Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Orlando Mendez, 26, of Miami, Fla., performed “Beer Never Broke My Heart” by Luke Combs. Orlando cut loose on a rowdy country song, working the stage like a veteran performer. And that energetic performance was enough to turn four chairs, starting with Camila Cabello and Gwen Stefani. Camila complimented Orlando on a special tone she could hear on the radio. Gwen said he got better and better as the performance went on. Orlando decided to join Team Camila.

Here’s more about Orlando.

* He’s a 26-year-old Florida-based artist who’s released music in multiple genres.

* He calls himself the Cuban cowboy and has most recently been performing country and southern rock music as the Orlando Mendez Band.

* That said, he released his first country song — “3 Beers Ago” — in the spring of 2021 as The O2 Band. It appears to be his only country release to date.

* “This is a major check off my bucket list. I have always dreamed of releasing an original country song,” he wrote on Instagram. He thanked his bandmate and brother for contributing to the release and his parents for loving the song “when it was just a rough idea on my guitar.”

* In a 2019 interview with Voyage Miami, Orlando said his love of music began at an early age when he would write jingles for random companies and perform them for his family.

* “One of the first was actually about Tecate beer, which I saw my parents drinking one day and decided to make a tune for. It was so catchy that it caught on between family and friends and is still sung around my house today,” he told the site.

* But while Orlando continued to write lyrics, he had trouble putting music to his songs until forming a music partnership with his cousin, Trism.

* Together, they started working on and recording R&B and Latin dance music as Dito.

* They released a pair of songs under that stage name — “Miami Girls” in 2019 and “Love Me Tonight” in 2020.

* Omar also has a degree in acting from the University of Florida.

Omar on social media:
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