- Ronald Avila-Claudio – @ronaldavilapr
- BBC News World
1 hour
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Subtitle,
Tini began her artistic career in 2012 as the protagonist of the Violetta series in her native Argentina.
It’s Wednesday afternoon in Miami. Argentinian star Tini (Martina Alejandra Stoessel) sits in front of the cameras in a huge room lit by pink lights. Cotton clouds and signs with messages like: “Today I’m going out with the doll” and “The envious go to hell” hang from the ceiling.
We are on the set that the giant Sony Music, its production house, has prepared to promote its fourth studio album Cupido, which it released this Thursday.
The phrases that adorn the room are verses belonging to the 14 songs of the production entered by the artist, who entered last January Spotify’s coveted Global Top 200 list with the single “Muñecas” he sings urban, pop and what he calls “electronic cumbia”.
Interviewed by BBC Mundo, he doesn’t hide the emotion as he describes each single on the album: they talk about love, heartbreak, he invites women to dance and take possession of their bodies, and also to share their worries at parties to drown.
But every time she answers my questions, she does so with a particularly serene, almost deadpan tone, revealing an artist who may be young but has been in the public eye for many years, since she starred in the young adult novel in 2012 played Violetta in her native Argentina.
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This experience in the media allows her to ensure that a few years ago a Latin American music singer would not have been able to interpret some lyrics without being judged for their explicit content.
Even less so when these lyrics are part of reggaeton, a genre that has been labeled as such since the ’90s when it began as underground music in Puerto Rico misogynist and hypersexual.
He knows it firsthand, he says. He is 25 years old and was interrogated early in his career.
“There is still a lot to deconstruct and change. It wasn’t long ago that women started singing lyrics like that, or singing so freely in Latin music,” says the interpreter of the jovial “Triple T,” in which refers to a woman going to a party and doesn’t come home all night. There’s a drink tonight / To go out and not to come back / Today I won’t come to my house / We’ll build it up in the square.
“They ask me a lot about women in the music industry, about how our growth has been. Being able to sing reggaeton even though they keep judging us and there are still a lot of things to change is accepting a freedom that wasn’t normalized long ago“he adds.
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That freedom he speaks of is reflected when he sings about themes of fleeting love, which he references in singles like “Lie to Me.” Come on, lie to me / Do what you want with me / Tell me I’m your baby tonight / And tomorrow we’ll be ‘friend’, friend’.
And when he talks about a determined woman in songs like “La Loto” whose lover is “happy” to have found him. Tomorrow we confess’ (hey) / The baby with me won the lottery (hey) / I want to do evil’ little by little (hey) / Tonight it seems that we sin’.
Tini, who wears a huge gold coat and black pants, says that’s why she tries to collaborate with other artists, with the intention that whatever she’s telling her music, it’ll be projected from a female perspective. And apparently this formula has given good results.
Their hit “Muñecas”, whose video reached 29 million views on YouTube in a month, is sung by another Argentine, La Joaqui, an exponent who started rapping the famous Batallas de Gallos. “La Loto,” another hit from the album, is sung alongside Brazilian Anitta and Mexican Becky G, while “Miénteme,” the song that propelled her onto the Billboard Global 200 list, is sung alongside compatriot Maria Becerra becomes.
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Subtitle,
Tini has said that she is interested in collaborating with other female singers because she wants her music to have a female perspective. In the photo he is with Becky G at a concert in Madrid.
Argentina as the epicenter
All this success that accompanies him comes at a time when his country has once again become a benchmark for Latin music worldwide.
Known for decades for its contribution to Latin American rock – with such household names as Luis Alberto Spinetta, Charlie García and Gustavo Cerati – Argentina currently exports other artists such as bizarre rap, trueno and duki, thanks to genres as diverse as trap, reggaeton and urban music.
There is something very special within this phenomenon, and it is the enormous list of female names Besides Tini, personalities such as Nathy Peluso, Cazzu, Nicki Nicole and La Joaqui as well as María Becerra have established themselves as important artists.
Many of these voices – both women and men – thrive on what is happening in the villages and other poor communities and have honed their talents in the famous freestyle fights.
“For us, the talent that has always been there in Argentina is obvious,” Tini says when I ask her what’s happening in the music industry in her country.
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“What is happening to our generation brings us great joy and emotion,” he admits. As he shares a secret that has empowered the group of women-turned-stars.
“I see her and I hug her. We talk to each other via WhatsApp, we answer our stories (from Instagram). There’s a beautiful bond about the success or the music we make. Although we haven’t collaborated on a song yet, we support each other so the growth belongs to everyone.”
Cupid: Music to feel accompanied
Several singles from his new album that have already seen the light of day, such as the already mentioned “Muñecas”, “La Loto” or “Triple T”, have joined the accumulation of hits that characterize the new musical history Argentina .
In her new production, Tini shows once again that she has found her signature in electronic cumbia, a Latin American genre that Argentina adopted and which she believes is now part of the country’s “DNA”.
“From ‘Mienteme’ I undertook the search for amalgamation Cumbia with reggaeton and pophe says and adds:
“There are three music genres that identify me a lot in my personal development and also in making music. To have united them and to have people from all over the world feel identified with a rhythm that means so much to my country is a very great honor. ”
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But beyond that, he has made it his own to sing to heartbreak with catchy rhythms and make people “dance their pain”, as in the song “Cupido”, which gives the album its name, or “Último Beso”, that he sings together with Tiago PZK.
What happened to us? / That things got complicated when we were fine / That we loved each other so much and now we don’t / Cupid shot the arrow and screwed it up / What happened to him?
“The fact that they break your heart, or that you break one heart or another, is something that happens in a private focal point, and what music creates is that these people don’t feel alone,” he says.
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Subtitle,
Image from the video for the single Cupid, which gives its name to Tini’s new album and talks about heartbreak.
“You break a bond, a relationship, and you have to feel supported. And I think that music accompanies these beautiful and not so beautiful processes,” he repeats.
unconditional love
Before I ask my last question, I warn Tini that it will be short and maybe too easy: Did you expect to be so successful with your music?
He takes a second, looks down and sighs.
He replies that he wasn’t expecting it, and decides to craft an answer with which, like the beginning of our conversation, he reflects on his years as a celebrity, having filled Luna Park in Buenos Aires nine times and sparking a stir Stages from Spain and Latin America.
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Subtitle,
This Thursday, Tini released her new album Cupido, which contains 14 songs, some of which have already become hits.
“Everything that happened with my music, with my career, was a huge surprise. The unconditional love and love I’ve received since I was so little is undeniable,” she says.
And then he accepts that becoming Tini was a mission well thought through.
“There’s a lot of love and I think a lot about every song, video, show, choreography and costume so people leave with a smile or connect after listening to me.”
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