The Mariachi Divas are led by Cindy Shea, who studied trumpet with Latin jazz great Arturo Sandoval. Photo courtesy Cindy Shea

The two-time Grammy Award-winning Mariachi Divas de Cindy Shea is definitely not your traditional mariachi band.

Led by Shea, who studied trumpet with Latin jazz great Arturo Sandoval, and composed entirely of women, Mariachi Divas is a multiethnic group that has expanded mariachi’s boundaries.

“I’m a trained jazz, classical trumpet player, so that creates a different sound,” Shea said. “It’s kind of like Herb Alpert or Chuck Mangione meets mariachi sometimes. We are definitely diverse in the music repertoire. We mix it up; we don’t just play the traditional standards. I’m not Mexican American. I’m Irish-Italian and I’m the one running the band.”

With singing in Spanish and English, their album, “Dulce Daño,” includes a cover of Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man,” and they opened their 2020 album, “Esta Distancia,” with a Spanish-language version of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

“I love Herbie Hancock, and of course, the Beatles,” she said. “We did ‘Yesterday’ too, and I did a tribute to Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson.”

“Esta Distancia” also includes a medley of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “What a Wonderful World” (sung in English) accompanied by Daniel Ho.

“I definitely want to put that in the (Maui) show,” she said. “I think it’s beautiful that we are incorporating a bit of everything, and you’ve got to love the ukulele. I’m excited about doing that in the show. I love Maui. I went there to support after the fires to do fundraising. I have a lot of friends on the island who were affected and lost their homes.”

Most recently, the Mariachi Divas released “Pure 80s,” which reimagined popular 1980s hits with their signature sound. Songs included Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” all sung in English.

“I’m an ’80s child,” said Shea. “The first concert I ever went to was Michael Jackson at Dodger Stadium. Although it wasn’t mariachi-related, we were able to adapt the mariachi instrumentation and the mariachi feel into these ’80s hits that are iconic. Music has no barriers, and that’s what I love most about it.”

When she was 8 years old, Shea told her parents she wanted to play trumpet.

“I don’t think they were too excited about it,” she recalled. “I told them trumpet or drums. I love drums and I still play percussion.”

She became so proficient that after having the opportunity to play for Sandoval, he offered her a full scholarship to Florida International University.

Performing at 18 with salsa musician Yari More’s orchestra, where she backed Latin icons such as Celia Cruz, Shea later became a member of Mariachi Las Alondras.

As a woman performing in a male-dominated genre, she has faced many challenges.

“I had kind of three strikes against me,” she said. “You play the trumpet, a male-dominated instrument, you’re a woman in a male-dominated genre and you’re not Latina. I had to prove myself over and over again. Even now, 27 years into the Divas, I still get looks when I walk in somewhere. It’s hard having to prove yourself before even playing a note.”

The Mariachi Divas have released more than 20 albums, won two Grammy Awards and earned eight Grammy nominations and three Latin Grammy nominations.

With the Divas, Shea created an upbeat, danceable style of music called “ranchengue,” which combines ranchera and merengue.

“I lived in Miami and I studied Latin percussion and playing tambora and guira and all these things from the Dominican Republic,” she explained. “I love merengue, and I thought, ‘What if we mixed the ranchera songs with the feel of merengue?’ It becomes ranchengue.”

Besides inventing a musical style, the Divas are the only mariachi band that has played with U2.

When the Irish rock stars planned a new video for “Song for Someone,” they wanted to include groups from around the world.

“They chose one group for each band member,” said Shea. “We were going to be with Bono and travel to Canada, but there was some type of accident. I told my agent, we can always do it at my house in Hacienda Heights. It was a joke.”

But they ended up moving the shoot inside Shea’s house.

“We weren’t able to get Bono. We got the bass player (Adam Clayton),” she continued. “He was amazing. When you see the video, that’s our little 15 seconds on the video. But hey, I can say we made a music video in my house with U2. They were so kind and invited us two years in a row to their shows when they came to L.A.”

The Mariachi Divas de Cindy Shea will play at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday with a dance floor at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Castle Theater. Indio and Avi will open. Tickets are $27 to $67 at www.mauiarts.org.