Today the Gigante Festival begins in Guadalajara with a first day of free access. Headlining over 3 days will be names like Ultraligera, La MODA or La Cabra Mecánica, and on Saturday, Belén Aguilera and Zahara. Precisely if Saturday is when several female artists gather on the main stages – as Ginebras and Queralt Lahoz also perform – it is striking that, on Thursday and Friday, several young and less common artists at festivals in our country take over the small stage, curated by Mondosonoro. These are 6 female-dominated art projects to pay attention to.
Tere!
One of the most peculiar characters that we will see in Gigante, specifically today, August 27, is this young queer seasoned halfway between Spain and Liverpool. Inspired by names like Olivia Rodrigo and Hayley Williams, she has been popularizing fun pop-rock songs like ‘Superficial’, ballads like ‘Normal Girl’, songs full of nostalgia like ‘Ser + peque’ and analysis of the disastrous 2020 with nods to Fernando Simón (‘2020 Song’). Although it is his songs in Spanish that have hundreds of thousands of views, he has also just released an album in English called ‘NO MORE MANNERS’.
Sundays
With only 120 monthly listeners on Spotify and 2 songs uploaded to platforms, Los Domingos may be one of the best kept secrets in national pop. They are two boys and two girls – two are from Almeria who met at a Triángulo de Amor Bizarro concert -, moved by their passion for people like Galaxie 500, Beach House or Deerhunter. Except that the chorus of ‘Sleep Paralysis’ could come from some classic record from the 60s. Sundays play on Friday, August 28 at 6:45 p.m.
The Parachute Girl
From Lleida, La Niña Paracaídas, the group formed by Miriam Linares (guitar + secondary vocals), Laia March (bass + secondary vocals), María Puigvert (main vocals), Berta Jàtiva (drums + secondary vocals) and Maya Arqués (guitar + secondary vocals). They wander between grunge and punk, although with choruses as accurate as those found in their recent single ‘Cielo’. Be careful because their version of ‘The song I don’t want to sing to you’ by Amaia and Aitana should not stop playing today, Thursday, starting at 9:15 p.m.
Estrogens
From Salamanca, sisters Ángela and Carolina Álvarez founded Estrogenuinas a decade ago, later joined by Paula de Rufino on drums and Álvaro Pidre on guitar. They like the comic power of the word, in addition to punk, which has materialized in hymns full of irony and acidity such as ‘Nietzche is my fetish’, ‘Bea Vapea’ or ‘End of year party at the Catholic school’. They also claim to do “chirll-out”, more than punk pop, because they do “whatever comes out of the chill”. They perform today, Thursday at 12:15 a.m.
The 126
There are also concerts scheduled this weekend on the Guadalajara Stage in the City’s Plaza Mayor. There you can see more female artists such as the singer of Kitai, Sandra Bautista or La 126. The group formed by 3 friends Elia Sempere (drums and vocals), Laura Giner (guitar and vocals) and Lucía De Bunder (lead vocals and second guitar) publishes its first album on Mushroom Pillow on October 23, after having viralized songs like ‘My friends hate you’. Their debut will be called ‘Nothing Can Do Us Wrong’ and we already know 3 songs about it: the main and post-grunge single ‘Somebody Special’, the orchestrated ‘Despedida (once and for all)’ and ‘I Want to Save You’.
Lola Vila
On Saturday at 1:00 p.m. in the same Plaza Mayor you can see the live performance of Lola Vila, a young woman from Valencia who has managed to add 7 million views on Spotify (and 15 million on YouTube) with a ukulele song called ‘Mi Julietita’. A hit among the Mexican public, where it has twice as many listeners as in its own country. Although this cut dates back to 2021, last year he published a beautiful acoustic song, adorned with the sound of crickets (and a great sense of humor), called ‘another song about you’.
