Bad Gyal’s fourth album is about to be released, counting the three previous mixtapes, but it will be his first official album. It is going to be called La joia and the title is one of the few things that Alba Farelo (1997) has revealed, although in a recent tweet she announces the possible songs that will make it up, a dozen; among them there is no lack of previous singles “Chulo”, “Sin carné”, “Sexy” or “Real G”, his collaboration with Quevedo. None of them was missing from the concert he offered at Sónar, nor was his new single, “El sol me da”, which illustrates the famous summer advertising campaign of a beer brand, also the festival’s main sponsor.
She arrived at Sónar, after her time at Primavera Sound in Madrid, at the beginning of a Summer Tour that will take her to various festivals on the peninsula. She appears accompanied by a dance group made up of four girls and two boys, who wrap her up and carry her in the air in a show in which all the music is pre-recorded and in which it gave the sensation, paying close attention to the screens, that even some vocal parts were playback. But this detail did not matter to the dedicated and large audience that filled the SonarPub stage, dazzled by the power and twerking of a Bad Gyal who offers her repertoire condensed into medleys of two and three songs. In the first, she highlighted “Blin Blin” and in the second, “Pussy” that she recorded with El Guincho. Her soundsystem took cruising speed with the hit that brings together “Sin carné”, “Tu eres un bom bom” and “Chulo”.
Divided into blocks, illustrated by videos, he continued to shake his butt in the explicit “Tremendo culon” before lying down to accentuate the lewd tone of an Auto-Tune key “Learning sex”. From time to time he incorporated unreleased material into the mix. Arrived at “Candela” and “Kármica” that had already become a ‘perreodromo’. There was no shortage of “Santa María”, with her devotion to smoking weed, or a cover of Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor”, before tackling the highly celebrated and empowering “Zorra”. Later, a dance was marked on top of some mobile platforms and he sat down to remember the old “Yo sigo iual”, which includes verses in Catalan.
The final section served to publicize “El sol me da”, a candidate for song of the summer, and to get deliciously Latin with “Que rico”. Her perreo came to a head with the dembow and dancehall of “La prendo”, with stanzas that say “I am the one who kills” or “I always leave you crazy with my flow”. She is absolutely right, she is an absolute boss and also very “Sexy”, another song that was endorsed by the respectable. To finish off, he reserves “New York (Tot*)”, in which he says “at the disco, they get crazy” -it can be added that at Sónar as well- reaching a climax that still experienced two other jubilant moments in the encore , with the reggaeton of “Alocao” and a “Fever”, chanted with relish, in which he repeats “when I dance for you, I know that you go crazy”.
Samantha Hudson completed her stellar run at Sónar with a performance on the secluded SonarCar stage, called “EVOO Black Label”, which served her to present her new EP and plunge us into an irreverent and fun work in which she mixes theatrical dalliances, unquestionable rhythms makineros, a sense of humor and some explicit lyrics that put the most peaceful minds to the test. Thus, she has no problem presenting herself as “the empress of filth”. Accompanied by three dancers and with pre-recorded sound, she also rescued past hits such as “Burguesa aruinada”.
Another one that brings it on is La Zowi who came to Sónar to present her brand new mixtape La Reina del Sur, an empowering album full of obscene rhymes in which she talks about her bisexuality using reggaeton, dembow, dancehall and the occasional flamenco touch. like the deconstructed palms that serve to illustrate the theme “Chill”. Using the word whore every once in a while and accompanied by four dancers and a DJ, she recalled the song “Apocalipsi”, which she recorded with Leïti Sene, or a “Matrix” whose chorus repeats “I’ll give you milk in the Porsche”. Unabashedly cheeky and also with a good flow, she showed why she has become an icon of the urban scene, with a strong temperament that shows the rawness of street trap.
Alizzz was not missing either, but on this occasion he visited Sónar to offer a performance in a DJ Set format, much more techno -although without forgetting his pop side- than what he has accustomed us to in his career as a composer and singer. On the same SonarPub stage there was then one of the most anticipated closing performances of the festival, the British-Nigerian rapper Little Simz, who last year starred in one of the most outstanding shows at Primavera Sound. This time she came with a new album under her arm, No Thank You, the fifth in a dazzling career that combines the most combative hip hop rhymes with elements of gospel, soul, funk and electronic music. We were only able to see half of her concert and, although there were instruments on stage, at this stage she performed alone, with pre-recorded music. But from the initials “Silhouette” and “No merci” she made it clear that, whether accompanied by musicians or alone, she is a phenomenal rhymer. It goes without saying that the main role in the final night of Sónar is played by the flashy DJs. On this occasion, the people in charge of the end of the party on the main track at SonarClub were the usual and infallible Richie Hawtin and the Belgian Amelie Lens.
