Frenetic rhythms and accordion mix with electronic beats to define the new sound of cumbia: a rhythm originally born in Colombia but that has since trickled down throughout Latin America and then crossed over to European audiences. With a raw voice reminiscent of indigenous amazonian chants, and a relaxed flow of a chic rapper, La Yegros has transformed into the queen of the scene. Her first album, Viene de Mi, has a variety of influences that combine tropical music, folklore, reggae, dancehall and arabic music.
Her music has grabbed the attention of NPR and The Fader in the US, and Warner/Parlophone in France signed her first album Viene de Mi in 2013. Pushing a local yet global sound, La Yegros has the crowds dancing from the first song to the last in her live shows. As “The First Lady of Nu Cumbia”, she and her band have toured the globe to nearly 20 countries in the past three years, including Mawazine in Morocco to Sziget in Hungary to Transmusicales de Rennes in France to Carnaval Bahidora in Mexico, bringing her contagious groove to conquer audiences worldwide.
Her professional singing debut was with the Argentine experimental theater production of De La Guarda in front of 15,000 people. Her solo project is produced by Gaby Kerpel, aka King Coya, one of Argentina’s most prized composers who is the composer behind De La Guarda and Fuerza Bruta. Yegros and Kerpel also both participated in electro-folk supergroup Terraplén, produced by two-time Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla.
La Yegros currently lives in Montpellier, France, and she released her second album, Magnetismo, in 2016 on the UK label Soundway Records. Magnetismo has a variety of exciting international collaborations including Sabina Scuba of Brazilian Girls (Italy/France), Olivier Araste from Lindigo (Réunion), Puerto Candelaria (Colombia) and Gustavo Santaolalla (Argentina).
In 2019, La Yegros continued touring worldwide presenting her third studio album, Suelta, produced by King Coya with the luxury collaboration of Eduardo Cabra (Calle 13) and Jori Collignon (Skip&Die) featuring the UK singer Soom T.
With each new album from La Yegros comes the promise of incredible live concerts, all of which are a challenge thrown at those who do not have dancing feet.
The singer never fails to unlock even the stiffest bodies, her energy radiating as if she was spitting balls of fire, with that communicative joy peculiar to from South American people.
The reputation of her generosity, which has travelled across the world, precedes her so loudly that we can sometimes forget to pay attention to her music, and the prowess that characterises her.
And yet, with her third album La Yegros still manages, with increased ambition, the tour de force already achieved with Viene de Mi (Parlophone, 2013) and Magnetismo (Soundway, 2016).
Suelta, which can be understood as an invitation to let loose, accelerates the fusion of the various musical genres that make up her personality and musical identity.
La Yegros is a native of Buenos Aires, and her parents are from Misiones, a province in the North East that draws its language from between Brazil and Paraguay.
In this enclave, the porous borders of which lets foreign rhythms seep in, people play & dance to chamamé (a mixture of polka and Guarani music) and sways their hips to Columbian cumbia.
These two genres, bearing the hues of the Andean folklores, have then been put through the mill of Jamaican dancehall and electronic productions, thus composing a cocktail which recipe only La Yegros holds the rights.
Thus, having grown up in the suburbs of a cosmopolitan city, imbued with the rural traditions of the country, and based today between France and Argentina, La Yegros does not cheat with her identity, which is as composite as her music is.
This sincerity can be found in the songs in Suelta, most of which she has written both the lyrics and the music to, drawing her inspiration from considerations that are in turn intimate and social, exalting the role of women: “Tenemos voz” (“We have a voice”), she sings with the British MC Soom T.
She also keeps on working with her loyal collaborators, like Daniel Martin, the composer on “Viene de Mí”, her first hit that still gets international dance floors spinning on their heads.
Argentinian producer King Coya (Gaby Kerpel), her road companion since her beginnings, who has contributed to defining the electropical line of La Yegros’music , also renews his contract for this new opus.
