Evangelicalism reaches reggaeton: the trend explained through the case of El Alfa

#reggaeton
Evangelicalism reaches reggaeton: the trend explained through the case of El Alfa

The Dominican artist joins a current of interpreters where religion has taken on a central meaning, although this turn has a broader and more structural explanation at a sociocultural level.

Religion is having more and more presence in the media sphere, also entering the urban genre. An issue that has become evident again this July 5 with the recent baptism of #ElAlfa, one of the greatest exponents of dembow and Dominican reggaeton.

Several videos of the interpreter, whose real name is Emanuel Herrera Batista, are circulating on social networks, dressed in a blue robe from the evangelical institution Centro Cristiano Soplo de Vida, in Santo Domingo. The artist thus materialized his conversion with his family, led by pastor Yesenia Then. “He who is alive and does not know God is simply dead,” Herrera stated in front of the cameras.

The case of El Alfa is not anecdotal and is not part of an isolated phenomenon in the music and entertainment scene, but represents a trend originating in the United States, which has had a notable boom in Latin America and other parts of the world in recent years, with the case of Spain standing out in Europe.

Evangelicalism is a current of Protestantism that emphasizes personal conversion (“the new birth”), the exclusive religious authority of the Bible, and the active commitment to persuade and share the faith with others. Its most widespread branch today, especially in Latin America, is the charismatic movement or neo-Pentecostalism, very centralized in emotionality and the vindication of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Although it is true that religious symbols and affiliation have gained more notoriety in the public sphere, in the United States this has not, for the moment, translated into a greater number of faithful. If anything, it has represented a decline. However, evangelical churches have notably increased their political influence in Latin America, favored for several reasons, including the erosion of traditional parties, the loss of influence of the Catholic Church and discontent with democratic institutions.

This expansion, in the same way as the rise of conservative and reactionary movements that has been experienced in culture for at least a decade, gains greater strength in situations of crisis and political, economic and social uncertainty (something that explains its affinity with the MAGA movement in the United States). This is the main reason why its growth occurs especially among the most popular sectors, since, at least in evangelicalism, the bases of its expansion have a lot to do with community support, the feeling of belonging and a clear expansion protocol.

According to a study carried out by the Elcano Royal Institute, through these social and community functions, evangelical churches are occupying spaces and functions previously associated with the Catholic Church and left-wing parties, also causing their political and electoral influence to increase and transcend on a large scale, reaching far beyond a local determination. These movements have been key to supporting or promoting candidates and parties in Brazil (Jair Bolsonaro), Guatemala (Jimmy Morales), Costa Rica (Fabricio Alvarado) and Mexico (Social Encounter Party with Andrés Manuel López Obrador).

Its political agenda is markedly conservative, focused on the defense of the traditional family and opposition to abortion, equal marriage, euthanasia, divorce and the so-called “gender ideology.” In this sense, and as reported by the media El Orden Mundial, it is worth noting that some churches within this evangelical current defend the mandate of the 7 mountains, by which the church aims to gain influence in the different “mountains” that determine the formation of a society, these being education, religion, family, business, the government and the army, entertainment and the media.

A growing list
El Alfa joins an increasingly large group of urban artists who have made their faith public in recent years. Perhaps the most recognized case until now had been that of Daddy Yankee, the king of reggaeton, who, after retiring from the stage in 2022, reappeared in October 2025 with a completely different demand: the Gospel through music. His album Lamento en Baile (2025), inspired by Psalm 30:11 (“You have changed my lament into dance; you have untied my sackcloth and girded me with joy”), mixes classic reggaeton with gospel choirs and redemptive lyrics.

Yankee was not the first of the genre’s greats to do so; Héctor el Father retired in 2008 to follow the path of faith and is now an evangelical pastor. Recently, he also launched a Christian content channel. In the case of Don Omar, his process was the other way around; He began as an evangelical pastor in the Church of the Restoration in Christ, in Bayamón (Puerto Rico), and in 1999 he began doing reggaeton. He stopped going to church because his creative change began to be taken as “something not pleasant,” according to the artist himself.

Lary Over is another of the performers who left his trap career to dedicate himself to being an evangelical preacher; Now he is Pastor Raymon Guevara. In the case of Farruko, he has not left his musical career, but he has regretted his previous successes after his “encounter with Papa Dios.”

“Farruko had an encounter with God and it made him hit rock bottom. He told me: ‘Remember where I got you from’. Today I can say that God is dealing with me. Today I can say that no matter what happens in your life, even if you collapse, God loves you just the way you are. Don’t be afraid. We are all sinners, the Bible says so. There is no good one here, no good one,” the artist preached at his show at the FTX Arena in Miami in February 2022.

It is a trend that draws attention in the case of the urban genre because it has been historically persecuted, because it was born in the African-American and Latino working-class neighborhoods of the United States, in the case of hip hop, as well as in the most humble areas of Puerto Rico, in the case of reggaeton. His style was explicit, it reflected the explosiveness of a generation or several that felt lost and, in the case of the latter, the police seized tapes as if they were illicit material. Perhaps that is why it is so shocking to see great leaders of these currents position themselves on the other side of morality, although it is not a phenomenon that can be personalized in one or two figures, but rather transcends on a large scale.

This rhetoric and the celebration of religious symbology can be found in other musical genres and great figures of the culture of today and yesterday, as is the case of Rosalía with her LUX era, Gwen Stefani (who has had a strong Christian turn and has gone so far as to promote an anti-abortion daily prayer app) or Justin Bieber, who vindicated his beliefs again in his show at Coachella, and whose renowned pastor, Judah Smith, was even asked if his church (Churchome) is a sect.