Natti Natasha, Karol G, Rosalía, Tokischa, TINI, María Becerra, Villano Antillano and other women in Latin music dominated the popularity charts in this 2022 that ended yesterday with increasingly daring songs about female sexuality, in contrast to a reduction of explicit content in the lyrics of her male counterpart.
According to what the artists themselves told EFE, this phenomenon is the result of a conscious effort by female representatives of the music industry, who in recent years have set out to expand the space for women in music, not only in volume but also in expression. .
“For me it was always very important to demonstrate without getting tired, in many different moments and scenarios, that there were no differences between women and men in music,” said Natti Natasha, who is considered one of the pioneers of the movement.
Natti Natasha is ranked #4 among the Latin artists with the most views on YouTube United States 🇺🇸 of 2022 with a total of 208M views. pic.twitter.com/K0FQG5GBOG
— Natti Natasha Spain 🇪🇸 (@nattinatspain) December 28, 2022
The current crop of Latina artists is not spinning the wheel. Madonna, Björk and others in the Anglo world had already made the musical breakthrough in the 1980s. Alejandra Guzmán for her part sang “Hacer el amor con otro” in 1991.
“I feel very proud to have opened the way for all these girls to express themselves freely and I love that they are shutting up all those who said that women did not sell singing about sexuality,” said the Mexican star.
In 2003, Ivy Queen rapped “I want to dance. You want to sweat. And stick to me, your body rubbing against me. I say yes, you can provoke me. That doesn’t mean I’m going to bed!”.
The Puerto Rican still remembers when they predicted that she would never succeed because her voice “was very serious” and her “lyrics were too frontal. Now there are no limits for women.”
Already from another generation, Natti Natasha assured that not even at the beginning of her career did she self-censor.
“I never inhibited myself, nor did I limit myself, when talking not only about sex, but about how comfortable I feel in my own skin,” said the Dominican artist, who in 2022 raised the volume to her expression with themes with “Wow BB “”, “Greater than you” and “To’ this is yours”.
Rosalía pushed the limits with “Hentai”, one of the songs from her award-winning album “Motomami”, the album of the year according to the Latin Grammys and which has achieved such popularity that Billie Eilish and Lorde have covered it in their live performances .
On the track, she paired an explicit lyric – “fall in love with your gun. Poppy red. Crash, that wave. It almost controlled me” – with a melody inspired by Disney princess movies.
SEXUALITY IS PART OF THE URBAN
Surprised by the criticism that “Hentai” unleashed, Rosalía declared in an interview with TVE that it has “a theme like any other. Sexuality is part of life, as are spirituality or transformation.”
Less frontal, but within the same movement is “Provenza” by Karol G. The song that invites an ex for a sexual encounter made her the second Latina woman to have number 1 and number 2 (Mamii) at the same time in Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart.
Also “Lie to me”, by TINI, in which he proposes a “friends with benefits” relationship. With the theme, the Argentine consolidated her transition from a Disney star (she emerged as the protagonist of the series “Violetta”) to an adult artist.
Although LGBTQIA artists are nothing new, this year saw the massive popularity of female singer-songwriters like Dominican Tokischa and Puerto Rican Villano Antillano, who are openly bisexual (the former) and transgender (the latter).
Both also speak openly about their stages in the world of prostitution and mine and process those experiences in their music.
“I think that those people who criticize him do not want to accept life as it is. Urban music in general is the expression of the neighborhood and the underworld, of what is lived,” Tokischa highlighted.
“If the trap talks to you about crime and weapons, it is because that exists, not because the artist is inventing it. We cannot ignore these realities. Prostitution is the same.”
The artists know that the stones against women who dare to speak openly about sexuality have been thrown “always”, however they assure that today they have weapons that their predecessors did not have.
“There is a concept of sorority that is relatively new. There are also many men who are not just allies, but activists,” Tokischa said. All of that has created a new community that has allowed this new freedom,” she said.