Benny Blanco’s ‘Hermoso’ Lands Amid Cultural Appropriation Debate

The release of Benny Blanco’s new album Hermoso has pulled a familiar tension back into the spotlight: what happens when a non-Latin pop producer builds a project around música mexicana, cumbia, and reggaeton at a moment when Latinos in the United States are facing intensified political hostility.

Blanco, born Benjamin Levin in Virginia, has never claimed to be Latino. The follow-up to 2025’s I Said I Love You First, his joint album with his wife Selena Gomez, features a lineup that includes Becky G, Myke Towers, Mora, Netón Vega, BB Trickz, the Marías, and Colombian producer Ovy on the Drums. Gomez appears again as well. The record folds regional Mexican rhythms, cumbia, and reggaeton into the pop sensibility Blanco built while producing for Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, and Ed Sheeran.

But the album cover — a caricature-style mask — and the timing of the release have drawn sharp criticism. Detractors have called the cover racist and accused Blanco of adopting a Latin-coded persona without standing publicly with the community. Others pointed to the current immigration enforcement climate as a reason the pivot feels off-key. “At least speak out against ICE if you’re going to larp as a Latino,” one commenter wrote on Instagram.

Blanco has addressed his background directly in interviews, explaining that he grew up surrounded by Latin music and that the rhythms shaped his approach. His stage name, he says, came from an early rap phase and a friend’s reference to Carlito’s Way — not an attempt to pass. The debate over Hermoso is less about whether he lied and more about whether appreciation is enough when the culture being borrowed from is under attack.