Niko Rubio knows her worth, and "Five Star" is her singing it at the top of her lungs. Rubio is a Mexican-Salvadoran-American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Los Angeles whose sound merges traditional Mexican ranchera with 90s alternative rock and modern indie pop — a combination that shouldn't work on paper and absolutely does in practice.
Fans heard "Five Star" live before they could stream it: she performed it while opening for The Two Lips on their fall tour, and when its companion song "Sunday Girl" dropped in January 2026, everyone who'd been at those shows knew "Five Star" couldn't be far behind. It arrived as a single in early 2026, paired with "Sunday Girl" on streaming, and it later landed on her six-song Sunday Girl EP on Atlantic Records, alongside "Pink Starburst" and the title track, which Rolling Stone put on its "Songs You Need To Know" playlist.
The song itself is pure confidence, chic rock with its chin up: "I'm a five-star beauty queen," she declares — she can do it all, just treat her right. It follows her 2025 EP Ring Ring, produced by Grammy winner Lester Mendez, and the momentum is real: Pandora named her to its Latin Artists to Watch list for 2026, and coverage of the Sunday Girl era had the New York Times' Style section hailing her as SoCal's first exciting new pop star since Gwen Stefani.
And a note for readers following this series: "Sunday Girl" is coming up later in my 2026 favorites list in its own right. "Five Star" is the introduction — and what an introduction.
She's one of my top favorite new artists I've discovered over the last year. She recently changed her sound to be more reggae and trip-hop, showing her versatility while maintaining quality, memorable songs.
— Red Hector
Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJY227hTakc
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