He went to bed a street. He awakened a national celebrity.

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Robert P. Walzer, The Wall Street Journal 4 min read 28 Apr 2025, 06:26 PM Ist Macario Martínez, 24, has dreamed a full -time musician since high school. (Photo: Fred Ramos for WSJ) Sumario Macario Martínez has dreamed of being a full -time musician since high school. He never expected this to happen in this way. Until recently, Macario Martínez was one of the thousands of fluorescent-green uniform street cattle in Mexico city, with their long-time brushes in 8-hour shifts for about $ 10 a day. Then came the video. Martínez, a 24-year-old aspiring musician and composer, took himself up on the back of his garbage truck as he junk in the city’s tree-rich Reforma-Avenue, and his fellow whipers. He made several recordings early one morning and then laid the images about a lamentable, romantic song he wrote about a love that was despised. At 7pm on January 27, he placed it on Tiktok. Martínez, who woke up the next day for his 6 -hour shift, was shocked to see that “Sueña Lindo, Corazón” (“Beautiful Dream, My Love”) had about 100,000 views. His previous videos resulted in about 1,000. “The day I went to work, but I was really distracted because I was keeping my tapping check,” Martínez said in an interview. Two weeks later, he stopped. The nostalgic tone of the song struck an agreement, and Martínez became an overnight sensation. His tapping video has been seen more than 47 million times. His Spotify browsed from a few thousand monthly listeners to about two million. People now recognize Martínez in the streets of Mexico City and want selfies with him. His phone number was leaked to the public, and fans sent him messages on WhatsApp. When he went to bid his fellow whips, a circus of fans, TV teams and employees of the record label burst around him. “I tried to focus on my music, but I was full of emotions,” says Martínez, who calls admirers Macario. “It was too much. I don’t know how I endured and processed it. ‘ Martínez’s rise of uncertainty to fame has echoed in a relatively poor country with limited social mobility. He emerged as a folk hero of the working class. “Reach your dreams, macario, for those of us who can’t shine like you,” wrote one follower on tapping. “If the rich have their artists for their parties, we have you for our struggle,” another said. It is also a testimony of the ways in which Tiktok changed how musicians were discovered and gained fame, as viral videos bypassed the record companies that were once the traditional gatekeepers of the industry. The platform helped put new music and relatively unknown artists on the maps, including Olivia Rodrigo, Lil Nas X and Martínez. Martínez, who was born and raised in Mexico City, has had dreams of a musical career since he was in high school. After graduating, he worked as a gardener and then as a street cattle to end and cherish his music in his spare time at night. He was planning to go to the university to study filmmaking, another of his interests, along with photography, but he failed Mexico’s competitive college entry exam twice when he cared for family members. “Many of our Mexicans work in areas we don’t dream about,” Martínez said, “but we do it to keep ourselves above the water and to be able to work on the projects we really love.” The musician cried during a TV interview in February when he heard that “Sueña Lindo” was being played directly on the air for the first time. “I think his authentic reaction helped people contact him,” says Omar Pérez Reyes, a popular Mexican TV and radio personality known as ‘Faisy’ who interviewed the day with Martínez. “He showed his vulnerability.” That studio look with Pérez and a follow-up video of the TV host that Martínez buys a new goddess guitar in a Mexico City music store has received dozens of millions on social media, contributing to the momentum. Abraham Serey, a Mexican artist and a social media personality, has published one of the many videos about Martínez who tried to declare his rise to stars. “Like many artists, his days were full of challenges, but he had so much passion that he never gave up,” Serey said. Martínez, a self-learned musician, began composing and acting in 2019 and playing under a pedestrian bridge for tips and at local bars and pizzerias for friends while taking songs and videos in a temporary studio and posting it on social media. His music used its roots in the Gulf Taat of Veracruz, home to the folk genre of the sun Jarocho who used a small double -burdened guitar and a donkey’s jaw. He also draws inspiration from Dream Pop, an alt-rock genre that uses effects such as Reverb, Echo, Tremolo and Chorus. “Sueña Lindo” typifies the influences. The daring, atmospheric mixture of guitar chords and surrounding sounds fits the longing in the lyrics, about the pain of a break -up and how Martínez could work out with it. “The song is about nurturing the dreams of a person you love, even if the person is not ready to love you,” he said. “It says,” Rest, sleep well and don’t worry about anything because I will always love you, no matter what. “Now he focuses on his music full time, Martínez said he retained the ownership of his songs, but signed a contract with Sony Music Publishing to manage them, protect their copyright and ensure opportunities for their posting in media and brands. Rapper Sabino. Employers invited to the front row, where they cheered him. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #music- Industry #Spotify #Tiktok Mint Special