It’s Wednesday afternoon in Miami. Argentine star Tini (Martina Alejandra Stoessel) sits in front of the cameras in a huge room illuminated by pink lights. Cotton clouds and signs hang from the ceiling with messages like these: “today I’m going out with the doll” and “the envious go to hell”.
We are on the set prepared by the giant Sony Music, his production house, to promote his fourth studio album “Cupido”, which he released this Thursday.
The phrases that decorate the room are verses that are among the 14 songs in the production, in which the artist, who last January entered the Spotify’s coveted Global Top 200 list with the single “Muñecas”, he sings urban, pop and what he has called “electronic cumbia”.
In the interview with BBC Mundo, he does not hide the emotion when describing each single on the album: they talk about love, heartbreak, he invites women to dance and take ownership of their bodies, and also to drown their sorrows at parties.
But every time she answers my questions, she does so with a particularly serene, almost expressionless tone, in which she reveals an artist who, although young, has been in the public eye for many years, since in 2012 she starred in the adolescent novel Violetta in his native Argentina.
That experience in the media allows her to ensure that, a few years ago, a Latin music singer would not have been able to interpret some lyrics without being judged for their explicit content.
Much less if these lyrics are part of reggaeton, a genre that has been around since the 90s, when it began as music. underground in Puerto Rico, has been branded as misogynistic and hypersexual.
He knows it firsthand, he says. He is 25 years old and at the beginning of his career they questioned him.
“It remains to continue deconstructing and changing a lot of things. It wasn’t long ago that women began to sing these types of lyrics or sing with such freedom in Latin music,” says the interpreter of the jovial “Triple T”, in which refers to a woman who goes out to a party and won’t come home all night. Tonight is for drinking / To leave and not return / I’m not home today / We set it up in the square.
“They ask me a lot about women in the music industry, about how our growth has been. Being able to be singing reggaeton, even though they continue to judge us and there are still a lot of things to change, supposes a freedom that long ago was not normalized“he adds.
That freedom that he talks about is reflected when he sings about issues like fleeting love, to which he refers in singles like “Lie to me.” Dale, miénteme / Do what you want’ with me / Tell me that tonight I am your baby / And tomorrow we are ‘friend’, friend’.
And when in songs like “La Loto” he is not afraid to talk about a determined woman, whose lover is “lucky” to have found him. Tomorrow we confess ‘(hey) / The baby with me won the lotto (hey) / I want to do evil to you’ little by little (hey) / Tonight it seems that we sin’.
Tini, who wears a huge gold coat and black pants, says that this is why she tries to collaborate with other artists, with the intention that her music, whatever the story it tells, is projected from a female perspective. And, apparently, this formula has had good results.
His hit “Muñecas”, whose video reached 29 million views on YouTube in a month, she sings it together with another Argentine, La Joaqui, an exponent who began rapping in the famous Batallas de Gallos. “La Loto”, another hit from the album, is sung together with the Brazilian Anitta and the Mexican Becky G, while “Miénteme”, the song that made her enter the Billboard Global 200 list, is sung together with her compatriot Maria Becerra.
Argentina as epicenter
All this success that accompanies him occurs at a time when his country has re-emerged as a benchmark for Latin music worldwide.
Known for decades for its contribution to Latin American rock -with such renowned names as Luis Alberto Spinetta, Charlie García and Gustavo Cerati- Argentina currently exports other artists such as Bizarrap, Trueno and Duki, thanks to genres as diverse as trap, reggaeton and urban music.
Within this phenomenon there is something very particular and it is the enormous list of female names that protrude In addition to Tini, personalities such as Nathy Peluso, Cazzu, Nicki Nicole and La Joaqui and María Becerra themselves have established themselves as important artists.
Many of these voices -both female and male- are nourished by what happens in the villages and other poor communities, and have honed their talent in the famous battles of freestyle.
“For us, the talent that has always existed in Argentina is obvious,” says Tini, when I ask her to explain what is currently happening in her country’s music industry.
“What is happening with our generation causes us great joy and emotion,” he acknowledges. As she unleashes a secret that has strengthened the group of women who have become stars.
“I see them and I give them a hug. We talk to each other on WhatsApp, we answer our stories (from Instagram). There is a nice bond beyond the success or the music we make. Although we have not yet collaborated on a song, we support each other to that growth belongs to all”.
Cupid: music to feel accompanied
Several singles from his new album that have already seen the light of day, such as the ones I mentioned above -“Muñecas”, “La Loto” or “Triple T”- have joined the accumulation of hits that characterizes the new page of Argentine musical history.
In her new production, Tini once again shows that she has found her signature in electronic cumbia, a Latin American genre that Argentina adopted and that, according to her, is now part of the country’s “DNA”.
“From ´Mienteme´ I undertook the search to merge cumbia with reggaeton and pophe says and adds:
“There are three musical genres that identify me a lot in my personal growth and also when it comes to making music. So, having united them and that people from all over the world feel identified with a rhythm that means so much to my country, is a very great honour.”
But in addition, he has made it his own to sing to heartbreak with catchy rhythms, making people “dance their pain”, as in the song “Cupido”, which gives its name to the album or “Último Beso”, which he sings together with Tiago PZK.
What happened to us?/ That when we were good, it got complicated/ That we loved each other so much and now we don’t/ Cupid shot the arrow and screwed up/ What happened?
“That they break your heart, or that you break one or another heart, is something that happens in some private middle point and what music generates is that these people do not feel alone,” he says.
“You end a bond, a relationship, and you need to feel accompanied. And I think that music accompanies these beautiful and not so beautiful processes,” he reiterates.
unconditional love
Before pronouncing my last question, I warn Tini that it will be short and perhaps too simple: did you expect to be so successful with your music?
He takes a second, looks at the ground and sighs.
He replies that he was not expecting it, and decides to elaborate an answer, with which, as at the beginning of our conversation, he reflects his years as a celebrity, one that has filled Luna Park in Buenos Aires nine times and has caused a stir on stages. from Spain and Latin America.
“Everything that was happening with my music, with my career, was a giant surprise. The unconditional love and love that I have received since I was so little is undeniable,” she says.
And then he accepts that becoming Tini has been a task well thought out.
“There is a lot of love and I think a lot about each song, video, showchoreographies and costumes so that people leave with a smile or connect after listening to me”.