Beatriz Luengo: “Being a macho is not the same as being rude, we shoot at the wrong side”

Far was that innocent Lola from A step forward, although some characteristics such as the infinite long hair or the look chandelero continue in the day to day of the artist. It has become a feminist icon thanks to songs like her version girl of the theme of Maluna, Hawaii or his responses to other tremendously macho reggeaton. His trick is to cover with the musical base to create a letter that responds to the sexist and unacceptable message they contain.

Among his latest bombshells is also one of the themes of the summer, the RAKATA REMIX with Moncho Chavea, Original Elías, Yotuel and various artists such as La Mala Rodríguez. A song that arises from a recording with the mobile at a wedding between friends and that went viral through Tik Tok.

Now, the multidisciplinary artist launches Chanteíto pa ‘an ex, together with the Puerto Rican artist Darell, “a sarcastic song that responds to those urban issues that say that women are with men for money. “To continue claiming from their trench and break with the stigmas and harsh messages that flood the industry.

It is difficult to break with machismo in urban music but your songs are the perfect example that it is possible, why do you feel that feminist need to answer songs like Maluma’s?

I had two options: either not sing at all with artists who have written these kinds of songs, or enter that world and answer as I would in a normal situation. I always try to stir things up and get the debate out on the street, I think it’s important. The urban is the new pop, and nowadays it is essential to dance listening to the lyrics.

There is a great feminist wave in the urban, finally!

Something very important is happening and it is that the girls are giving their opinion on the networks. In the debate is the growth of a society. Like democracy, democracy is a debate. I am saddened by many established patterns about the image of women, although I am nobody to tell the story. rush of others and freedom of expression must be above all. I respect all my colleagues, but from my point of view more songs that show reality have to come out.

Why is it so hard to break with machismo in reggeaton or urban music?

We detect very quickly when there is a bad word and actually the words are not the problem. There is a difference between the rude and the macho. It is not the same to say: “if you want, I’ll put it here” to say “you’re mine because I got there first.” In the first there is a question of permission, in the second there is possession. I think we shoot at the wrong side, we qualify as macho what can be strong or vile, but machismo is not in the ugly word but in the use of women within the track. I expose myself to a debate movement, but as a composer I feel that it is necessary, because we are 1% of female composers in the Latin music industry and that needs to be known.

Your answer to Maluna’s song, Hawaii, It was the beginning of everything …

With Hawaii I did not focus on criticizing the song but I explained my point of view, I answer that statement because I was concerned about the issue of possession in the songs. I am nobody to criticize the artist in particular, but if the message gets me out of tune I answer him to give my point of view, although my purpose is not to enter a war. Change comes when there is a dialogue. With Hawái Girl I met people who did not feel like talking, it was like imposing their message and purpose. My mission with that song was to debate, I did not upload it to Spotify because my goal was not to profit from it. It’s like the photograph of C. Tangana on the yacht. There are many points of view to see it.

Many see machismo in that image, but there are also many people who do not see it that way, what do you see?

At the moment when some women show their bodies and that photo offends, we are very far from equality. What if they wanted to put themselves like this? I think that if they have wanted to pose like this because in their networks they pose like that and they want to do it, I don’t know … Where is the limit? May my opinion not limit your freedom. The body belongs to each one and if you look at the Instagram of one of them and you see that she uploads videos super happy in a bikini on the beach, who am I to say that this is not what she should do? She is the owner of her body.

Another of the current issues in urban music has been the theme of Rosalía and Tokisha, lesbianism, transsexuality … Do you feel that it is necessary to make the LGTB collective more visible in urban areas?

Yes, but I miss a little more depth in the themes. Tokisha seems funny to me, I’ve been following her for quite some time, she’s very fresh and everything she says seems super honest to me. But, for example the other day in an interview with a youtuber named Molusco he said: “I wanted to have a relationship with a trans, because I wanted to be in bed with a person with tits and balls.” It hurt me, because if you tell a trans person that they have tits and balls, it seems to me that you are taking away a lot of depth.

It is a very deep subject and it is good to tell it in the songs and with complete freedom but it must also be borne in mind that behind it there is a deep foreign pain and it must be explained. If you are going to represent a group that suffers so much and that fights so much for their rights, the best we can do is try to get closer to the root problem. It is very sad that there is a fear of getting wet in these issues for fear of the headline, we must talk about all this.

Do you miss the involvement of your colleagues? Is it difficult for male artists to get wet?

I think messages are being cared for more and more. Before I used to play all the time in composition sessions to tell them that there were sexist messages. In one session there was a moment when one of the songs that a female artist was going to sing said: “I want you to water me with your hose all night long.” I left the session.

In the same way that I left the session of a song that later became a success because it seemed to me that sexuality told from the enjoyment of man alone is not a message that I want to convey. If a woman is going to sing about sexuality, we should talk about what she likes or makes her enjoy, why do we have to focus it all the time on theirs? Is very tired.

Now it is not so difficult for me, now they themselves say: “I am not going to put this because the aunts throw themselves at me on Twitter.” This is important. The change does not come from “me” as a songwriter, from the producer or from the singer who changes the lyrics, but it comes from people in the networks doing activism who say what is not right.

Even so, the figure of 1% of female composers worries …

Mozart’s sister, Nannerl She was a teacher and he says that he did not meet any musician with a greater capacity for composition than her, and we do not know anything about her. Why when you look back at classical music are there no women? Copyright was forbidden for us until the last century, we don’t know anything about what happened to them.

We come to 2021 and I try to raise my voice from my trench, but when I humbly expose a problem from my music they immediately fall into politics, and it is sad because it is not political, it is a reality, there are no women. It is a reality of my sector and nobody can deny it to me. Feminism has become politicized, I feel very sorry for it. I can’t believe it because it is something very close to human rights. Women are many things, we need female composers to bring out their songs, to explain everything from their point of view, their sexuality, their reality, their way of seeing life.

Speaking of politics, have you lived through the Calvary of Cuba with your partner, are you now afraid of communism?

Dictatorships are dictatorships wherever, whether on the left or the right. It’s terrible that you can’t decide your own future, and that your president isn’t afraid to screw it up because you can’t kick him out. That seems terrible to me. Beyond politics of the left or of the right, there should be no dictatorship in 2021. No country should be allowed to choose its future.

We composed Homeland and Life, and Yotuel has taken flight from Cuba. For the first time in sixty years, demonstration is prohibited by the Constitution and people have taken to the streets shouting “Homeland and life.” Yotuel is the visible face, Biden has received him, Pope Francis is going to receive him and I am happy, because we sit down to compose for utility, to add with our lyrics and tell what is happening. I don’t want to release music just for the sake of it, but to change things.

Follow the topics that interest you