María Becerra is the most important Argentine artist today. With 30 million monthly listeners on Spotify, millions of followers on social networks, collaborations with the most important artists in the world and songs at the top of the charts. chart Worldwide, Becerra has managed to break taboos and emerge as one of the singers of the moment. The 23-year-old Argentine arrived in Colombia, where she will sing for the first time for thousands of people at the Megaland Festival. We talk to him.
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Your father is a doctor, your mother is a nurse, you decided to dedicate yourself to art, first with carpentry, then as a content creator and always knowing that what you want most is : music. How did your family take it?
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I have always been a very changeable person, I like to do everything, I get tired of everything very quickly, I am hyperactive. I’ve always liked any way of expressing art, that’s why carpentry, that’s why being a content creator, that’s why I paint, that’s why when I was young I always wrote poems and published them on a website. Done, whatever is art attracts my attention.
Tell me about carpentry…
I loved spending hours learning carpentry. I made my doll’s house. The only dollhouse I ever have is the one I made myself (laughs). I matted it, sanded it, varnished it. I got to learn many interesting things with carpentry and the big reason for this is that I have always liked being self-reliant, being independent. If anything had to be fixed in my house, I did not like to depend on my father, my brother, my mother. I always like to be able to solve everything on my own, I don’t want to depend on others, so, I learn and do it.
I know how to behave with people and thanks to these things I built my character: I had to deal with neighbours, faced being promoted by the administration, bosses’ meetings and that’s what makes you mature.
You are very young but listening to you it is surprising to see your maturity.
When I was very young I was able to travel alone and have my own income. Since I was 18 I know how to pay for electricity, I know where to go to make a claim if you’ve been charged wrongly for something. I know how to behave with people and thanks to these things I built my character: I had to deal with neighbours, faced being promoted by the administration, bosses’ meetings and that’s what makes you mature.
You’re one of the few people who started out as a content creator and managed to make a real transition toward a solid career. What do you think made you stand out in this medium?
I think there are a lot of people who get into it because they see it as an easy way out. They probably do it because it’s fashionable. They do this because they think it is simpler than it really is. They do it thinking it’s easy and do it for the wrong reasons. There are people who decide to make music without any concrete project. They do it to become famous, to get money, you can say they do it with this intention. But it is also a fact that it is a tough world and making a living as an artist, making a living with music is not easy.
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Making music is an act of bravery…
Absolutely. There are people who fight it for many years and reach and there are people who fight it all their life and never reach. I think there’s a lot of uncertainty here, more than in any other race. In traditional businesses you study, get good grades, pass, hand in your resume and, for better or worse, get a job somewhere, there are a lot of things you have to have in order to be able to make a living from music and It doesn’t guarantee success either way. So you also have to have a lot of courage and sometimes it becomes difficult to take decisions.
I think the trips went better than I expected. I had a lot of prejudices when it came to travel. I am very familiar with my country, know a lot and remember a lot when I visit.
Is there anything about the profession that has been better than you expected?
I think the trips went better than I expected. I had a lot of prejudices when it came to travel. I am very familiar with my country, know a lot and remember a lot when I visit. At first I refused to do all the traveling, I turned down job offers to not travel because it made me sad, I didn’t want to move away from my home. But with time I had to grow, understand that it is part of the whole. And, also, I learned to be better preemptive, because you close a lot of doors if you don’t. Then I started traveling and I loved it. Today I love travelling, learning about new cultures, tasting food from other countries, getting to know my audiences in other countries, getting to know the media of other countries.
And what has disappointed him?
Let’s see… I thought this would be easy and it’s not. As a girl, you dream of being on stage and you think the routine is, “I leave my house, I get to the stadium, I do the show, I finish, I go to my dressing room.” And I go home.” And there is nothing like that. It’s harder than you and people believe.
Why did you decide to start with urban style?
I make all kinds of music and I love all kinds of music, but when I started my career I was very into reggaeton, I had incredible hardcore and that’s what I did best. it flowed with beats, it flowed very fast, it was easy for me to improvise, it was easy for me to get the melodies, ‘chanteo’ and I realized I was proficient in those styles. It just happened.
But we agree that it is not an easy style, especially for women.
Yes, it is a difficult genre. Luckily things are changing a lot. Things are changing rapidly for women. Suddenly we are all women who are leading. Suddenly there has been a lot of brotherhood, a lot of harmony among us. Earlier it was pure rivalry. The idea was that women would hate each other and compete with each other. The same industry, the same managers, the same people, have competed fiercely with us.
It was very difficult to sit in a meeting with 20 people and defend my ideas. Fortunately, this is changing.
The industry has always been very complicated when it comes to women.
Yes, there has been a lot of desire to manage female artists. At first, the idea was: “Let’s find someone who is easy to handle, who doesn’t complain too much, if we stop her here and tell her she has to sing this, she’ll do it. Don’t make it crazy and don’t make it difficult.” It was almost impossible for a woman to feel confident in anything she wrote or composed. It was very difficult to sit in a meeting with 20 people and defend her ideas. Was. Fortunately, this is changing. No, I am going to correct myself, it is not because of luck, it is because of work. It is thanks to the work of women themselves.’
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The development of women in music is remarkable.
Yes! Today women are the owners of their own projects. You see teams of artists and they are made up of many women and there was no opportunity to see that before. Before then you only saw women playing “lady” roles: dancers, makeup artists, and showgirls. Today, it is different. We are rethinking a lot of things and we are changing things in our environment, in our team.
He has collaborated with J Balvin, with Camila Cabello, with Los Angeles Azules. What is the collaboration that has you most excited?
Without a doubt, a collaboration with J Balvin. I have admired him for years and to have an artist of that caliber see me was incredible to me and it completely changed my matrix. I have a lot of love and respect for him because he is a person who helps a lot. He helps budding artists a lot not only with work but also with words.
For example?
Look, complicated things have happened to me in my career and he was the first person to call me. He called me to inquire about my well-being, told me to remain calm and not to get worried. He told me: “It’s just the way it is, the industry is like that and unfortunately you have to get used to it and you have to become strong in a lot of things.”
Beyond collaboration, he has also supported him on a professional level.
without a doubt. He took me to the Anglo Grammys to sing. The GRAMMY presentation was his, he was J Balvin at the GRAMMYs and suddenly he decided to sing the song we sang together and he didn’t want to put my voice on a track (which he could do without any problems), He decided to take me to sing live. I, who was just starting out, sang at the United States Grammys because of his generosity.
Author: Ursula Levy
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