Latest news with #Grasa
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Nathy Peluso Packs an Arena-Worthy Tour Closer With Genre-Defying Set: Concert Review
The Novo in Downtown Los Angeles has long been recognized by locals as a theatre for emerging musical acts to make their mark. Its staging is not over-the-top, nor is it undersized, but on Saturday night, the indoor club transformed into a portal of opulence for one woman: Argentine singer-songwriter Nathy Peluso, who made the most of this space, and very clearly demanded more of it. In the span of a nearly two-hour showcase, Peluso nimbly maneuvered from genre to genre, with no limit on the number of twists: poignant power ballads, razor-sharp raps and salsa sequences with elements of Brazilian funk, EDM and bachata scattered throughout. The setlist reflected the best of her catalog but placed a shining light on 'Grasa,' Peluso's 16-song LP that won three Latin Grammys last year, including nods for best alternative song (for 'El Día Que Perdí Mi Juventud'), best rap and hip-hop song ('Aprender a Amar') and best long form video ('Grasa'). Continuing the celebration, Peluso set out on a European jaunt and her first tour dates across the United States. More from Variety Nathy Peluso Sets First U.S. Tour Dates How Nathy Peluso Reclaimed Her Rebellion on New Album 'Grasa' With Help From Fito Páez, Blood Orange's Dev Hynes and More Considering Saturday's show was Peluso's second-ever performance in the city, in addition to being the final bow of this tour, L.A. fans were primed and ready. The general sections — comprised of a wide demographic of all ages and descents (Peluso sings in Spanish, English and Italian) — of the venue turned into dance floors as concert-goers mimicked what they saw: Peluso airly prancing across the stage during the salsa portions of the evening for songs like 'Mafiosa,' 'Puro Veneno' and 'La Presa,' with the latter featuring a theatrical delivery from Peluso calling out to la policia and dancing against a makeshift cage. Peluso follows these red-hot moments with emotional shifts. Before you know it, she's on the floor, her body sloped across the carpeted steps of her stage design. And all throughout, her vocals never flounder — her vibrato is as honeyed and robust as it is on the floor as when she's standing upright, nor does it tremble when her hips sway to 'Erotika,' a lavish and erotic salsa reminiscent of the genre's 90s classics. Nathy Peluso in Los Angeles last night 🩵 — thania (@tyewrites) March 16, 2025 Peluso didn't need backup dancers or any elaborate quirks to make this show feel as big as it did. In fact, the longest Peluso left the stage was less than a minute. In these cases, you can easily pick up on the relationship an artist has with the music or narrative they're presenting. For Peluso, who sings and dances and acts with a palpable swagger, it seems she's completely engrossed in a colorful world of her own making, and is overjoyed by having us watch. While the audience caught their breath, Peluso remained remarkably composed, and described the tour as feeling 'like a movie — it's all been like a movie,' she concluded. 'My story is short still, but thank you for being here with me now.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, 'Wicked: For Good' and More What's Coming to Disney+ in March 2025
Los Angeles Times
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Nathy Peluso has found her musical language
Jimmy Fallon looked exultant when he greeted Nathy Peluso on his show last December, after she had performed a couple of songs off 'Grasa,' her Latin Grammy-winning second album. In theory, the highlight of the singer's 'Late Night' debut should have been her duet with U.K. singer-songwriter Blood Orange. But Peluso appeared onstage sporting the regal poise of an operatic diva — a cross between La Lupe and Maria Callas — and then belted out 'Corleone,' a sweeping orchestral bolero. How a 30-year-old singer, born in Argentina and raised in Spain, manages to channel the smoldering melodrama of Latin music's golden era with such uncanny precision remains a bit of a mystery. Still, the Jimmy Fallon appearance was a grandiloquent step forward in Peluso's claim to mainstream recognition. 'I swear to you, I felt so good during that performance,' says Peluso when I ask her if she experienced any stage fright. 