The singer, whose real name is Monserrat Bustamante, was inspired by the style of the late singer Chavela Vargas, a feminist figure, to compose part of this album in which the sounds of regional Mexican music stand out with melodies accompanied by accordions, guitars, Mexican vihuelas, violins and trumpets, in songs as friends simply, I did not see it coming Y This morra is not for sale.
My Laferte He moved a couple of years ago to Tepoztlán, where he lived his last years Chavela Vargas, known for giving the ranchera a new style and level, especially because of his particular way of singing, guitar in hand, a voice that imitated men who were scorned and betrayed and a feeling that tore in every song.
The singer explained in an interview with NPR that Six “It is not an album inspired by Chavela”, but rather by what he saw in the documentary about Vargas’ life, which was the starting point for him to search through lyrics and song snippets written years ago. And from there create more.
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Laferte recorded on his new album the song The woman, a feminine hymn to love and freedom, along with the Mexican pop diva Gloria Trevi. “Gloria was, is and continues to be an inspiration for me,” Laferte told AFP in a video call interview on the occasion of the launch of his most recent work.
Trevi, 53, famous in Latin America for her songs Free hair Y Everyone look at me, scandalized in the 1990s with his lyrics adorned with sexual references, his daring clothing and provocative dances.
Wrapped up in a series of scandals, Trevi was imprisoned in 1999 accused of kidnapping along with her former manager, Sergio Andrade, and corruption of minors. In 2004 she was found innocent.
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“I remember a lot about her, listening to her music with my schoolmates, when I was 12 years old, secretly. We played cassettes because there were songs (of her) that were prohibitedWe didn’t want our parents to listen to them, ”Laferte recalled.
About The woman, Mon Laferte indicated in an interview with NPR that it was a letter that he wrote a long time ago in another stage of his life, but that it was time to change “two or three little things”, and the meaning and message of the song changed completely. If before there was spite, now there is overcoming, empowerment. “Now it no longer reminds me of a destructive stage and now I feel chingona,” said the Chilean.
We played cassettes because there were songs (of her) that were forbidden, we did not want our parents to listen to them
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Motivated by the brave spirit of Vargas (1919-2012), who shone in a genre originally dominated by men, Laferte recorded two songs, one together with the Mexican star. Alejandro Fernandez (Let our love be known) and another with La Arrolladora Banda El Limón, also Mexican, (My heart is going to burn).
“When I arrived in Mexico (…) I watched the videos (of band music) on the music channels, and they were a lot of guys, I don’t know how many, like twenty or more,” the 37-year-old artist recalled.
His strong activism
The interpreter tells that her activism has generated harsh critics of her own followers on social media, with comments that say: ‘I liked you before, when you weren’t a feminist.’
“Today it is difficult to say ‘I am a feminist’, people are afraid of it, it causes a rejection”Commented the Latin Grammy multi-winner.
“I don’t understand what it has to do with wanting us all to be equal, defending my Rights as a woman and who does not want other women to be killed ”, she questioned.
However, the flag of feminism – on the rise in several Latin American countries – has also won him numerous followers and lovers of his song.(We recommend: See the video of ‘Canción bonita’, by Ricky Martin and Carlos Vives).
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Chilean artist Mon Laferte.
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EFE / Alberto Valdés
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Laferte feels that this is the way and the future: “It is to come together and support each other, women, to give us a hand,” he added.
“There are so many years of silence from us, because we believed that we had to be silent, that today the protagonists are definitely being the women“, Held.
As part of his activism, Laferte came to walk the red carpet of Los Latin Grammy in 2019 with a naked torso and a message written on it: ‘In Chile they torture, rape and kill’, to protest the violence in your country, and with a green scarf on his neck, showing himself in favor of the legalization of abortion.
In addition, in March of this year, through his Twitter account, he sent the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the message that the feminist movement is “the revolution of this century” and pointed it out to be an accomplice of patriarchal violence.
Along the same lines, in Democracy, a song on this album, Mon goes through the traditional cumbia with a letter of protest: “And those from above take advantage and justice that rises and falls, we always have the rope around our neck, life on the edge of a razor.”
There are so many years of silence from us, because we believed that we had to be silent, that today the protagonists are definitely being women
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Six is composed of 14 songs in total and was recorded last year at the composer’s house in Tepoztlán (Mexico), during confinement by the covid-19. It was co-produced by Laferte, the Mexican Manú Jalil and the Chilean Sebastián Aracena.
There, Mon set up a studio, a recording room, and together with his team he has shaped this album. This time with more personal stories.
“We were a team of four, five people. There were just a few of us and they all went to my house and there we set up the equipment, the microphone at home … We did it there in the middle of pandemic in the little house and it’s nice because if you put tracks on your own, for example, in the voice or on the guitar, you can hear the crickets in the background a little, ”said the singer.
Intimacy
This could be the most personal album by Mon Laferte, who leaves Norma’s salsa and mambo (her fifth studio album) behind and shows much more versatile, once again, in pandemic times (without live concerts or tremendous album presentations).
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“Launching an album and not being able to go and sing –which apart is what I know how to do, what I enjoy the most, is my strength– is like falling in love with someone and not being able to touch that person, just by video call. Go figure! It’s the most frustrating thing, ”lamented the Chilean star.
-NATALIA CANO – AFP *
* With information from El Comercio – (Peru). GDA
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