Monserrat ‘Mon’ Laferte revolutionized Latin American music in 2015 with the release of the single Your lack of wantingSince then, he has sold more than 1.5 million records and has established himself as the best-selling Chilean artist of the 21st century.
According to the criteria of
Laferte has won four Latin Grammy Awards, the most for a Chilean artist, and has been nominated twice for the English-language Grammy Awards. The Chilean artist, who lives in Mexico, had a harsh childhood marked by abuse, deprivation and a constant search for love.
In 2003, then known as Monserrat Bustamante, she participated in the Chilean reality show Rojo and that same year he released his first studio album, The girl in redwhich was a success in Chile.
In 2007, she decided to start a new chapter in her musical career and moved from Chile to Mexico City. Two years later, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, which brought her career to an abrupt halt.
Around that time when she was fighting cancer she decided to abandon the stage name by which she was known and introduced herself to the world as Mon Laferte, expressing that the name represented a new beginning for her.
Already recovered and with her new name, she was invited to be a judge on the second season of the Chilean version of Factor X and in 2013 she released her third album, Litmusand the simple Your lack of wanting became an absolute success.
In 2017 he released his fifth album, The braidthe most acclaimed to date. His single with Colombian rock star Juanes, Tie me upwon the award for Best Alternative Song at the Latin Grammys, for which it was also nominated for Best Alternative Music Album, Song of the Year, Album of the Year and Record of the Year.
A few days ago Netflix released the documentary that tells the struggles of the artist and in which Mon Laferte opens up about her life, in the context of a world tour, she talks about the experience of motherhood and her deepest pains. TIME spoke to her.
I tell everyone to do the exercise of imagining that a documentary is being made about their life. It is an exercise that, without a doubt, can make you feel dizzy or terrified. But the reality is that it is also very therapeutic.
How does it feel to be an observer of your own life?
The truth is, it’s very strange. I tell everyone to do the exercise of imagining that a documentary is being made about their life. It’s an exercise that, without a doubt, can make you feel dizzy or terrified. But the reality is that it’s also very therapeutic. And there’s a factor that we can’t forget, and that’s the shame… Because, yes, beyond being a public figure, it’s true that it’s also very embarrassing, because you share very intimate things with a lot of people. So, in short, I’m a little scared, a little bit (laughs).
And when you take this tour of your life as a witness narrator, what surprises you the most?
I am very self-critical, maybe too much, and I tend to punish myself a lot. And I don’t know, it surprises me to see myself trying, juggling and clinging to the idea of doing so many things at the same time. It surprises me to see myself being an artist, trying to maintain my career, looking for a way to continue feeling like a woman and wanting to be a mother at the same time… and add to that, of course, trying to be a good mother. So those things kind of surprise me when I see them from the outside and I start to doubt how I do what I do and whether or not it is so well done.
Thinking?
Suddenly I think, ‘Mon, why didn’t you go and take a break for a couple of years!?’, or I think, ‘Mon, you could have taken some time, you could have rested a little, and you were still there with that passion and that desire to want to do everything at once and do it well’. But also, and when I stop being so hard on myself, I appreciate the strength I’ve had to face different situations in my life, especially when I was younger. Sometimes I think, looking at it from the outside, that it’s okay. I mean, everything is okay. I feel like hugging myself too… and telling myself, ‘wow, you’ve done a lot, Mon!’.
There is this imposed guilt that also has to do with religion and society. I feel that women are burdened much more with the issue of work than men.
Working and being a mother is a topic that causes a lot of conflict for women and it is one of the many things that ends up being a very feminine topic. And at one point in the documentary you say that you felt alone and that you didn’t feel enough. I think that this is also very intrinsic to women. Do you also feel that this is something that happens to all of us? That your struggles and your neuroses are typical of all women?
I would think so. We are very similar. I think that, in the matter of motherhood, as in those struggles or neuroses, I think that we are quite similar. I mean, I am an artist and my job is to go, sing and tour. And there I am. I travel with the baby from one country to another. That is my fortune and my struggle. But there are women who also have their struggles, different from mine, but similar. I talk to other friends who get up early and have to take their child to daycare and don’t see him for eight hours. And they come in the afternoon to pick him up and it costs them a lot and they feel very guilty about it. Sometimes it is not even due to an economic need. Many times it is, but other times it is other needs… like the need to continue being professional, to continue with your career, to continue being something other than a mother. And it is good to do it. It is very good. But there is this imposed guilt that also has to do with religion and society. I feel that women are burdened much more with the issue of work than men are.
In the documentary, Mon Laferte gives an intimate account of her life, as she goes on a world tour and experiences motherhood.
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There is a recurring theme in the documentary, which is your need to be loved. When you sang in Viña del Mar for the first time, many of us felt that this was the recognition from your country that you were looking for. Is that so?
I think so. I did feel it as a recognition, massively and publicly. Because, although I always went to Chile to sing and played in small places where I felt a lot of love from that audience, I massively felt a bit of rejection, because I was this girl who came from TV. And, I don’t know why there was this feeling that I was denying my country and no, nothing to do with it. And yes, I felt like that had been healed at the Viña Festival. Now it is also a reality that it was a very cinematic moment because, well, it was special. Well, they do that in Viña too, they like the television show (laughs). For me it was also very exciting to have all those euphoric people there, shouting… it was a special moment. And yes, my little heart was healed at that concert.
Your documentary talks a lot about wounds, among other things. Do you believe that we, as human beings, are what hurts us or what heals us?
I guess it’s a mix of both. I think that nothing is black or white. I personally feel that I am a woman absolutely full of contradictions. But I am convinced that that is what is fabulous about human beings. If I think about it in the terms in which you put it, I could say that what I healed is a bit and then everything else. But it is not even something static. There are days when I am a lot of what I healed and there are others when I am the complete opposite. Nothing is black and white and that, I love that, because I feel that there is the origin of art, the origin of creating… all of that is based on the complexity of human beings.
URSULA LEVY
For THE TIME
@Uschilevy
