Jessic Reyes: a different border crossing
I have had my eye on the upcoming release of Jesse Reyes’ new album, A Little Vengeance, due June 11. Reyes has always intrigued me because she is a cross-border Spanish-English singer, but not part of the usual Texas/California/Sonora/Baja crossing. She is Canada-Columbia, a totally different map. Instead of repeating the familiar Mexican‑American Tejano or East L.A. storyline, she’s traveling a similar dual identity with a different map: Colombia → Canada → U.S. and global pop. Her songs about immigration (“Far Away”), heartbreak, and survival are shaped by having grown up Latina in a country where the Latin community is still relatively small and emerging (and not subject to the persecution found in the US). That gives her work a different kind of border fluency: she’s crossing cultural and industry borders as much as geographic and language ones.
In her catalogue, the balance is tilted toward English, but there’s plenty of Spanish: some Spanish‑language tracks on her own releases, and high‑profile collaborations with Latin pop and urbano artists like Karol G, Daniel Ceasar, Miguel, and Elyanna & FIFA Sound project. She has a sustained, visible presence at the point where Latin and Anglo markets meet, functioning like a bridge who can headline R&B tours, appear in Latin Heritage Month coverage, and trade verses in Spanish with Mexican and Colombian stars without changing personas.
So to me, Jessie Reyez has become a standout example of how “border music” in 2026 is hemispheric or even global, rather than only regional. Her songs run through Toronto instead of San Antonio or East L.A., proof that the borders Latin artists are crossing now include the northern edge of the continent as well as the Río Bravo.
Her latest major release, the 2025 album Paid in Memories, and her recent 2026 drops like the EP $till Paid and singles such as “PALO $ANTO,” “$OFA,” and “N.Y.F.F.” are English, or English with a bit of Spanish. But hee bilingual and Spanish catalogue includes such hits as “Sola” – Her first Spanish‑language single, released in 2018,“LA MEMORIA”, a Spanish track on the 2020 album Before Love Came to Kill Us; lyrics are Spanish, and the song has been used in Spanish‑learning and translation videos because it’s fully in Spanish. Others include “Con el Viento,” “ADIÓS AMOR,” “TITO’S,” “El Encuentro,” and “Colombian King & Queen.” The new album looks to be mostly English, but we will see. In any case, it will be fun. I can’t wait
