"Imagine that Juan Gabriel went up on stage every night with a gun at his waist. Or that Babo, the one from the Santa Cartel, would grab a lead on stage with someone from the audience. That was Chalino Sanchez. In this podcast we examine the extraordinary life of the 'King of the Corridos,' and try to solve the mystery of his death. Chalino's story, his own narcocorrido, is a journey through the world of drug cartels, the world of the Mexican-American music industry and an unsolved murder for posterity," reads the synopsis of Idolo: The Ballad of Chalino Sánchez.

The podcast premiered in 2022 and has since been a hit in the Latino community, which wants to know more about the story of Rosalino Sánchez Félix (known as 'Chalino').

Born in Sinaloa in 1960, Chalino immigrated to the United States illegally in 1977. History indicates that he entered Baja California with the help of a coyote. Family tragedy then touched Chalino's life, and it inspired him to compose music and sing about drug trafficking and love.

Almost 10 years later, Chalino became famous in California thanks to his popularization of the subgenre of regional Mexican music called 'narcocorrido.' 

“Chalino grew up with drug traffickers. You know, he... the story goes that he committed his first murder when he was about 15 years old. One of the guys I spoke to said that Chalino was a bad guy trying to be a singer. Most of the time, you have singers trying to pretend they're bad," writer Erick Galindo, the host of the English-language podcast, said in an interview with NPR.

Chalino's artistic career, however, did not last long.

In 1992, when he was only 31 years old, the Mexican was murdered in his hometown. A mystery continues to surround the murder of the singer, and his fame throughout the Latino community and the rest of the world remains immortal.

“Three decades after his death, more than 2 million listeners continue to tune in to his Spotify channel every month. His biggest hit, a seminal ode to unrequited love called 'The Snows of January,' has been streamed nearly 100 million times on the popular music platform as of June 2021. That's more times than Selena's 'Bidi Bidi Bom Bom,' Frank Sinatra's 'Strangers In The Night,' even Biggie's hypnotic party anthem 'Get Money,'" added Galindo.

The podcast is also hosted in Spanish by the Mexican journalist and musician Alejandro Mendoza. Idolo: The Ballad of Chalino Sanchez released in 2022, and is available on Apple Podcast and Spotify.

Situated as the number one podcast in Mexico for several weeks and in the top 100 in several countries around the world, the podcast was also nominated for the 2022 iHeartRadio Music Awards in the category of the Best Podcast of the Year in Spanish.