- Toyota has partnered with three-time Latin Grammy-nominated Puerto Rican artist Álvaro Díaz on a music and culture campaign built around his album OMAKASE.
- The deal includes a four-poster art series by two artists, plus a special Toyota Music Den performance at Lollapalooza in Chicago.
- OMAKASE debuted at No. 1 on Spotify's Global Albums Debut chart, hit No. 1 in over 16 countries on Apple Music, and has surpassed 200 million streams.
- The partnership continues later this year with Sounds of the Road, a Toyota-and-SiriusXM performance and interview series.
Toyota has announced a new music and culture partnership with Álvaro Díaz, the three-time Latin Grammy-nominated Puerto Rican rapper, built around his latest album, OMAKASE.
Announced July 30, 2026, the collaboration pairs Toyota’s Japanese heritage with Díaz’s fusion of Japanese and Puerto Rican influences, a theme running through the record.
OMAKASE, named for the Japanese dining tradition of letting a chef guide the meal, debuted at No. 1 on Spotify’s Top Albums Debut Global chart and reached No. 1 in more than 16 countries on Apple Music. The album has now topped 200 million global streams.
As part of the deal, Toyota and Díaz worked with two artists on a limited-edition, four-poster series inspired by the album: Japanese Korean American painter Shingo Yamazaki and Puerto Rican graffiti muralist Bikismo.
Fans can grab a poster at Díaz’s special set on the Toyota Music Den stage at Lollapalooza in Chicago, with more artwork rolling out on Toyota Latino’s social channels.
This is Díaz’s first deal with Toyota, though the automaker previewed OMAKASE for fans earlier this year at a listening event during Sueños Music Festival, also in Chicago.
The partnership continues with Sounds of the Road, a Toyota-and-SiriusXM performance and interview series; Díaz’s episode airs in Spanish later this year. He also has a partnership with Espolón Tequila that began in November 2024.
For Toyota, Díaz joins a genre-spanning endorser roster that includes South African rapper Big Zulu, Springbok rugby player Jesse Kriel, and Colombian pop icon Shakira.
Toyota’s music-marketing push also mirrors moves happening elsewhere in the industry this year: Filipino folk-pop band Ben&Ben recently became the face of the Toyota Choice campaign in the Philippines, while sister brand Lexus signed creators Colin and Samir for a branded YouTube road-trip series.
Takeaways
This isn’t a single sponsored post; Toyota’s building a whole ecosystem around one album cycle: exclusive art, a festival stage takeover, and a recurring SiriusXM series. That’s a longer, deeper play than a typical car-brand ad buy.
Landing Toyota barely 18 months after signing Espolón Tequila shows Díaz’s OMAKASE era is converting musical momentum into real, tangible brand equity.
And for Toyota Latino, betting on a bicultural narrative rather than a generic celebrity face signals it wants cultural credibility with younger, bilingual audiences, not just visibility.
Will Sounds of the Road become a recurring platform for Latin artists, or is this a one-album push? Does tying a car brand to an album’s cultural story land better with fans than a straightforward ad campaign? Could this Lollapalooza poster drop become a template other automakers copy for festival season?
