We are in 2018: in full brightness of feminism in Argentina a year after ‘Ni Una Menos’, with the unstoppable green tide, with the struggle for gender equality and the conquest of spaces. Those issues were no strangers to Oli Viggiano and Sonia Z, actresses and singers who met in a casting and connected under the same concern: the difficulties in the music industry for women.” First we got together to record a song, and then we put together a shared date with another artist (Titi Stier). We loved the idea of networking with each other,” says Viggiano in dialogue with Filo.News, who presented last year his album “One Hundred Percent” that is now available on Spotify. this is how they contacted new artists and created ‘Somos Pop Up’, a cycle to give voice and body to emerging artists and promote the presence of women in music: “At that time there was still no female quota law and it was a way to generate that space from our possibilities,” she tells this media.
Photo: Courtesy of the press
As he explains, the name has to do with the fact that it is an itinerant cycle and the main genre is pop. The first two editions were held at El Universal, and as the response of the public became increasingly effusive and the network of singer-songwriters was expanding, they decided to transfer the idea to the Richards Cultural Center.” We are a group of friends where we not only share our songs, but also talk about what our dreams, fears, what we aspire to and what stage of life we are each in as a woman; we accompany each other”, says Silvina Moreno in a press release, and Cata Raybaud adds: “This group is born from the need not to feel alone, to accompany us and to be able to share our process, both compositional and professional”. That which began organically as cathartic meetings to share songs, dreams and experiences with the spirit of accompanying each other on the creative path, today grows and is consolidated in several concerts and sessions even in the pandemic: “As we wanted the spirit of Somos Pop Up to stay alive beyond the impossibility of doing face-to-face shows, we started doing Somos Pop Up virtual,” he says.
Then he expands: “We connected artists through Instagram. It is very nice to have gone through that and finally be able to do what we have been dreaming of with this project, by the hand of S-Music that saw what was being generated and joined the proposal, “they comment. A pandemic later, Somos Pop Up will perform again at the Parque Centenario Amphitheater with “Canciones en el Parque”, a cycle that will feature the presence of Cata Raybaud, Lola Cobach, Luli Pizarro, Silvina Moreno, Sofía Macchi, Sol Mihanovich, Olivia Viggiano and Sonia Z.
Photo: Instagram @somospopup
“We are rehearsing a lot, generating a show with different colors, sounds and nuances, since each one does something different and particular within the popular genre. Some of us already knew each other and others didn’t, and it’s very nice to see what is put together together,” he says. Then they add: “The lineup came from a group that we formed a while ago, which includes several more artists who could not join this date (Rochi Igarzabal, Daniela Herrero, Poli Sallustro, Sol Pereyra, Agus Vivo de la Femme D’Argent). It is a group designed to share the path, beyond the fact that each one has its own project, and it also works as a composition ‘workshop’, since we hold meetings where we exchange ideas and enrich ourselves musically.” The public will be able to find an intimate show, in which the main thing is the songs, the voices, the instruments, and the collaboration and fraternity that is generated among all, “they conclude. It will be on February 20 at 7 p.m. and tickets can be obtained here.
