Jimena Amarillo, the singer who makes “music for lesbians” and reinterpreted ‘Libertad sin ira’ in the first act of the Government for the 50 years since the death of Franco

“Well, let’s finish with this, a little good vibes. Whoever is stiff should relax and that’s it. Some clapping at the end that the song gives for clapping.” Those were the first words that Jimena Amarillo uttered on the improvised stage of the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid. She was the artist chosen to reinterpret Jarcha’s classic Freedom without anger in the first act of 50 years of Spain in freedom, the political cycle that the Government of the Nation has prepared to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Franco’s death.

And, now, the question: who is Jimena Amarillo? Who is that girl with an almost Mohican haircut who posed next to a smiling Pedro Sánchez? Who is that singer who dared to go through the autotune an anthem with almost 50 years of history? Well, a 23-year-old Valencian girl with almost half a million monthly listeners on Spotify and has become a reference in the LGTBI community. Because, according to her own words, she makes “music for lesbians” or “lesbian songs.”

But there is much more. Because the artist’s academic training begins with five years linked to the violin. Not in the conservatory, but in a music school where you learned by ear. And from there to the guitar – also taught self-taught -, to the Artistic Bachelor, to a FP in Sound and inevitably to making covers on YouTube, the gateway to music for part of his generation, for a girlfriend of his who sang. When they left it, since they no longer had a vocalist, she provided the voice. They were the years of indie, to sing Dorian and Izal, and to start composing his first songs.

And, almost by chance, he met Pau Roca, guitarist The Red Room, which put her in contact with her own record label -Mushroom Pillow- which ended up including her on its list of artists along with Columpio Asesino or Triángulo de Amor Bizarro. Successful signing for the label because the Valencian artist has already become its artist with the largest number of listeners in streaming, especially driven by the pandemic. “The pandemic didn’t do anything to me, I’ve been a pain since I started doing covers of indie groups, but that time helped me find my sound,” she herself acknowledged in a conversation with Ariel Rot on the TVE program A country to listen to it.

From that stage issues arise such as Cafelikoincluded in their first album How to tell you, my love, and what has been worth it his first Gold Record. There are also a good part of the characteristic sounds of the Valencian artist – that indie pop mixed with rap overtones, electronic base and a good dose of autotune– and also its message – direct and explicit declarations of love -. Those who have dazzled since C. Tangana, who included her as one of his favorite artists to the former national coach Luis Enrique. The now PSG coach also included her as one of his favorites in one of his Twitch live streams from the World Cup in Qatar.

In addition, Amarillo has accumulated three albums at just 23 years old – the aforementioned How to tell you, my love, while I walk y Grief is not comfortable– and prepares a fourth for 2025. A year that in just eight days has already left the first image of the Valencian artist: her performance at the government event to celebrate the death of Franco, her version of Freedom without anger and his posing next to the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. Because his political condition has never been hidden. “I really believe that all singers queer We are screwed because we are not going to be able to say anything. If the Government becomes what we do not want it to become, we will be held by the neck. In my case, I have very explicit lyrics. At first we think that it is nonsense and that they are not going to censor us, but we have already seen how they have done it with the play by Paco Becerra. The truth is that we are afraid,” he said in an interview with this newspaper in August 2023.