Life as a Latin star is a whirlwind. Burgeoning Argentine icon Nathy Peluso has completed the majority of her European tour in celebration of her second album, late 2024’s ‘Grasa’. It’s the day before her brief UK stint – a sold-out London Roundhouse show – and she’s a bit worse for wear. But, when your album begins with the achingly sung lyrics “This ambition is killing me”, what do you expect?
Dork’s invited into her car for a catchup as she’s whisked away to her next photoshoot. Life for Nathy is very much all you’d expect from a hot name such as hers: millions of Instagram followers, numerous awards under her belt, and an effortlessly unique and chic appearance – all teamed with a muso-minded genre-defiant outlook. With those opening lyrics bouncing around in front of her as she settles into her seat, this is the all-or-nothing life the 30-year-old has been aiming for since she was a child.
She began honing her musical sensibilities with a pair of EPs – 2017’s ‘Esmeralda’ and 2018’s ‘La Sandunguera’ – and showcasing her craft of Latin rhythms transposed with hip-hop, R&B, and jazz flourishes. Her Latin Grammy-winning debut album then came in 2020. ‘Calambre’ brought her previous output together in a project that introduced more Nathy-facets as she double-downed on the hip-hop foundation she’d established. It was in following up her debut that Nathy’s star went from rising to a burning midday sun.
“If it’s very easy, I feel like I’m not doing something to be better, so I need to push myself”
With ‘Grasa’ – and its high-energy, Mura Masa-featuring remix companion album ‘Club Grasa’ – Nathy fully unleashed her explosive sound. She pushed her genre-blurring instincts further, weaving salsa’s feverish rhythms with harder, grittier beats, embracing an even bolder experimental edge. The result? A fearless sonic playground that earned her a trio of Latin Grammys. But more than accolades, ‘Grasa’ gave Nathy something even greater: a new sense of freedom. Today, she looks back at her previous output as not quite hitting where she needed it too for her. “I was so sad, and I was so depressed, and the music I was doing was really good, but it was not the way I wanted to show me to the world.” Which is why ‘Grasa’ is the sound of an artist fully embracing her instincts – and setting the stage for whatever comes next. “Everything I do is done with freedom,” she says with the air of someone very much in their creative element. “And I listen to my intuition and my feelings, so I’m never scared. I’m feeling very happy to do what I want. I’m always studying and looking forward to being a better artist and a better person.” Nathy is very much eyes-on-the-prize for her future. “I can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow. But nowadays, I’m so proud of what I’m doing. The music I’m doing is the best for me.”
A true all-rounder, her artistry includes the visuals she releases, as well as her compositions, lyrics, production, and a feverishly confident and ambitious live show. At a young age, she became a keen gymnast. Exploring this for most of her teens, she eventually wound up at university studying an audio-visual degree alongside a physical theatre element, which is why there’s such a fully-fleshed idea surrounding ‘Grasa’. Translating roughly to ‘grease’, the album holds a light through-line of swaggering mafioso imagery, and from the opener ‘Corleone’ it’s a sonic feast that ditches between the personal and the braggadocios, the two combatting at times as she reckons with her success. To boot, each track has its own paired video, bringing to life the Nathy Peluso persona with visually arresting and aesthetically suave scenes.
Nathy’s transcending language barriers to showcase her budding arsenal. Part of the swathe of Latin artists bringing their rich musical heritage to the world stage, in the same realm as Rosalía and C. Tangana, her lyrics have often spoken politically and societally, using her modern canvas to capture the personal side. “Language is very powerful, but the energy and love it’s more than the language,” she enthuses. Having completed her stretch of the continent where she played before audiences of all varieties, the Nathy party opened up a dancefloor to all. “That’s the power of music and the power of art. It’s a universal language. Everybody says it,” she grins, shrugging at the cliche. “But I feel like it doesn’t matter what I’m saying. You feel it because I can communicate with my body, my expression.”
A residual trait from Nathy’s childhood hearing Phil Collins, Chicago, Pink Floyd and The Beatles, it’s now inherent in everything she deftly weaves. Hearing the music in English gave her a finely tuned sense of breaking through the language barrier. “I was crying with the songs. It was about energy, about feelings, not about the language… nowadays I understand what they are saying, and I’m feeling it more like discovering more layers of the message,” she beams.
To this, Nathy is an ever-changing presence. It’s in her nature. By design, there are two of her. One is the personal, grounded version who sticks close to her inner circle and family. The other is a knowledge-hungry, creative mastermind hell-bent on driving herself forward into whatever new direction may come of fancy. Put simply, ambition is a key part of who she is. Proof of concept comes from her scrapping the initial follow-up to ‘Calambre’ after realising there was a nagging feeling, even as those around her were telling her it was great.
If not for this last-minute swerve, ‘Grasa’, her confessed “moment of light”, would never have come to be. Recalling the moment as her car stop-starts through central London traffic, it was miles away from these congested skies, and instead on the open seas in Ibiza, she had her artistic realisation. “On a really expensive and huge boat, in the summer, and I was lost, and I already had a very long album with every song finished,” she pauses, breathing deeply. “And I was not vibing at all. Everybody was like, ‘No, it’s amazing!’, but it’s like a feeling… and suddenly I decide, as always, to trust myself and to listen to my intuition.”
Nathy’s wont to do this even if the easiest path is already laid out before her, inviting her to take a wander down. She proudly declares, “I don’t like the easy things!” This could be because of her creative arts childhood, or it’s most likely, according to Nathy, because she’s a Capricorn. “I love to work and I love to feel productive. So if it’s very easy, I feel like I’m not doing something to be better, so I need to push myself. If you’re not feeling the passion, it’s not there. So I was like, okay, this album is okay, but it’s not… it’s not magical.”
This internal barometer of hers is a product of her drive. While she professes to have a huge ambition, it’s nothing untoward – it’s just a voracious appetite. “I’m always looking to be better and better, and I have always something to correct, to fix, you know? So I think that’s a tool that moves me, but you gotta know how to work with it. I love to have it because it moves me every day to be better.” Nathy pauses briefly. “If I’m happy with everything, nothing is pushing me. I’m always going to look for better.”
“Nathy Peluso is my boss, and she’s so hard,” she continues, laughing. “Sometimes with me, she’s so hard. But that’s part of the learning how to deal with it, how to say ‘Yo bitch, stop. Give me a day off’. It never happens.” Which may well be why she finds herself so exhausted today, but the show must go on. The future’s already being plotted in between moments off: “It’s a whole different vibe,” she teases, before jetting off to her next scheduled appointment. “Everything I’m doing is a whole different vibe every day because I’m changing every day, so the music is changing with me.” ■
Nathy Peluso’s single ‘EROKITA’ is out now.
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