Recording artist and social media star Daniel Balderrama is only a teenager, but his unique musical style connected with Mexican “corridos” is old school and starting to top the Billboard charts like legends Ramon Ayala and the late Vicente Fernandez. So it’s interesting that this young Chicano who sings about life and romance says his music has been most influenced by The Beatles and Pink Floyd.
You see, Balderrama, aka DannyLux, was born and raised in Palm Springs, California where Sonny Bono was once the city’s mayor. So instead of listening to Luis Miguel or Jose Jose, young Daniel was more tuned into soft rock popular with his peers, and he had a passion and ear for music. The problem was that his immigrant parents weren’t wealthy like many residents of this desert oasis. The senior Balderrama drove a garbage truck for a living, and from time to time would collect useful items discarded by others. One evening, he brought home a used guitar and Daniel was elated, learning how to play the instrument at age seven.
While Daniel later developed his talent in a church choir, the first song he learned was “La Bamba,” the signature hit of the 1950’s rocker Ritchie Valens, a forefather in the Chicano music movement. Both are SoCal natives and Valens performed many slow dance ballads such as “Donna,” written for his high school sweetheart. While Daniel doesn’t have a steady girlfriend, all the lyrics and arrangements for his current songs are original.
“I really feel like (Valens) left an impact,” admits Balderrama. “Like him, I want to be able to inspire people to do whatever they want to do…to create a sound that’s unique to them.”
Unlike Valens, who was not bilingual, Daniel’s first language is Spanish and found it easier to carve his niche in regional Mexican music while incorporating an American blend. Turning to social media to kick off his career, Daniel launched his own YouTube channel in 2018 under the stage name of DannyLux, and debuted on TikTok with a solo acoustic guitar piece. That and other performances prompted Pedro Tovar, lead singer for the band Eslabon Armado, to contact Balderrama and invite him to debut on the group’s new album, “Cortas Venas” in 2020. The kid now known as DannyLux received huge props for his contributing creation “Jugaste y Sufri,” which hit number one on Billboard’s Latin Songwriter chart in September 2021.
Back on Tik Tok, the combo continued to promote the single and it remained in the top three on Billboard for eight consecutive weeks, outlasting songs from more famed artists like Bad Bunny and others. Now DannyLux has written and performed breakaway singles on his own like “Tristeza y Traicion” with over nine million views on Spotify. In addition, his debut album, “Las Dos Caras Del Amor,” has achieved an equal amount of streams on the VPS Music label, headed by another hit song, “Dueño De Tu Amor.”
“I feel like my songs are a 50-50 split,” he reveals. “It’s like 50% about the actual music, and 50% about the meaning of the lyrics. I always try to focus on a perfect balance.”
DannyLux won’t be 18 until March 12th, but his romantic ballads of the trials and tribulations of love are well beyond his years. The classical guitar style reminds me of the great Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, although more distinctively Mexican in nature. This is a kid who pens provocative lyrics combined with musical arrangements that are beyond description. Plans for a brief concert tour are in the works for this spring or summer, and I’m anxious to see a DannyLux stage presence vs. a Tic Tok video. That said, his music is definitely something special.
“This is going to be the year of DannyLux,” he said recently. “I’m ready to take things to the next level.”
The young man has become accustomed to life in the fast lane. And the confidence is well deserved. It’s up to his fans to make the call.
