Just days after wrapping his first-ever tour, Xavi made his U.S. festival debut at Sueños on Saturday (May 25). The Mexican-American rising star performed in Chicago’s Grant Park to a crowd that sang along to his biggest hits, including “La Diabla” and “La Víctima,” both Billboard Hot 100 chart entries.
By now, the 20-year-old is no stranger to big stages. His Poco a Poco Tour kicked off in March in Mexico City and traveled across major U.S. cities, including Seattle, Las Vegas and Phoenix. But it was his first time performing in Chicago.
“First of all, I’m super excited because I’ve never been to Chicago,” Xavi tells Billboard a day before his set. “It’s going to be very special and the preparation for a festival isn’t really that different to how I prepared for my tour shows. It’s kind of the same cause everything is in God’s hands. We do this with a lot of love, good vibes, and hoping everyone leaves happy.”
Xavi says he wasn’t the type to go to festivals when he was younger but always imagined playing in one. And that finally happened when he took the stage just before 3 p.m. as the crowd settled into the open grass area. Wearing a Chicago Bulls jersey, as a nod to the city’s NBA team, he opened with “Poco A Poco.”
“Como estamos Chicago? (How are we doing Chicago?)” he asked fans. Throughout his short but riveting 30-minute set, he sang all the hits, including “Modo DND,” “La Víctima” and closed with the banger “La Diabla.”
Signed to Interscope Records, Xavi’s signature tumbados románticos catapulted him to the top of the Billboard charts earlier this year. When asked what he thinks has been crucial to his rapid rise in music has been, he adds: “The key to success was the whole team behind it all, the family, the discipline, living each day as if it were the last.”
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