Nathy Peluso sings salsa, and let it be heard loud and clear
The Argentine artist joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Grupo Niche to fill the Hollywood Bowl with Latin rhythms
Nathy Peluso once, long before she was the luminary that the world now knows, told her mother that one day she would record a salsa album. She forgot that decree, but her mother did not.
“My mom reminded me because I obviously didn't remember,” Nathy said about her audacity. “That's very curious because I was always a big fan of Gloria Estefan thanks to my mother who bought me the 'Alma caribeña' album.”
Calling it daring is not an exaggeration because there are not many Argentine artists like Nathy who have dared to perform Caribbean music. But since she has a rebellious spirit, is irreverent and very independent, she did not ask permission to record the EP “Malportada”, a project that mixes old school salsa with the urban music with which the 31-year-old performer has become known.
The album compiles six songs and includes a collaboration—precisely on the cut “Malportada”—with Beto Montenegro, from the Venezuelan band Rawayana. He recorded it in Puerto Rico under the production of also Venezuelans Manuel Lara and Servando Primera.
“I have rapped, I have sung ballads, I have toured the world and I already felt the impetus that it was time to explore salsa in more depth,” said the artist. “Because I had already flirted with salsa in several singles from my albums and it has always been extremely well received by my audience.”
Nathy, now based in Barcelona, refers, for example, to “Mafiosa”, a dance song with a strong base of traditional winds whose live videos on social networks add up to millions of views. Another was “Puro Veneno”, included on the album “Calambre”, and the most recent is “Erótika”, an independent single released last year that pays tribute to the erotic salsa of New York from the nineties and which was the prelude to “Malportada”.
In this song, Nathy mentions the Colombians from Grupo Niche in the phrase “Un perreo de Grupo Niche pa’ removeme lo que pinche”, a line that not only served as a brief tribute to the legendary salsa band, but also as the perfect pretext for the Los Angeles Philharmonic to invite the artist to be the head of the concert “Salsa Spectacular: Nathy Peluso and Grupo Niche”, which will take place on Wednesday at the emblematic Hollywood Bowl.
Nathy will perform her salsa repertoire, of songs written with fury and strength — among them “Insensata”, “Que lluevan flores” and “Ángel”, accompanied by the renowned Colombian group.
“That's the way I am,” he said. “It is part of my soul and my heart, of how I feel the world and how I position myself.”
Those who know her career know that Nathy has always had that imprint, “I have always positioned myself and I love being heard loud and clear.”
That is something of what she is looking for with “Malportada”, a word that she associates with freedom, irony and humor.
“Because for me the sauce is to smile, and in the end you have to behave badly,” he said. “You have to be rebellious […] I have always done what I have felt and what I have wanted, not so much what is right or what I was supposed to do, so I feel that in the end it is a summary of living with freedom and listening to your heart.”
In detail:
What: Salsa Spectacular concert: Nathy Peluso and Grupo Niche
When: Wednesday, July 15 at 8 pm