Damas Gratis (Spanish for “Ladies’ Night”, literally “Ladies for Free”), creators of the “cumbia villera” (from the word villa, the Argentine equivalent of Brazilian favelas) is undoubtedly the most important cumbia band in Argentina.
Debuting in 2000 in San Fernando on the northern outskirts of Buenos Aires at the hand of Pablo Lescano, Damas Gratis is considered by many Argentinians as the “Maradona of Cumbia” and is today one of the great names in Latin American cumbia; for its history, its trajectory and the popular craze at each gig.
Eight studio albums, three live albums, almost two million fans on Facebook, sold out concerts in the four corners of the continent and collaborations with the greatest Latin artists are amongst their achievements to date.
Dozens of groups have been inspired by this great band; commonly called “cumbia villera”, having spawned the diffusion of this undercurrent of cumbia, from Mexico to Patagonia, converting it as a standard bearer of the demands of the popular classes. This cumbiera villera, a soundtrack of Argentine ghettos, has for nearly two decades taken the place that the hip-hop movement occupies in our suburbs. Music has become the means of expression of the underprivileged classes.
Pablo Lescano is also the first cumbia artist to play in the famous River Plate stadium “El Monumental” in front of 80,000 people, invited by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs in 2008.
Ana Tijoux is the Chilean hip-hop protester. Her cover letter could well be what media outlets like The Rolling Stones who chose her as the best rapper in Spanish, The New York Times who points to her as the Latin American response to Lauryn Hill, or magazines like Newsweek who ranks her as the most important Latin American rapper on the international scene.
Ana Tijoux was born in Lille in 1977. Her parents went into exile during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile, which has left a mark on her career, marked by a special sensitivity to political and social issues. Her music dialogues to the sound of hip hop, fused. A feminist and activist in her lyrics, she denounces social and cultural deficiencies.
In favor of women’s rights and against gender violence, in 2014 she highlighted in her album “Vengo” the song “Antipatriarch”. She frequently participate in campaigns against inequality and oppression in the world. Tijoux is committed to defending women’s rights and has denounced gender violence and inequality. Also the inequality faced by artists in the world of cinema, or singers.
Ana is a global artist. About to publish her first book of poetry and her fifth studio album, she dares to go through all the creative processes: she composes, writes and arranges both her own themes and those she develops for different audiovisual projects, from films to documentaries. She has also put herself in front of the camera in films such as La Isla de los Pingüinos or a Chilean series of upcoming premieres and feminist theme called La Jauría.
She has dozens of nominations for various awards such as the MTV, 40 Principales, Indie Music Awards and has eight Grammy nominations (both Latin and Anglo), making her the Chilean woman with the most nominations for these awards.
La Dame Blanche intertwines her native Afro-Cuban influences with hip-hop, trap, reggae, dancehall and reggaeton beats. The musical project of the singer and flutist Yaite Ramos Rodríguez recognizes her on stage as a revelation of rap in Spanish, with an energetic performance that mixes the Latin and the urban, the fierce and the sensual.
Born in a family of musicians, Yaite was raised by sons, rumbas and boleros and began to explore, from the classical flute, the creation of her own musical language. Life took her to perform on stages around the world, collaborating for the first time with Latin jazz, reggae and cumbia artists. These experiences converged in the appearance of La Dame Blanche. From port to port, this mystical character embarks on a ritual that rescues silenced stories from everyday life, and intertwines them with powerful beats that spontaneously dialogue with the feminine company of the flute. Since “Pirata”, her first album release, La Dame Blanche navigates with ease the explosive lyrics of Cuban urban hip hop.
La Dame Blanche has five albums to her credit as well as numerous collaborations with artists from around the world. For more than a decade, their songs have sought to humbly enter homes as an irreverent shout that empowers and soothes with joy the true things in life.
