At just age nineteen—an emerging New Mexican artist, Santiago Shaheen, crafted each new song, with every melody hinting that something bigger was on its way. Santiago was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the Sandia mountains peaked out from a golden sunset to the community members listening to New Mexico’s famous radio station 89.1 KANW. From New Mexican Legend, Grandfather Tiny Morrie to his aunts and uncles, and his mother Carolina, Santiago has always had a long line of support. Planning to continue this career, he finds joy in being able to perform in the future.
Santiago remembers spending most of his childhood with his family, whether to go to the park with his cousins or take family trips to the movies. He also enjoyed different activities such as playing baseball and basketball and continued playing those sports throughout high school as well. Some of Santiagos fondest memories as a child usually had to do with music. When Santiago was younger, he would go to the recording studio with his family and was always interested in the interworking's of the studio. “One of my big things was to hop on the drummers, drums and play for a while,” he said. Being around that environment for him are memories he will never forget.
Santiago’s family has a strong background of music history in North Central, New Mexico but across the state and both in and out of the country as well. Grandfather Amador Mauricio Sanchez known as Tiny Morrie started his career in the 1960’s and was alongside his brothers Al Hurricane and Baby Gaby who are also very well-known artists in New Mexico. Earlier in Tiny Morries life, he met Gloria Pohl. Both are happily married and together have five children, Veronica Sanchez, Rosa Maria Sanchez, Kristyna Sanchez, Lorenzo Antonio Sanchez, and Carolina Sanchez. In the early 1980s, Lorenzo and his sisters started their career at a youthful age and performed at several festivals and talent shows. The band focuses on music genres such as cumbias, boleros, rancheras, and Latin-pop. Later in the 80s, the group separated from Lorenzo as he started his career solo while the sisters continued as a children’s group “Chickis” and later became the “Sparx”. Both have continued their career and have assisted Santiago in his pursuits as well.
Digging deeper into Santiago’s music career, he decided he would start singing and pursuing this at age sixteen. At such a young age, he realized it was the right time to start planning what he wanted to do in the future in a way that was professional and organized. The process of starting his career consisted of what songs he wanted to perform, how his band wanted to sound and production to look like, and overall, where concerts and events were going to be. To the normal eye this process may seem easy, but Santiago believes that it was a process that needed to take time and have the right people next to him to demonstrate how everything worked. Throughout high school, Santiago found a passion for playing sports, but once he performed, that passion quickly changed. “I enjoy being on the stage way more than anything else in the world,” he said.
Santiago demonstrates gratitude towards his entire family, but especially to his mother, grandfather, and uncle Lorenzo Antonio for guiding him to be who he is today. With his family having such a strong experience with singing, Santiago believes it is encouraging to have
conversations about this career with people who have experienced the same process. “My family is extremely supportive, but also my biggest critics as well,” Santiago said.
During Santiagos career he has acquired the opportunity to travel to Mexico. For him, this has been one of his favorite experiences. Every place he has visited, he believes that each crowd he performs for are different, but Mexico holds a special place in his heart. Each city and state has their own feel, but Santiago enjoys the experience of singing for different crowds. Santiago believes that to learn, you have to fail but usually views this as a learning process. “There are times I messed up, and those moments have taught me way more than a success,” he said.
Santiago continues to motivate himself to be an outstanding music performer. He finds that he is inspired by everyday life experiences and notices it to be encouraging that there are several different aspects to what he defines to be as inspirational. As the new year approaches, Santiago and his team in New Mexico plan to continue to make new music and shows excitement about what the new year will give him personally, and career wise. He will also continue with his team in Los Angeles to produce music there and expresses gratitude towards them as well for becoming a second family for him. He is grateful that his family is always a phone call away from guiding him no matter where he is in or out of the country. “That’s the sweet part about being able to do it with family that you just have that cool support system with you,” Santiago said.