Los Lobos Settles 'Desperado' Royalty Lawsuit With Sony Music
Los Lobos has settled its breach-of-contract lawsuit against Sony Music Entertainment over royalties for "Canción del Mariachi," the band's recording from the 1995 film Desperado. A court filing shows the two sides jointly agreed to dismiss the case, which was first brought in December 2025. Evan Cohen, an attorney for Los Lobos, told Billboard that the matter had been settled but declined to share deal terms. Billboard
The band claimed it had not received any digital royalties for the recording despite surging streams. The catalyst for that surge: mixed martial artist Ilia Topuria, who began using "Canción del Mariachi" as his walkout anthem, sending listeners to the track in numbers it had never seen. The recording has been streamed more than 600 million times. Music Business Worldwide
Sony Music, whose imprint Milan Records handles distribution for the recording, broadly denied wrongdoing and liability in its first formal response to the lawsuit in February. The settlement closes the Desperado chapter, which reportedly sought between $500,000 and $750,000 in unpaid royalties.
The settlement, however, does not resolve every dispute between the band and the Sony corporate family. Los Lobos still has a separate pending lawsuit against Sony Pictures Entertainment over royalties from the 1987 Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba, filed in November 2025. That suit alleges the band was deprived of international streaming royalties for several Valens covers recorded for the soundtrack — including Los Lobos' version of "La Bamba," which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the magazine's flagship singles chart, in 1987.
Sony Pictures and its subsidiary Columbia Pictures handle royalty accounting for the La Bamba soundtrack outside the United States and Canada. Sony Pictures claims it has complied with all payment obligations to the band and, after investigating, found that $17,000 in foreign streaming royalties had been underpaid for a discrete period. The company says it paid the band the underpaid amount plus interest — totalling $22,000 — in January.
Los Lobos says more money is still owed in the La Bamba case, and mediation remains ongoing. Across both lawsuits, the band had claimed Sony owed royalties potentially topping $2.75 million for its songs on the La Bamba and Desperado soundtracks. Rolling Stone
Antonio Banderas, who starred in Desperado and performed on screen alongside the song, was not involved in the lawsuit.
For a band that has toured and recorded for over five decades, the settlement closes one of two open fronts. The other, tied to a film nearly forty years old, is still being negotiated.
