Introducing LOS 5, 2016 Macy’s iHeartRadio Rising Star
By: LOS 5
Hey everyone — we're LOS 5, and we are proud to be the 2016 Macy’s iHeartRadio Rising Star!
First of all, we’d like to give a big round of applause to #LaFamilia for dedicating their time and efforts to making us this year’s Macy’s iHeartRadio Rising Star! We can't thank you all enough for the unconditional love and support you’ve given us, from finding us playing in the street outside of concerts, to now playing alongside the biggest acts in music at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas this September!
For anyone who is wondering, "Who are these dudes, anyway?”, we are a band by the name of LOS 5 made up of five humans, three of whom are from Mexico, one from Argentina, and another from Brazil. The band consists of powerful lead vocals from Juan Pablo Casillas, drums/percussion and groove thanks to Tomas Slemenson, bass lines and harmonies compliments of Hector Rodriguez, rap lyrics and flow by Matt Rey, and Ismael Cano shredding lead guitar and beautiful harmonies on top.
During the Macy's iHeartRadio Rising Star competition we kept a pretty strict routine, since we've come to find we are most productive when we stay on a schedule. We would start each day with a 9 a.m. breakfast, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. exercise, then have lunch, chill for a minute, and begin rehearsals at 2 p.m. We’d usually finish up jamming at around 5 p.m., so we’d then grab a snack and hit the Internet. For the rest of the day we’d promote Rising Star via Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and everything in between! Anything to help get the word out about our music and journey.
To be honest, we were kinda skeptical at first about participating in the Rising Star competition because we don't exactly have hundreds of thousands of followers online; our fan base is more in real life. A lot of the people supporting LOS 5 discovered us playing in the street on Hollywood Blvd, or playing acoustic in the parking lot outside of concerts like Jingle Ball or Wango Tango. Then, thanks to our #AfterShowSideWalkTour, we were able to create a fan base in LA and start playing our own shows. But in fact it was because of the grassroots nature of our band the fans really took it upon themselves to help write a real "underdog" story and turn a street band from LA into Macy's iHeartRadio Rising Star! Having the opportunity to play alongside acts like U2, Drake, Sia, OneRepublic and twenty one pilots will be a huge accomplishment not only for us but for the entire #LaFamilia. We promise to make our fans proud at the iHeartRadio Music Festival and continue to do so until the story is done being written! Thank you again and see you in VEGAS!
Can’t make it to Las Vegas for the 2016 iHeartRadio Music Festival? Tune into the live broadcast each night via iHeartMedia radio stations throughout the country or check out The CW Network’s exclusive livestream via CWTV.com and The CW App.
