If you are in need of any proof that Nathy Peluso was born to be a performer — a rock star, really — look no further than this live version of her signature song “Delito,” created for a special set with Honda Stage and Billboard. She belts every word, eyes closed, twirling the mic stand from one side to the other, before breaking free and letting the music carry her from wall to wall as the spirit moves her. It’s the same flash of electricity she brings to everything she touches: the Argentine-born, Barcelona-based singer-songwriter has only as of yet put out one full-length album, 2020’s thrilling Calambre, but even in a short time, she’s been dead set on giving it her all. “I dominate my show. You are creating an artistic language on stage. You realize what people need, what people want, what people embrace, and what people hate,” she says. “It is an intense journey of personal recognition, of creative recognition, of inspiration, of inner strength. It is exhausting — my shows constantly test me. I idealize the stage and the ritual of live music a lot.”
Peluso spent her early childhood in Argentina, absorbing musical influences ranging from jazz to Latin to classical. She and her family emigrated to Spain when she was 10, and it was there that she first began performing at local hotels and restaurants. As she got older, she discovered and immersed herself in American hip-hop through a love for Notorious B.I.G, inspiring her to try her hand at rapping. “Suddenly I started flashing really hard with that energy,” she says. “I started rapping in a very natural, unexpected way.” She moved to Madrid to pursue her dreams, did spoken word poetry on the street and waitressed, and eventually began rapping over lo-fi beats to release on the internet, slowly but surely building an audience for her introspective yet playful songs. She never wavered in her pursuit of a music career. “If I did not do this,” she says assertively, “I do not know if I could do something else.”
Calambre, a satisfyingly unpredictable trip through R&B, pop, hip-hop, reggaeton, and funk, made her an international star-on-the-rise. Now, there’s the latest single “Mafiosa,” which she also performed for Honda Stage and Billboard, again giving it everything she’s got. Whereas “Delito” has a definitive hip-hop flavor, “Mafiosa” showcases Peluso’s range — it’s a modern take on classic salsa. “It’s a genre that brings me a lot of joy, a lot of happiness in my everyday life. I hang on to salsa to survive,” she says. “I wanted to loosen the cliché salsa. Present something fresh. Not only do 70-year-old Latin men listen to it [laugh]. Salsa is cool, salsa is dangerous.” As for what’s next for the emerging superstar, all she knows is one thing: she’s in this for the long haul. “From here until my death, [I just hope] to make many records. Making music is what makes me happiest,” she says. “In the end, my career is my life.”
