In 2011, Rio Roma — the Mexican pop duo of brothers Jose Luis and Raul Roma — earned a platinum certification in Mexico for sales of more than 60,000 copies of its debut album, “Al Fin Te Encontre” — big numbers for a new Latin act.
Rather than rushing a U.S. release, label Sony Latin put out a digital-only version and took its time in developing a strategy for a proper U.S. outing. After nearly two years of playing industry showcases and panels, Rio Roma will release sophomore set “Otro Dia” simultaneously in Mexico and the United States on June 25.
“It’s so very hard to sell a pop album [stateside] and we needed a lot of ammunition,” says Luana Pagani, U.S. head of Rio Roma’s management company, Seitrak. That ammunition came in the form of major success in Mexico, where the group tours nonstop, and a strategy that’ll promote Rio Roma to U.S. audiences as a pop act, but overwhelmingly as a Mexican group.
“We want to reach everywhere, Puerto Rico included, but aiming for a Mexican audience,” Sony U.S. Latin senior director of marketing Jorge Sanchez says. “We’re working them like a contemporary pop act that can break in more than one [genre].”
As an intro, on June 4 Sony released a Complete My Album four-track EP on iTunes, including first single “Tonto.” And on June 5 it released another iTunes-only EP featuring four versions of “Tonto” — pop, regional Mexican, bachata and live. The first two versions will be initially pushed to radio on the West Coast.
The duality is in keeping with Rio Roma, which for years has vacillated between genres. In Mexico, the two perform in theaters and the more popular palenques (circular arenas used for cock fights and concerts). As composers, they’ve written for pop acts like Alejandra Guzman and Camila and for such regional Mexican artists as La Arrolladora Banda el Limon. The brothers, whose real last name is Ortega, caught Sony’s attention around 2005 through their then-publisher-indie Maximo Aguirre Music Publishing (they’re now signed to Sony/ATV) — and released a regional Mexican album.
“That’s why we say we’re ‘romantic pop.’ Because we have a touch of popular [Mexican] music inside us,” says older brother Jose Luis, 28, the duo’s lead writer. Rio Roma’s romantic, but straight-ahead sound is in line with the romantic grupero music of acts like Marco Antonio SolÃs and Los Temerarios. But the group also evokes the sound and look of other contemporary pop acts on Sony like Sin Bandera and Camila, with whom the Roma brothers have collaborated. (“Otro Dia” features a duet with former Sin Bandera member Leonel Garcia.)
Initially, Jose Luis says, Sony was aiming for a more grupero sound on the first album. “But the more we got into the album, the more we realized that it didn’t sound grupero,” he says. “That’s why we went for pop. Now, I’d say we’re 95% pop with that 5% popular touch that makes the difference.”
In Mexico, the difference has been huge not only on radio, where the duo scored five singles on the country’s top 10 chart with its last album, but also in touring.
“In Mexico, they perform 20 days out of 30,” Pagani says. “They play venues for 2,500-6,000 people.”
Seitrack, which manages a roster of mostly Mexican pop acts, including Guzman and Belinda, signed Rio Roma when the pair was already at Sony. Its input has been integral in working the siblings in Mexico and now stateside, with both label and management investing in their development.
“We are working hand in hand and we are partners in everything,” Pagani says, including live shows, of which Sony gets a percentage.
That Rio Roma fast became a moneymaker in the Mexican touring circuit weighed on the decision of how to properly release the act in the States, where radio of late has become increasingly uptempo and difficult for romantic pop acts to crack.
Still, the consensus was to release “Tonto” as a first single stateside, because its more straight-ahead melody and arrangement evoke Rio Roma’s original sound, while “Como Fui,” which boasts a more adventuresome arrangement, was chosen for the Mexican market that’s more familiar with the group.
Most important, Rio Roma is willing to do what many successful international acts aren’t willing to undertake in the States: Start from scratch.
“We’re prepared to do that,” Jose Luis says. “Plus, as composers, as men, we like the idea of conquering, of conquering with a song. We understand it’s a process.”