Mexican pop-rock band Reik knew how to take advantage of quarantine, using their songs to create and reflect on what many people are feeling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through their new project, EP 20 21 — four songs created entirely from their houses — they tell deeply emotional stories to capture this historic moment, while paying tribute to health workers who risk their lives working tirelessly during the pandemic.

The band released their new work over the course of four weeks, premiering a new song and video every Thursday. It's available on all digital platforms, made up of the songs “Pero te conocí,” “Lo mejor ya va a venir,” “Con la falta que me haces,” and “Lo intenté todo” in collaboration with the Colombian singer Jessie Reyez.

Take Action: Leaders of Latin America: Unite For Our Future and Protect Everyone From Coronavirus

The members of Reik — Jesús Navarro, Julio Ramírez, and Bibi Marín — created and recorded these ballads from their homes during quarantine, and they and fans identified so strongly with the work, they videos reached more than 1 million views in the first 24 hours of the release of the first two parts.

Now, in partnership with Global Citizen, Reik wants you to take action by asking the leaders of Latin America to unite for our future and protect everyone from coronavirus. 

“The idea of making this special was born from the need to be creative, to produce and contribute,” Jesús Navarro, the band’s frontman, told Global Citizen. “We needed to express what we were feeling in an effort to feel better on a personal level, but also that we were helping people to channel their feelings through our songs. We like to think that people make our music part of their day-to-day life.”

Julio Ramírez, Reik’s guitarist, said the band “felt it was a good opportunity to make songs and tell the stories that people were living at that moment. We asked what else could be happening to people, there are good days and there are bad days. There will be people who lose loved ones along the way, so that's where ‘Con la falta que me haces’ came from. And then ‘Lo intenté todo’ is the story of someone who found someone new, although no one replaces that person you loved, a partner, a child, a grandfather, a grandmother.”

Ramírez said that "Y pero te conocí’" was a song created to give balance to the work. "We wanted something that could project that there are also beautiful things, the sun, the birds, the fresh air. We wanted to tell a story of hope and light."

“We are definitely open to continue doing projects like this,” Navarro said. “We have always said that we would like to do as many experiments as possible in our lives, and we are currently living in a stage where international music is varied and the doors are open for Latinos all over the world. So we are enjoying the moment and we want to do everything.”

Ramírez explained that recording the songs at home was a really cool experience.

“There are guitars that I recorded with my cell phone and we sent them to the producers,” he said. Jesus recorded from home, Bibi too. And finally, we sent the four songs to the director and he decided to tell the same story with those songs. It was a beautiful process, very emotional, and very important for us. We are happy, and I hope you like it a lot.”