Bad Gyal has sat down with Los40 to promote ‘Más cara’, his second album, and it seems that the promotional round he did prior to the launch has not been enough, because in his talk with Cris Regatero, which takes place after Alba Farelo performs for three consecutive nights in Barcelona, it seems that he has left with many things to say. Farelo appears comfortable during the interview, ranting about people who criticize her physical appearance and her artistic proposal and who claim that her tour is insufficient, when the artist rehearsed for months “from Monday to Sunday without rest.” By the way, she claims that she acted sick on Saturday, the date this media reported.
Farelo also comments on rumors about her drug use: she claims that she has never tried any chemical drugs and states that many of the artists who look like “dead flies” probably consume more drugs and alcohol than she does.
Notably, Bad Gyal vents about the way his role in music is portrayed in mainstream media. She says that, at the beginning of her career, she was not understood and points to journalists for not being properly informed about her proposal. “They gave me names and categories all the time, and it still happens,” he says. «The mainstream newspapers call me “the queen of dancehall”, and it’s like… please, cooperate a little, because they make me the standard bearer as if I were Jamaican. “Why do I do press and explain things 50,000 times well, if then a journalist is not informed?”
Farelo believes that the general press makes an effort to report correctly on politics, but not so much on culture: “When it comes to Caribbean culture we underestimate it and we don’t spend 15 minutes reading, or we start scrolling on TikTok to see what Jamaican influencers are doing explaining things well. You have to go to the source and get informed, look for reliable sources, from the roots, from people who know what they are talking about, before you start transmitting information in a conventional newspaper. “It seems irresponsible to me, because then you make me look bad.”
Bad Gyal insists that she cannot be “queen of dancehall” simply because of her Spanish origin, and points out that this title should be reserved for artists like Spice or for the “first women of the 90s who made the first riddims”, alluding to Sister Nancy and her famous ‘Bam Bam’. «I am a girl from Barcelona who is inspired by what she likes and does what she can. I am Queen of Spain if you want, second, or the queen of girls and gays, but little more.
Farelo also criticizes the media’s obsession with asking him about the intention behind his explicit lyrics, arguing that male artists like JC Reyes are never asked these questions. «Have you ever seen JC Reyes answer this? I’m not pointing fingers at you; Some things he has done don’t seem right to me and I have told him so in person. But no one asks him if his lyrics are too sexual or why he puts girls on stage in a certain way. People throw their hands at women and question everything. Every interview they ask me why I make these lyrics, what my intention or speech is… well, there is no speech.