Suelta also sees the arrival & collaboration of two newcomers, and good ones at that: Eduardo Cabra, one half of the Puerto Rican duo Calle 13 (a several time winner at the Latin Grammy Awards), as well as Dutchman Jori Collington, who stirs up the global beat bombs of Skip&Die.
La Yegros has enough confidence to surround herself with such good quality people.
Thus relying of a team of sound wizards, La Yegros frees her high-tension temperament throughout the whole of Suelta, all the more so since the album presents original colours, while continuing its exploration of Northern folklores.
To previous influences like carnavalito and cumbia ( from Magnetismo ) we can now add the frantic rhythms of huayno and chamarrera, the Columbian sounds of Andean flutes as well as Middle Eastern ingredients, while the chamarrera is metamorphosed in order to conquer international dance floors.
We find atmospheres that are intoxicating, but far more as well, since the singer also distils poignant emotions: melancholy when she goes up the thread of her origins, she expresses her indignation, and even her anger, when she tackles social themes: most noticeably,
she calls on woman to demand the respect that they are owed, by uniting their voices to hers.
Both an Argentinian and a citizen of the world, La Yegros shows that she is an artist with beliefs, endowed with an acute conscience.
Her freedom of tone propels this album to success, an album that is both more powerful and more sophisticated that their predecessors.
Finally, Suelta provides its author with the ammo for her future concerts, which can be expected to perpetuate the irresistible combination of ground-breaking styles and festive intentions.
Dubbed the queen of new cumbia, La Yegros is not about to abandon her throne.
La Yegros es una cantante de la provincia de Buenos Aires, con raíces afectivas y sonoras en el Litoral Argentino, que materializa un extraño y explosivo folklore digitale latino que va del chamamé dub al carnabalito groovy y de la cumbia rap a las canciones super bailables.
Ritmos frenéticos y acordeón se mezclan con electrónica para caracterizar el nuevo sonido de la cumbia: un ritmo nacido en Colombia pero ahora infiltrada en toda Latinoamérica y Europa. Con tonos altos de cantos indígenas del amazonas y una onda relajada de una rapera chic, la cantante argentina La Yegros se transformó en la reina de la escena. Su primer disco, Viene de Mi, posee una variedad de influencias que combinan música tropical, folklore, reggae, dancehall, soul, y música árabe.
Su música ya captó la atención de NPR y The Fader en los EEUU hasta Warner/Parlophone en Francia, que firmó su primer disco Viene de Mi en 2013. Impulsado por un sonido local y global a la vez, La Yegros hace que la gente baile desde la primera canción hasta la última en sus shows en vivo. La primera dama de la cumbia y su banda han recorrido el mundo, tocando en casi 20 países en los últimos dos años, en festivales como Mawazine en Marruecos hasta Sziget en Hungría, Transmusicales de Rennes en Francia y Carnaval de Bahidorá en México- celebrando su groove contagioso y conquistando al público de los países por los que viene girando y en especial el europeo.
Su debut profesional fue años atrás con la producción argentina de De La Guarda frente a más de 15 mil personas.
Su proyecto solista es producido por Gaby Kerpel, también conocido como King Coya, quien es un compositor creativo en la Argentina y que compuso la banda sonora de las producciones internacionales de Fuerza Bruta y De La Guarda. Ambos participan también de la banda Terraplén, producida por Gustavo Santaolalla, el compositor premiado dos veces con el Oscar.
La Yegros radicada en Montpellier, Francia, lanzo su segundo disco, Magnetismo en 2016 por Soundway Records/Waxploitation. Magnetismo comparte colaboraciones con músicos de varios paises: Sabina Sciubba de Brazilian Girls (Italia/Francia), Olivier Araste de Lindigo (Isla de la Reunión), Puerta Candelaria (Colombia), y Gustavo Santaolalla (Argentina).
La Yegros esta actualmente trabajando en su proximo album producido por King Coya con varias colaboraciones.