Tongo was largely unknown outside of his musical niche (traditionally of the lower class) until his song "La pituca", whose theme focuses on social status and inequality, attained national notability at the start of the twenty-first century.

[2] An important part of Tongo's success has been his amiable relationship with the Peruvian mainstream media and willingness to use his popularity towards commercial advertisements and political campaigns.

[5] Since then, he has continued to entice the public with intentionally comedic cover versions of mainstream songs, including "Ai Se Eu Te Pego", Justin Bieber's "Baby", Psy's "Gangnam Style", Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks", System of a Down's "Chop Suey!"

He later went on to cover Eminem's "Rap God", Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" (Bili Yin) and Eagles's "Hotel California".

[7][8] In October of that year, Latin Grammy-award-winning singer-songwriter Gian Marco in a light-hearted Facebook message congratulated the singer for his new hit cover (Spanish: "Ayyyy!

During Linkin Park's One More Light World Tour visit to Peru, Mike Shinoda reacted to the song by joking "Oh my God!

As Tongo's health declined from 2021 to his death in 2023, he made a habit of livestreaming[16] on YouTube to solicit donations through which he hoped to pay his medical expenses.

He had livestreamed prior, but these streams differed in that he would provide calls to action to his viewers in which he would sing one of his songs to them if they donated money through YouTube's Super Chat system.

The singer reacted positively to the announcement and, proclaiming himself an oracle, predicted the child would be a male and future player of Sporting Cristal.