Song You Need to Know: Christian Nodal, 'Se Me Olvidó'

With his 2017 runaway hit, “Adios Amor,” Mexican yeehaw prince Christian Nodal bid a somber farewell to a former lover. The 21-year-old revisits the heartbreak with much more levity — and a few rounds of beer — in his latest work of devil-may-care mariachi, “Se Me Olvidó,” or “I Forgot.”

Nodal and his co-writers Edgar Barrera and Geovani Cabrera tick off all the boxes when it comes to writing a solid country song. “Se Me Olvidó” kicks off with a pang of hurt in his soul (check) soothed by a sip of beer (check). He steps it up by calling his friends (check), revving up his truck (check), and inviting some girls to hop into the bed — of the truck, of course! The best part of it all, he sings, is forgetting everything that transpired between him and his ex. “I realized that I didn’t love you as much as I thought,” he sings gleefully alongside the braying horns, “Because in the middle of the party, a girl kissed me/And I forgot I was hurting because you left me/Now I’m dancing until I stop missing you.”

In the video, Nodal strides coolly between between beautiful women at a desert rager, shrugging his shoulders and throwing his hands up with the hip-hop-infused bravado of a reggaetonero. In less than a week, the video has amassed 13 million views, and debuted on Spotify’s Top 100 at Number 66 — making Nodal the first regional Mexican artist to debut on the chart.

“Se Me Olvidó” drives home the young singer-songwriter’s revolutionary impact on regional Mexican music, and that sound’s enduring popularity across generations. Nodal furthered this mission on his sophomore album, Ahora, which won the Latin Grammy for Best Ranchero/Mariachi Album in 2019. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Nodal said of the LP: “It’s 100 percent the essence of my mariacheño style. It’s the school of regional Mexican music from before with the new school, right now.”

Find a playlist of all of our recent Songs You Need to Know selections on Spotify.