'I was so sure of myself, so confident that this was the right moment for me. It was like being inside a movie.' Peluso, who plays the Novo on Saturday as part of her first headlining U.S. tour, is an expert herself in crafting cinematic experiences camouflaged as songs. Her most recent single, 'Erotika,' is a sassy, brash tribute to the much maligned salsa erótica subgenre that blossomed briefly during the 1990s. Shot in saturated primary colors, the visual of the song finds her seducing both the camera and her dancing partner in no uncertain terms. As is always the case with her stylistic adventures, the instrumental backing on the track is painstakingly authentic. The song 'Corleone' — the opening cut of 'Grasa,' Argentine slang for tacky or vulgar — is also loaded with movie references. It opens with a sample of John Barry's '007' theme 'From Russia With Love,' which Venezuelan producer Manuel Lara lifted off YouTube in an attempt to pitch Peluso a potential aesthetic for the entire album. It was the first song that they recorded together, and the distorted sample morphs seamlessly into the track's bolero ambiance, as Peluso's singing — always the star of the show — details the restless ambition that defines the life of her alter ego, a successful mafia boss. 'The overall concept of 'Grasa' was to envision what the music of the mafia would sound like in the future,' says Lara from his Miami studio. 'If you listen carefully to the entire album, you will see that we have the Russian mafia, the Italians, the Brazilians in the favelas — it's like the sonic DNA of the entire planet.' Peluso's scope has always been cosmopolitan, even when she performed Nina Simone covers as a teenager in Spain. The lead single of 'Grasa,' 'Aprender a Amar,' is a frantic slice of Latin trap that showcases her wickedly inventive rhymes and the same singular, staccato flow that became a viral sensation in 2020 when she guested on one of Argentine producer Bizarrap's most popular sessions. One of the most indelible moments of 'Calambre,' her debut album, is the song 'Buenos Aires' — a nostalgic ode to the city that she left behind, with clear nods to the funkified rock en español sonics of 1980's South America. 'Grasa,' on the other hand, is similar to Rosalía's 'Motomami' in its ability to encapsulate both the present and near-future of pop culture. Both records sum up the delicious fragmentation of the 2020's — our seemingly insatiable appetite for novel combinations of rhythm and sound. I ask if she is permanently in touch with the latest musical developments; 'It's all intuitive,' she replies with a chuckle. 'I'm disconnected from reality on so many different levels. I don't listen to the latest albums, but it's not out of snobbery. I'm so focused on my own work, that if I need to step into my comfort zone, I'd rather listen to Marvin [Gaye] or João Gilberto. On the other hand, I do pay attention to everything that is happening in the visual arts, architecture and design.' Her current tour, she explains, mirrors her attention to detail. 'There's bass, guitar, infinite amounts of keyboards and drums,' she says. And a bunch of pre-programmed layers, because the band barely fits in the current stage design. The musicians are playing inside pits that simulate an opera house. It's highly theatrical.' Her path hasn't been easy, though. Peluso wrote the songs on 'Grasa' in only two weeks, after scrapping an entire album that just 'didn't feel right.' She has also been accused of cultural appropriation for recording straight-ahead salsa tunes — an unfair accusation to this writer, considering that she is a dedicated student and collector of Afro-Caribbean music. For 'La Presa,' a track that sounds like a time capsule from 1979 New York, she enlisted the backup vocalists of Puerto Rico's El Gran Combo for an extra touch of street cred. 'It's part of my path as a woman, and my function in society,' she says when I mention the criticism of her salsa jams. 'I'm not the kind of artist who's complacent or politically correct. I don't do anything with the intention of pleasing others. I chose the mission of bringing salsa back to the present because I'm passionate about it. If a genre gives me so many wonderful sensations, I want everybody else to feel them as well. As long as people argue, they will have to listen to the songs — and as a result, they will listen to salsa.' 'What I love about Natalia is her amazing ability to portray so many different characters,' adds Lara, who is working with Peluso on a followup to 'Grasa.' 'She can be the one who murders, or the one who is betrayed. She can create and destroy, love and hate with equal intensity. Her musical persona is so expansive that she can take you to a wide variety of spaces.' 'I'm at a point in my career where I can finally enjoy my catalog of songs, and the process of sharing them in a live setting,' Peluso says with a smile. 'There's no nervousness, no insecurity, no unpleasant surprises of any kind. I finally found my musical language, and everything flows just fine.'
