Continuing to a 2020 in which the cultural industry was frozen by the arrival of the pandemic, 2021 was a great year for women and dissidents in the Chilean music scene; thus ending months that leave us an extensive list of new songs, reinventions, beginnings of solo projects, awards and more than the and place them as leaders in the local market.
For this reason, this year set a precedent in terms of gender resistance in the face of the onslaught of recent times, which were reflected in each musical result in which messages were printed that refer to the feminist struggle and the new ways of thinking about gender roles, empowerment and inclusion. But not only musical products were 2021, there were also prominent personalities who were part of the musical imaginaries to which many artists appealed. Women of sport such as Maca “La maquinita” Orellana with the duo Yorka or the image of Chavela Vargas and Gabriela Mistral in the work of Dulce and Agraz showed that the unity of women and dissidents is interdisciplinary and transgenerational.
The year also brought awards, as was the case of the Pulsar awards instance in which Natisú was recognized as best music producer for the first time since the existence of the awards. To deepen this gender turn, El Mostrador Braga selected titles that stood out in the year and talked with the journalist and author of “Amigas de lo ajeno”, Javiera Tapia who opined on the subject, “I do not think that 2021 is especially the year in which there are women in certain places of attention in which there were not before, I think that’s been happening a long time ago very gradually (…) I think all that work of women in different fields in the last decade reflects a new generation of women in areas such as culture and they are now seeing the results of a collective work.”
The outstanding albums with a gender perspective that he left this 2021
As an annual summary, in June the Pulsar awards organized by the SCD were held to highlight the best artists of the national circuit, in the instance the gender turn surprised since, of the twenty-three categories, seven fell into the hands of women and dissidents, including the national singer and director of Ruidosa, Francisca Valenzuela with three awards as best pop artist, album of the year and song of the year. Natisú recognized as the best music producer for the first time in the history of Chilean music. Frank’s White Canvas, visible lesbians as best rock band. Carmen Lienqueo, Mapuche artist won the award for best root music artist and Camila Gallardo as the artist with the most reproductions on Chilean radios.
To this was added a long list of singles, EPs, full-length plates and collaborations with powerful women and personalities of the LGBT community that made clear the versatility and cooperation existing in the current music scene. On the other hand, some albums were acclaimed by the specialized critics leading the tastes in a transversal way. Below, we give you a selection of the titles that put feminist perspectives at the center of their inspiration.
1.- “Rey” the acclaimed album by Camila Moreno:
Pop, rock, electronic and urban sounds, this is the mix present in the plate composed of 20 tracks that the artist released in a process of almost two years. The trip began with “Quememos el reino” in the midst of the social explosion and was continued cut by court advancing songs such as “Es real”, “Hombre” and “Hice a mi amor llorar”, until in August 2021 she released the album in full format along with other audiovisual novelties and a comic that gave life to the last and most successful project of the artist.
2.- Two for one for Natisú in June: awarded as best music producer and launch of her third plate “Hay un fuego”:
The Pulsar award as best music producer to Natalia Suazo did not leave anyone indifferent since, classically, this award was captured by the main men of the national industry. Never before had women managed to occupy openly recognized spaces in works close to interpretation, however, Natisú managed to jump the fence after a long career producing albums by other Chilean artists such as Benjamín Walker and Malú Mora. Recall that in the middle of the pandemic the artist also animated a beat on the Ruidosa platform in which she talked about production musical with others, others and other women artists and dissidents, which undoubtedly took her a step forward in the visibility of this matter.
Days after this event, the singer released the single “Amores” part of her third album “Hay un fuego”. It is an album with electronic, indie and rock sonorities, a journey into the depths of self-knowledge and an invitation to reflect on new ways of seeing love and affections. In addition, it has the collaboration of another outstanding voice such as the singer Chini.png.
3.- Masquemusica and the independence of the female voice of the Bronko Yotte project
Macarena Campos is the name of the particular female voice of Bronko Yotte, the rapper project formed by Felipe Berríos and Dj. Pérez. Despite the success of the band and the release of “Fuero Interno” (2021), Masquemúsica made her voice independent in nearby projects in which she displayed her reflections on the current situation of women in the world and on their personal experiences. These works saw the light in “Miedo” a single released in collaboration with rappers RVYO and Ruzica Flores and “Hecho en casa”, an EP composed of three songs produced in the company of Dj Pérez, in addition this project has an audiovisual work in which it is possible to appreciate the clips of the three songs in 13 minutes.
“Quotas”, “Blind and “Fire” are the titles of the songs in which the artist prints a direct call “to help the companions who are going through situations of violence” and also an invitation to the confidence to see and overcome internal fears, anxiety, control, awakening, dealing with guilt and moving forward. In short, a fundamental in gender perspectives for the year that is leaving.
4.- Pascuala Ilabaca and “we are no longer for lies” (nor to live in war)
In the midst of the pandemic, Pascuala Ilabaca concentrated on the production of the EP “Amatoria” in which she questioned issues such as eroticism and codependency in relationships. For 2021 he continued with his single “La curiosidad”, a dance song with a lyric in which he displayed his most ironic side that preceded “Ya no estamos para mentiras”, a protest song with trip hop sonorities, darker and deeper tone that he used as a stage to claim the impunity in which the violations of Human Rights occurred in full social explosion, bringing to the fore the figure of Fabiola Campillai to make a direct call to seek justice and reparation for herself and the other hundreds of victims of eye damage.
