With five Latin Grammys and, as of last Saturday, one Grammy under their belts, the Argentinian music duo Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso came out of their first awards season victorious. The Argentine pop-rock-jazz-funk-trap duo have taken to the international music scene, and now that they are in the spotlight, they have done nothing but mock their own fame.
Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso first met in primary school at six years old. As childhood friends, the duo grew up playing music, Paco playing the violin and Ca7riel (pronounced Catriel) playing the guitar. In 2011, at 16 years old, they formed a proggy rock band—blending rock with classical and jazz music—called Astor and started pursuing solo careers.
Over the course of almost a decade, Paco and Ca7riel started gaining a following across Argentina and other Latin American countries. Their trap album “BAÑO MARÍA,” released in 2024, gained them a large fan base across Argentina. However, their international success happened almost overnight.
In October 2024, the duo performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk, an online concert series that has cultivated a cult following for its raw, unplugged atmosphere. In compliance with the auto-tune-free, acoustic rules of Tiny Desk, the duo wrote new arrangements for their electronically produced trap songs, catching the attention of listeners from all over the world with over 48 million views.
After the overwhelming success of their Tiny Desk concert, the duo released the EP “PAPOTA,” an Argentine slang word that means “steroids.” Composed of five Tiny Desk Recordings and four new studio-recorded songs, the EP was released alongside a short film telling a fictionalized account of their rise to the international stage. The film is bizarre and trippy in a way that suits the album.
The EP’s crowning jewel is “#TETAS”—which translates to #TITS. The song recounts a conversation between a comically greedy American music producer named Gymboland convincing the duo to sell out and win the fictional “Latin Chaddy” award. Like a devil on their shoulder, Gymboland tells them to use hashtags, take steroids—or papota—to get the “ideal” bodies and use online American slang like “glow up” and “vibe check” to turn them into stars. Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso take his advice, thus producing an over-the-top parody of “on-trend” pop music. The chorus’ backtrack pays homage to ’90s pop stars like the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears while they sing, “bring the dab back.”
Between its lyrics and production, the song parodies sellout artists and mocks the music industry’s tendency to turn artists into products. Their mocking is almost self-deprecating, as they admit to having glamorized commercial success themselves. After all, by parodying sell-out music, “PAPOTA” sort of becomes the music it critiques. A lot of their lyrics are gimmicky, and they can only be ironic up to a point. “EL DÍA DEL AMIGO,” or “FRIEND DAY,” for example, is a cliché-filled song about the power of friendship: sweet, fun and easy to swallow. The duo embraces the hypocrisy of their work in a playful way. In an interview with the Grammys, Paco explained, “There’s something in liking something you think you shouldn’t; in the end, pop always wins you over.”
The EP also explores the pressure to conform to the U.S. music industry, which has dominated mainstream music. This tension is also personified in the Gymboland character, whose thick American accent becomes a running joke in the song “#TETAS.” The duo’s song “IMPOSTOR,” for example, discusses the pressure to learn English in order to cater to American audiences. Poking fun at their use of English in their music, the suggestion is met with the exclamation, “oh shit!” Despite this, their work—while having many U.S. influences—remains clearly targeted to the Argentine public. A lot of their songs feature English lyrics; however, this is more in line with a broader tendency among Argentinians to use American slang. By jamming each song with thousands of Argentine pop-culture references and slang, Ca7riel and Paco become Argentine cultural ambassadors in their own right.
Making fun of everything and everyone, Paco and Ca7riel delivered a satirical, ridiculous genre-blending EP that does not take itself too seriously. “PAPOTA” and its accompanying short film feels like a bit taken to the next level. It is downright silly but, paired with their musicality involving elements of pop-trap, jazz fusion and hip-hop, the project makes for an incredibly fun listening experience.
Fresh off the heels of “PAPOTA”’s success, Ca7riel and Paco Amorso have already started promoting their upcoming album: “Top of the Hills.” Set to be released on March 19, 2026 alongside another short film, “Top of the Hills,” the album promises nothing short of the same ridiculousness as “PAPOTA.”
Their fresh artistic focus became clear at the Grammys, where the duo sported all-beige outfits, serene smiles and an Erewhon bag filled with stress balls and magnesium pills—a complete turnaround from their typical colorful, flashy looks and animated expressions. Later that night, when asked by an interviewer what they were going to do to celebrate their Grammy win, they answered: “vitamins, supplements and breath.”
Just last week, it was announced that Sting—yes, Sting from The Police—is their new musical mentor. In the Instagram Reel announcing the partnership, Sting takes on the role of a soft-spoken guru who owns a retreat dedicated to helping famous people handle the turmoils of fame. He also announced his role in “Top of the Hills” as a producer and featured artist, promising that the album will provide listeners with “the first steps to becoming a true free spirit.”
The duo’s upcoming album promises more bizarre, satirical and maximalist genre-warping music poking fun at wellness culture and luxury spirituality retreats. For “Top of the Hills,” Ca7riel and Paco Amoroso will abandon their young, overwhelmed, sell-out artist personas and perform as the out-of-touch, reborn spiritual celebrities. If “PAPOTA” has proved anything, it is that Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso are incapable of taking anything too seriously, including themselves.