Emmanuel Cortes grew up in Rogers, Arkansas, picked up a guitar in his early teens and was writing his own cumbias not long after. He was born in December 2006, and his first album, the nine track Memorias <3, came out in 2023 while he was still a teenager.
One song on it, "Amor", did nothing for a year. Released as a single in August 2024 it took hold on TikTok instead: by that September it sat under close to half a million videos of couples dancing. The song climbed to No. 6 on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart and reached the Hot 100, and Santa Fe Klan joined him for an official remix in April 2025, filmed at night on the streets of Guadalajara. His 2026 album Amor x Dosis stays in the same lane, romantic norteño and cumbia sung in a light tenor, with "Uno Pal' Otro" alongside Estevie added to the deluxe edition.