Although there have been many iterations of Rebelde, one thing has remained constant in the story of gifted students attending an elite boarding school: the music. In fact, it was one of the aspects that incentivized the director and showrunner of the 2022 reboot, Santiago Limón, to take on such a sacred series. “We began conversations about what Rebelde meant to people back in the early 2000s and how it created icons for that generation in terms of style, what it did for music, and the topics and controversial issues that it really touched on.” 

RBD, the pop group born of the 2000s Mexican series — based on the Argentine series Rebelde Way — became one of the bestselling Latin musical acts, with nine studio albums and over 15 million records sold worldwide. Limón enlisted music producer Rodrigo Dávila to help honor RBD’s legacy with his reboot. Dávila describes how the music from the original series had an undeniable impact on and offscreen: “The music was massive. It was such a big hit that it became part of everyone’s lives in Mexico. The musical moment that was built around RBD was so big . . . It was definitely a show that marked an era.” The characters in the new iteration of Rebelde perform some of RBD’s biggest hits, including “Sálvame” and “Rebelde” making this undertaking even more daunting. It helped that many of the actors had musical backgrounds. “You just had to put the microphone in front of them and they did it by themselves,” describes Dávila. “They’re very devoted to creating not just their character on the show, but also to developing their musical skills.”

Just as music led the original Mexican series to transcend the screen, the sound that Limón has created for Rebelde has similarly taken root in the cultural zeitgeist with bops like “Pa’ Mala Yo,” “No Necesito Más,” and “Te Perdí.”

Listen to more of the music from Rebelde in the video below.