This promotional cut was released at the show he hosted at Matucana 100 once back on stage after pandemic restrictions. On the other hand, the audiovisual work of the theme was made in conjunction with his sister, the designer Daniela Ilabaca and La Zurcida, artist of the burlap that designed the embroideries that were later animated for his video clip.
5.- Yorka, his single “Enloquecer” and the successful tour of Mexico and the United States:
Novedades brought 2021 for the Yorka sisters, a tour of “New York, Miami, Mexico City, Guadalajara, with more than ten dates, including their upcoming shows at Foro Indie Rocks and the renowned musical meeting FIMPRO”, according to what was reported by Agencia Rebeldes, placed the Pastenes sisters at the epicenter of the Latin American music industry.
Also, before the start of their tour, they released some singles as a prelude to what will be their fourth studio work in which they collaborated with faces of other powerful women such as Pin Montané or Maca “La Maquinita” Orellana, in “Enloquecer”, a song of heartbreak, of the pain of letting go of what is no longer going. This clip also stars actress Hitzcha Nudelman. On the other hand, this album will have the direction and production with the renowned music producer Cristián Hayne, which undoubtedly marks a new stage in the career of the Yorka duo.
6.- Sweet and Agraz with the Latin American queer imaginary
The penquista singer-songwriter Dulce y agraz, during 2021 dedicated her work to exploring terrains whose main engine was romanticism. Neoboleros, intense loves and an interesting queer proposal gave life to the EP “Vida mía” which also brought other artistic manifestations as basic pieces of creation, being the theatricality, dance and performance other values of Daniela’s proposal.
In addition, the artist used inspirations from convening figures of feminism such as the Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, Gabriela Mistral to venture into the dissident romantic imaginaries of Latin American culture. He also gave free rein to the queer imaginary, with the presence of reference Kassandra Romanini at the launch of “Quiero que seas tú”, one of the themes of the EP that also told the art direction of Gowosa.
7.- The coleccionista of ties and his simple to the marrow of the “Patriarchy”
Finally, and in terms of emerging music, the scene showed us the work of La coleccionista de tieaduras with her song “Patriarcado”. “Dear macho, I sing to you, this did not start because yes and before you call me feminazi I will tell you again”, is the single by the Ariqueña singer-songwriter María Rojas accompanied by a band composed exclusively of women, who through sonorities a pop, indie and folk delivers through her lyrics the political and social record of the feminist struggle, alluding to contingent issues such as rape and street harassment, the guilt installed for claiming our rights, abortion, funa and the sense of appropriation of men over women. Reason why the project “The collector of ties” is among the highlights of this year in terms of gender.
An annual evaluation of women and dissidents in music
“I think what you are seeing is a sign of the times, I think it is not in vain everything that happens in the world. Think that in Chile we had a social explosion, before that we had a very massive feminist strike, I think all that movement and all that work of women in different fields, not only in the last decade, but it is a new generation of women in areas such as culture and they are now seeing results of a collective work, ” says Javiera Tapia to refer to the annual balance of music with a gender perspective.
And, although during this year very good results led by women and dissidents saw the light, the inequities and invisibility of gender in the industry is an older antecedent that they faced together. In that sense, Javiera Tapia explains that, “after the outbreak, women in different areas associated and those bonds that are born of activism are also fed back into other areas such as work, creation, the way in which teams are created. I think what we’re seeing is a sign and symbol of its own context, I don’t think it’s something exceptional this year.”
In this sense and as a general balance, the journalist evaluates that, “this year there has been a lot of music and musiques, women and dissidents not only in Chile who have been doing many things”, however and in terms of horizons towards the coming year she adds, “there is something that for 2022 is going to be super important and it will be to see how the local music scene begins to see what it is going to see. that remains standing of our local scene.”
The consequences of the paralysis of the cultural industries due to the social crisis and pandemic only ended up accentuating the outsourcing of culture in Chile and according to what Javiera indicates, it will be an issue to be evaluated and resolved. “We are still not clear at a general level what have been all the things that have entered a deep crisis that perhaps have not been able to rise from this scene and obviously, I am not thinking only of artistic projects, I am thinking of a complete scene and that is also about places to play, people who work in the technical area, independent labels, people who do management, producers (large or small). I think we haven’t had that conversation yet, we’ve been two years of a tremendous crisis and out of the most visible that obviously are the artists in general because they are the best known people because they have a more massive public platform, from there down we do not know in what real state are the other parts of this chain that are super important. ” Considered.
Finally, Javiera puts into perspective the remaining challenges in the matter. “It is not enough just to have great artists with incredible albums because we already know that we have it, we already know that they exist, that they continue to strive many times in precarious conditions and doing incredible work, but so that those works can also reach as many people as possible, so that it is not something that only stays in a smaller space of the best known people, but that it reaches other regions to other cities, we need an infrastructure and I think that outside the scope of creation it is super important and that 2022 is going to be urgent for that”.
