The best songs are the ones that tell you a lot in two or three words

June 17, 2023 5:36 AM

Happy Pride Month! A Mexican friend of mine suggested Mon Laferte [Wikipedia], and I'm so glad he did! While she's been long known for her justice and feminist activism [BBC], she defiantly claimed queer identity in mid-concert in 2018 [Spanish article, Google Translate is careless with Spanish pronouns]. Her 2021 album SEIS [YT playlist, has several lyric videos in English translation, that opening track is wow, lyric video for opening track (no subtitles)] won a Latin Grammy and was nominated for a Grammy. Papermag 2021 profile, Sounds And Colors review.

KEXP's Spanish language podcast El Sonido premiered earlier this month with an episode querying Mon about her musical influences and also talking about the musical scene she comes out of. Here's the podcast episode with English subtitles [34m], or here is a page with an English transcript at the bottom with video link embed for song references.

Additionally, Mon Laferte recorded Nothing Else Matters [5m54s] for the Metallica Blacklist project. It's an Andean flavored take in Spanish and I didn't know I needed it in my life until I heard it.

Final bonus: Juanes and Mon Laferte Tiny Desk Concert 2018 [18m]

posted by hippybear (5 comments total)

Mon has played coy about her identity since that concert, but she's so widely regarded as a lesbian performer in Mexico that she's definitely a queer woman in music.
posted by hippybear at 5:37 AM on June 17, 2023

I am liking this, thank you for the post!
posted by Dip Flash at 7:10 AM on June 17, 2023

She's also Chilean and has painted some nice murals in Valparaiso, which is right next to her birthplace in Viña del Mar.
posted by signal at 4:43 PM on June 17, 2023 [1 favorite]

Thanks for this! I just watched her solo Tiny Desk from last year, and was totally blown away. Everything about it is fantastic, from her voice, that reaches Amy Winehouse levels of power, to the band and their arrangements, and to the gorgeous setting.
posted by umbú at 8:14 AM on June 18, 2023

I'm not lying if I say the part of me that has been wanting to learn Spanish because it's becoming a more utilitarian language in the US isn't also thinking, "If I learned Spanish, I could live within Mon Laferte's songs more deeply".
posted by hippybear at 8:57 AM on June 18, 2023 [1 favorite]