme.

Crowds were already huge early in the day as they waited under partly cloudy skies for the opening performances by Chicagoan DJ Chava and Puerto Rican rapper Chanell.

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Cowboy hats and western attire were popular at this year’s Sueños Music Festival.

Kate Scott/For the Sun-Times

Fans continued to enjoy food and drinks from Latino spots from all around Chicago while Benny the Bull, the Chicago Bulls mascot, made his rounds around the festival grounds.

Here are highlights from the second day of Sueños Music Festival:

Grupo Firme

Though the regional Mexican group has had to, for unclear reasons, cancel several shows in Mexico and the United States within the last year, Grupo Firme was tasked with closing out Sueños.

With passionate vocals accompanied by accordions, trumpets and a steady beat of the drum, Grupo Firme’s seven members had festival goers belting out the lyrics to their songs “En Tu Perra Vida” and “Cada Vez Te Extraño Más.” They even remixed Karol G and Nicki Minaj’s “Tusa” with a brassy Mexican flair.

Founded in 2014 in Tijuana, Mexico, Grupo Firme has made banda mainstream. Last year, they were the first group of their kind to perform at Coachella.

Lead singer Eduin Cazares, 28, has been at the center of many controversies — alleged infidelity, plagiarism and alcoholism — that have led to plenty of negative press. But they drew plenty of fans into Grant Park, as organizers said the two-day festival attracted approximately 100,000 people.

The group’s on-stage antics remained familiar, though. They dedicated several moments to pouring Buchanan’s whisky directly into their mouths and encouraged fans to chant “Chug! Chug! Chug!”

The Grupo Firme members might be glamorizing some bad habits, but at least they’re staying true to their roots by creating music that’s meant for those who are drinking to forget.

They ended singing “Ya Superáme,” and their fans’ singing echoed off of the city’s skyscrapers before fireworks marked the official end of this year’s festivities.

Nicky Jam

Reggaeton artist Nicky Jam performs at the Sueños Music Festival on Sunday evening.

Reggaeton artist Nicky Jam performs at the Sueños Music Festival on Sunday evening.

Kate Scott/For the Sun-Times

Nobody at Sueños knew their audience better than Nicky Jam. At 42, he’s been on the scene for over 20 years, emerging around the same time as fellow Puerto Rican legend Daddy Yankee.

“Yeah, I’m that f- - -in’ old,” he said. “I’m still here though.”

Festivals goers knew all of the words to the first three tracks: ”Te Robaré,” “Bella y Sensual” and “El Perdón.” Nicky Jam definitely knows what he’s doing. Performing just before headliner Grupo Firme, he took full advantage of the opportunity to engage fans and connect with them on a different level.

“Thank you, besties,” he said after wrapping up his verse on the remix of Panamanian rapper Sech’s “Otro Trago.” Fans erupted into laughter at the Gen Z reference, proving once again that Nicky Jam knew the crowd.

Later he made sure to honor the festival vibes by throwing in some lyricless dubstep tracks, and fans ate it up. Then, he took it way back, to “Dónde Están las Gatas,” written almost 24 years ago.

Nicky Jam has managed to stay relevant along every iteration of reggaetón since then. His performance at Sueños couldn’t have come at a better time.

Becky G

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Latin sensation Becky G plays to a huge crowd at Sueños Fest on Sunday. | Kate Scott/for the Sun-Times

Kate Scott/For the Sun-Times

Fans packed in from end to end of Grant Park, pushing and shoving each other for a glimpse of one of Latin music’s most versatile artists. Becky G is able to dip into multiple genres, including American pop (see: “Shower”), Latin pop and regional Mexican music. Almost everyone has heard her on the radio, either in English or Spanish.

Introduced by a funky bass guitar, Becky G dove into “Mayores” as she appeared on stage. Backed by a band full of brass and strings, all of the songs performed by the 26-year-old California native were full of guitar riffs.

The singer performed some of her most popular songs, including “Cuando Te Besé,” “Sin Pijama,” and “MAMIII.”

“I feel really proud of being here,” she told the crowd in Spanish. After taking the time to point out all of the Mexican, Colombian and Venezuelan flags (a few of the many countries represented today), Becky G reminded fans that this Latino unity “is what it’s all about.”

Then, she took it back to her roots. Immediately after Becky G gulped a shot of tequila from a red Solo cup, a tuba began pumping out notes to begin “Ya Acabó,” a song she worked on with Marca MP, another regional Mexican group.

The energy was lively as she and her band seamlessly transitioned from the sounds of regional Mexican music into “Arranca,” a song with a merengue sound featuring Dominican singer Omega.

Eladio Carrión

Grant Park was filled for Eladio Carrion’s set at Sueños Fest on Sunday.

Grant Park was filled for Eladio Carrion’s set at Sueños Fest on Sunday.

Kate Scott/for the Sun-Times

A lot of fans stood around for the Kansas City-born rapper with roots in Humacao, Puerto Rico. Eladio Carrión, 28, has been making music since 2015 — a time when plenty of artists from Latin America were emerging onto the Latin trap and neo-reggaetón scene.

He stepped out on the Sueños stage wearing Gucci from head to toe. While Carrión is well-known in the Caribbean, fans on Sunday seemed to be unaware of his discography. The energy was a bit dull, and the artist had to rely on tracks that were dominated by his peers in the industry, like Karol G and Brytiago, to ramp up the enthusiasm.

The biggest pops Carrión got were when he performed “Coco Chanel” and “Kemba Walker” (an appropriate choice as the Celtics and Heat head into Game 7 on Monday), which are both collaborations with Bad Bunny.

He did, however, show off his vocals by going a capella on “Hola Como Vas.” Carrión held out his microphone to let fans finish the lyrics, but there wasn’t much noise being made.

This performance at Sueños is another stop on Eladio Carrión’s tour, which will culminate in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

He closed out his set with the 4K version of “Sin Condón” with El Alfa (who performed Saturday) to a little bit more energy as DJ Freddy Fresco transitioned back in and began to prime fans for Becky G.

Young Miko

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Young Miko performs Sunday at the Sueños Music Festival in Grant Park.

Kate Scott/For the Sun-Times

Part of a new wave of Latin trap music, Young Miko is one of the first openly lesbian artists — and certainly one of the most popular — in the genre. The 24-year-old Puerto Rican rapper from Añasco made many of her female fans swoon, some even shouting “Kiss me!” as she sang into a rainbow mic.

Miko teased her fans by winking and flirting with them as she sang, and happily accepted a bundle of flowers from one affectionate fan. The crowd seemed to know every lyric to every song, especially “Bi,” off last year’s “Trap Kitty” album, and “Lisa,” a single from March about the singer’s affinity for all types of women.

For having a set so early in the day at 1:10 p.m., Young Miko attracted a huge crowd. She’s a great performer and brought the energy by bouncing all over the stage. The artist seems to be the same person she is in her music videos and on social media: DJ Freddy Fresco, the festival’s official DJ, announced that she’d be making her way around the festival to connect with more fans.

She was dressed in an oversized Betty Boop t-shirt, ripped jeans, and a pair of all-wheat Air Force 1s that look similar to Timberland boots — defining her usual tomboyish style. Fans, especially girls, continued to vocalize how weak in the knees she made them feel.

She closed out her set with “Classy 101” while hoisting a pride flag, signaling a new era of acceptance and visibility for LGBTQ+ artists in the scene.

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