La Cumbia del FOMO” is a cumbia I wrote while I was in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca. I’m an artist from Monterrey, Mexico, and although cumbia is an important part of what I’m creating, I sometimes feel that in my own city I’m not fully recognized as a cumbia artist. There is even a line in the song that says, “que no soy cumbiambero, que soy fake ass,” reflecting that feeling of being questioned or seen as if this identity were something I’m pretending to be. The deeper idea behind the song is that Puerto Escondido gave me the freedom to forget all of that. Nobody there knew who I was, what I had done, or what I was supposed to be. I could arrive from Monterrey, party, make a cumbia, fall in love with the place, and simply be whoever I wanted to be. In that sense, the “FOMO” is not only about missing what is happening back home; it is also about wanting to escape the expectations and doubts that come with being known in your own environment. The lyrics are based on real experiences from the trip with my girlfriend: partying, going to the beach, meeting people, drinking, smoking and enjoying the feeling of being somewhere completely different. I wanted the song to feel spontaneous rather than overly serious, while still having that underlying idea of identity and freedom. The song also comes from a tradition I really like in cumbia and tropical music: songs that are dedicated to a specific place and turn a personal experience into a musical postcard. Two of my main references were Rigo Tovar’s “Matamoros Querido” and Álvaro Monterrubio’s “Puerto Escondido.” Although Monterrubio’s song is not a cumbia, its way of connecting a song with Puerto Escondido was an important inspiration. So, at its core, “La Cumbia del FOMO” is a song about leaving Monterrey, escaping the expectations attached to who you are, finding freedom in a place where nobody knows you, and turning that experience into a cumbia.