A New Wave of Latine: Reclaiming sapphic identity through music

Music has always been a key part of connecting with my cultural background. As a teenager, a love for musica urbana (a broad genre encompassing styles like dembow, Latin hip hop and reggaeton) was what pushed me into embracing my heritage as a second-generation British-Colombian struggling with their identity. Now in my university halls, I blast music - like our Latina mums on a Sunday - in the early morning hours to prepare me for a full day of reading and writing, likely to the annoyance of my flatmates trying to sleep in. However, as a queer feminist, there was sometimes a strained relationship with genres like reggaeton and Latin trap due to their misogynistic lyrics, but also the fetishisation of sapphic women - something I’m already far too familiar with as I openly discuss my bisexuality in my day to day life. Examples of song lyrics from my teenage playlists include:

“Si tu amiga hoy no puede// busco otra que diga que si y se besan entre si” (Me Mata)
(translation available here)

“Cuando chingamo’ ella se viene// pero se que le gustan las mujeres tambien” (Bebé)
(translation available here)

“Janguea tanto con la amiga que la gente piensa que son hasta bi” (Netflixxx)(translation available here)

“Si tienes jevo, yo me busco el lío// Si tienes jeva, pues, convencela pa’l trío” (¿Cual es tu plan?)
(translation available here)

Yet in recent years, there has been a shift in rising artists and what themes these genres explore. With music by Young Miko, Tokischa, Kali Uchis, Villano Antonillo and more there is a slow reshaping of what this genre can be. The changing songs in my Spotify daily mixes made me realise there is a reclamation of sapphic sexuality in a genre, but also a world, which interprets it as for male sexual gratification, and allowing for queer listeners to feel represented in the international surge of Latine music.  

Whether it be Kali Uchis and Karol G’s ‘Labios Mordidos’, your typical sexually explicit reggaeton track or Karol G’s ‘Contigo’ music video, featuring Young Miko, released on Valentine’s Day 2024, portraying a high school romance – there is a subversion of ‘musica urbana’ and its heteronormativity by presenting sapphic relationships as something legitimate and to be celebrated.

Music has always been a revolutionary tool for telling marginalised stories in the Latine community. This can be seen early on with Willie Colon’s song, ‘El Gran Varon’, which was banned on some radio stations. The salsa track was released in 1989 and explores the life of ‘Simon’, who is heavily implied to be a transwoman. The lyrics reflect the experiences of transphobia in which ‘Simon’ is rejected by her father upon transitioning and her later passing due to the AIDS crisis. 

“Y una mujer le hablo al pasar// Le dijo: “hola, que tal, papa, como te va?// No me conoces?// Yo soy Simon.// Simon, tu hijo,// El gran varon”
(translation available here)

The song is dated in many ways, through the use of male pronouns while referring to the protagonist, its title, and metaphors it used to describe trans identity, but it reveals the role of Latine music in tackling the struggles of queer communities. The song has now been covered and reproduced by artists like Ana Macho as a way of reclaiming the story and telling it from a trans perspective.

Queer feminists have always existed in the Latine music scene, such as Chocolate Remix, known for producing ‘lesbian reggaeton’ which challenges the often sexist lyrics in the genre by centring female pleasure and queer sexuality. Her songs are frequently political, exploring the violence targeted at LGBTQIA+ communities. Krudxs Cubensi is another, they are a duo of Black non-binary hip-hop artists who have used their music to challenge sexism, racism and homophobia in Cuban society - with lyrics discussing Black sexual feminist politics, and centring the experiences of Black Latine lesbians. However, their music both remains on the underground side, with Chocolate Remix having just under 65,000 monthly spotify listeners, and Krudxs Cubensi having about 17,000 monthly spotify listeners.

This brings me to the rising artists in the Latine music scene - first looking at Young Miko, an openly lesbian trap artist who has managed to break through in a male-dominated genre, where she has become the 146 most listened to artist in the world as of writing, and totalling in at having 30,104,828 monthly listeners on Spotify. In ‘Vendetta’, she collaborates with transfemme non-binary rapper Villano Antanillo, and proudly states:

“Todos los hombres a mi vida pega’o// Mala mia, no tiro pa’ ese la’o”
(translation available here)

Young Miko subverts the genre’s objectifying lyrics by discussing her love for women, especially in tracks like ‘Lisa’ where she praises women of different body types, skin tones and hair textures, which contrasts how many male artists only discuss one unrealistic type of beauty. Through this she is challenging what Latin Trap is about, creates a sense of visibility for LGBTQIA+ fans of the genre and celebrates the diversity of the category of ‘woman’.

“Me gustan thick, y tambien skinny// Modelito’ que no quepan en la mini,// pelirroja’ con pequita’ que use bennie,// Morenita’ con risito de Kissimme.”
(translation available here)

Her rise to fame has led her to collaborate with powerhouses in the musica urbana genre, such as Bad Bunny, Tainy, Jowell y Randy and more. Through this, Young Miko is spearheading queer Latine representation while discussing identity, queer love and sexuality without the familiar undertones of fetishisation in the trap genre, but still maintaining its suggestive themes.

Tokischa is another important voice in this redefining of Latine music - the openly bisexual artist who delves into various genres, from dembow to electronic, has been labelled controversial by some for her sexually graphic lyrics, but for others, she has emerged as a queer icon for producing music on her lived experiences. Throughout various tracks, she describes sexual experiences with men and women in detail, a theme not uncommon to the dembow genre. In her 2022 hit, ‘Estilazo’, the music video showcases the art of drag through the storyline of a man’s journey into the art form, and becoming a drag queen – this is accompanied by lyrics like:

‘Lesbiananismo entre mujeres// Larga vida homosexual!’
(translation available here)

But it doesn’t end with her lyrics - Tokischa’s visual aesthetics challenge ideas of femininity. Although most known for her hyper-feminine style, she is unafraid of playing with gender expression on her social media and music videos. In the ‘Daddy’ music video, Tokischa presents herself as a much older man while singing about her love for Latina women, alongside ending the video showcasing ballroom culture. Furthermore, she is often seen wearing fake facial hair as an accessory to her chosen outfits, disrupting the binary of feminine and masculine.

“Quiero tequila y tu quiere’ molly// Have my baby, Latina mami// Yo soy tu daddy”
(translation available here)

Young Miko and Tokischa are far from the only two sapphic Latine artists, there are many more using music to discuss queer identity, like Villano Antillano, or Snow Tha Product, but also many artists who openly discuss their queerness in interviews, like Anitta. However, we are far from an acceptance of queerness within the Latine community, as there remains a negative stigma around bisexual and lesbian identities, as seen by the flood of negative comments on Karol G’s Instagram after releasing ‘Contigo.’ This is why we need to recognise and celebrate the reclamation of sapphic identity in Latine music genres – these artists are using lyrics and visuals as a form of resistance to heteronormativity and homophobia which exists in the Latine community, and broader society. Music becomes a way of embracing sapphic identity in genres which objectify women, or reduce queerness as something for male consumption – with music being so accessible to the average person, it becomes an important way to celebrate sapphic identity.