Los Lobos has reached a settlement with Sony Music Entertainment over royalties for “Canción del Mariachi,” the Chicano rock band’s collaboration with Antonio Banderas from the 1995 western Desperado.
A Friday (Aug. 21) court filing, obtained and first reported by Billboard, states that Los Lobos and Sony Music have jointly agreed to dismiss the band’s breach of contract lawsuit. An attorney for Los Lobos, Evan Cohen, told Billboard that the matter has been settled but declined to share any deal terms. A Sony rep did not immediately return a request for comment.
Los Lobos sued Sony Music, whose imprint Milan Records handles distribution for “Canción del Mariachi,” in December 2025. The band claimed it hadn’t received any digital royalties for the recording, even though streams have skyrocketed since mixed martial artist Ilia “El Matador” Topuria made it his walkout anthem in recent years.
“Despite the specific knowledge that the popularity of the recording was spiking and reaching new audiences, Sony and Milan still paid nothing to Los Lobos for streaming, and continues to pay nothing, for streaming anywhere in the world or for any time period,” read the lawsuit.
Sony Music broadly denied wrongdoing and liability in its first response to the lawsuit in February. Banderas was not involved in the case.
Even after Friday’s settlement, Los Lobos is not entirely done fighting against the Sony corporation. The band still has another lawsuit pending against a different division of the Japanese media conglomerate, Sony Pictures Entertainment, over royalties from the 1987 Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba.
That case, filed in November 2025, alleges that Los Lobos has been deprived of international streaming royalties for various Valens covers that the band recorded for the La Bamba soundtrack. This includes Los Lobos’ version of “La Bamba,” which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1987. Sony Pictures and its subsidiary studio, Columbia Pictures, are in charge of royalty accounting for that soundtrack outside the U.S. and Canada.
Sony Pictures claims it has complied with all payment obligations to Los Lobos. According to court filings, the company investigated after the La Bamba lawsuit was filed and realized that $17,000 worth of foreign streaming royalties had been underpaid for a “discrete time period.”
Lawyers for Sony Pictures say the company promptly sent that amount to the band, plus interest, for a total of $22,000 this past January. But Los Lobos says more money is still owed, and mediation remains ongoing.
