Here's How To Pronounce CNCO, Your New Fave Boy Band's Name
The music industry powers that be are doing this new thing where they drop the vowels in new up-and-coming artists' names and just expect you to know how to pronounce it. So, how do you pronounce CNCO, the name of the new Latin American boy band making a splash on the music scene? Well, with a little research I found out it's actually pretty simple. If you can count to five in Spanish you're basically there.
CNCO is pronounced like "cinco," which means five in Spanish. That makes total sense, seeing as there are five members in the group. The name just has the vowel "I" removed. It's kind of like the case with DNCE, which was a play on "dance," though their name is pronounced by reciting all the letters in the name individually.
Much like Fifth Harmony and One Direction, which were formed at the hands of Simon Cowell on X Factor, CNCO is also the product of a Cowell production. This time, on a Spanish-language singing competition show called La Banda, co-produced by Ricky Martin.
The five-part singing group consists of Christopher Velez, Richard Camacho, Zabdiel de Jesus, Joel Pimentel, and Erick Brian Colon. They range in age, from 18 to 23. Some members are American, but have Latin American roots, like Pimentel, who's Mexican-American, and Velez, who's Ecuadorian-American. Others hail from Latin America. Camacho is from the Dominican Republic, de Jesus is from Puerto Rico, and Colon is from Cuba.
CNCO's first hit was "Tan Fácil" which landed the top spot on Billboard’s Latin Airplay chart in May 2015. Their debut album, Primera Cita, was just as successful, charting Billboard's Top Latin Albums list in September 2016.
Their latest bop is called "De Cero." According to their interview with Entertainment Tonight on June 24, the track is all about starting over when it comes to damaged relationships. I can get down with that!
"Let's forget about all that. Let's forget about all that drama and just start from zero," said Camacho, describing the song. "Let's just get to know each other again."
CNCO also discussed how special it feels to take their music "back home" to varying parts of Latin America. "I feel like going back home and performing is a special moment, because they saw you grow [up]," Camacho added. "For them to see that all this hard work really paid off. And you know, we're actually doing something for our communities, our countries and our language." That is really cool.
CNCO also finds traveling to non-Spanish speaking countries just as special while on tour. "It's incredible how our music is to our fans ... who don't speak our language. We were in Japan, and The Philippines, and Europe, too. They don't speak Spanish and it's incredible how the fans they know our songs and know Spanish because of our songs," said Colon. Wow, and there's nothing like international fan power.
In April 2019, CNCO did a nice and clean sweep at the Billboard Latin Music Awards, taking home all three of the awards they were nominated for: Latin Rhythm Artist of the Year (Duo or Group), Latin Pop Album of the Year, and Latin Pop Artist of the Year. On Aug. 26, they also have the chance to take home their first "Moon Man" at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards. CNCO is nominated for Push Artist of the Year and, from what I can tell, they are just as deserving as the rest of the contenders in this category.
If you're a longtime CNCO fan or you just became one right now, you should def go check them out on Spotify.
You're welcome.
