NovaQuant-Meet Edgar Barrera: The Grammy winner writing hits for Shakira, Bad Bunny, Karol G and more

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Everything his pen touches turns to the best album, record or song of the year.

Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Edgar Barrera has worked with the hottest names in Latin music including Shakira, Karol G, Grupo Frontera, Becky G, Bad Bunny and Maluma, and has produced songs for other artists including Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, Camila Cabello, and Madonna.

"I'm a tool for them to express whatever they want to say or to take them wherever they want to go," Barrera, 34, says of his songwriting and producing chops.

In 2023 alone, you couldn't scroll social media, music streaming services, or turn on the radio without hearing Grupo Frontera and Bad Bunny's song of the summer "Un x100to," a Latin trap and cumbia-norteño blend, Peso Pluma and Grupo Frontera's catchy norteño pop single "Tulum," Karol G's Tejano-inspired track "Mi Ex Tenía Razón," or Shakira and Fuerza Regida's "El Jefe," which marked the Colombian artist's foray into Mexican music.

"It was the biggest year of my career," he says. "As a writer, producer and working with artists I've always wanted to work with. There's so much that happened last year that I'm very proud of."

Barrera, born in the border town of McAllen, Texas, and raised on both sides of the Rio Grande Valley, always knew he wanted to be a musician. Now, he's the most nominated musician at the Latin Grammys, boasting 21 trophies overall. In 2023, at the 24th edition of the awards show, he won for songwriter and producer of the year.

Here's how he makes it all happen.

Edgar Barrera's days start at 9 a.m. and end at 5 a.m.

USA TODAY caught up with Barrera two weeks before the 66th annual Grammy Awards in February − where he was the only Latino nominated for songwriter of the year, non-classical − and he gave us a breakdown of what a normal work day looks like during the awards show season.

"I started my day having breakfast at my house, then headed out to the studio with Peso Pluma. I had a session with him and with writers he brought from Mexico and we just kicked it off. We wrote three songs, maybe from 2 p.m. to 1 a.m. We were writing and writing, taking breaks now and then to eat something, talking, and bonding. After that, I had another session at 1:30 a.m. with another artist. I got home at about 4 a.m."

Eventually, Barrera drifts off to sleep at 5 a.m. − only to wake up four hours later.

"I wake up at 9 a.m. to make some calls for my label (BorderKid Records, a joint venture under Sony Music Latin) because I'm working on building a team of writers and producers and making sure everybody is taken care of. Now it's 1 p.m., we're doing this interview, then I'm going to have lunch with my wife and head out to the studio again with Peso."

Peso Pluma knows you know who he is.How the Grammy winner put Mexican music on the map.

How does the Grammy-winning producer unwind? (He doesn't.)

"That's a very funny question," he says. "The other day, Camila Cabello also asked me: 'Whenever you're not in the studio, what do you do?'"

"I write songs," Barrera says he told her. "No, I mean when you're not working," he says Cabello replied.

But Barrera says he's always listening to music or writing songs. (After all, a 17-hour Spotify playlist titled, "Written By Edgar Barrera," boasts 319 songs he's worked on.)

"For me, this is not a job. I don't see this as a job. When I'm not writing songs, I'm on my phone every day with the label, writers, artists and their managers because I also enjoy the business side of the music. I like to understand where everything is at and how things get done. I like to be involved in everything. I have no life outside of music."

More:Becky G says this 'Esquinas' song makes her 'bawl my eyes out' every time she sings it

His biggest hits were probably recorded in a hotel room

Barrera has no time to waste.

Whenever he's on the road with an artist, "I take advantage of that time," he says. "Sometimes artists don't get a lot of time to go into the studio so I try to make things easier for them and always have a setup in my backpack.

"Everywhere I go, I just pull out my Apollo and start recording. I can play a song to an artist and if they get hyped about it, they can just start recording with my equipment. Wherever I'm at, I try to set up a studio − sometimes it's a hotel room, sometimes it's in the kitchen of my house or wherever the inspiration hits. My biggest songs have probably been recorded in a hotel room."

Sometimes though, Barrera's biggest hits − specifically the Bad Bunny and Grupo Frontera collab, "Un x100to" − start collecting dust in his hard drive before becoming the No. 1 streamed song in the world on all platforms.

"It was a song that I would have never thought was going to be that big," he says. "Then we won the Latin Grammy for best regional Mexican song and having a Grammy with Bad Bunny, it's just insane."

Last year, Barrera produced Grupo Frontera's debut studio album, "El Comienzo," where "Un x100to" is featured.

Where is Grupo Frontera from?From a cover on YouTube to globalizing regional Mexican music

Growing up, music was essential for Edgar Barrera

Music runs in Barrera's blood.

At age 5, he was already playing the guitar and writing songs − producing, composing and songwriting is all muscle memory at this point.

"My dad is a musician too, he's part of a band and listens to every type of music. That has helped me nowadays because as a producer, I don't only work with one genre of music. It's one of the reasons why artists call me and look for me: I can do a corrido with Peso Pluma but then I can go with Karol G in a completely different genre."

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.