Mon Laferte

Award-winning Chilean singer-songwriter Mon Laferte crafts an elevated strain of Latin music by fusing indie and roots rock, blues, bolero, cumbia, ranchera, and electronics together with Chilean folk elements, all delivered through her resonant, bittersweet alto. From the release of Desechable in 2011 onward, she demonstrated a deeply introspective approach to songwriting that integrated effortlessly with her magnetic live presence. The 2017 album La Trenza earned five Latin Grammy nominations while securing her foothold across Europe and Asia. For the opulently romantic Norma in 2019 she captured the Latin Grammy Album of the Year. Having relocated to Tepoztlán amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she delivered the lone full-length Seis in April 2021, a project that featured joint appearances by La Arrolladora, Gloria Trevi, Mujeres del Viento Florido, and Alejandro Fernandez and received four Latin Grammy nominations. Next came 1940 Carmen, captured alone during a four-month residency in Los Angeles. November 2023 brought Autopoiética, a notably introspective collection that incorporated samples and electronics, signaling a partial reversion to her indie origins.

Norma Monserrat Bustamante Laferte entered the world in Viña del Mar. She took up guitar at ten, enrolled in a music conservatory at thirteen, and performed live in Valparaiso. Under the name Monserrat Bustamante she issued her debut, 2003’s La Chica de Rojo. Concurrently she took part in the television programs Rojo Fama Contrafama and El Baile en TVN plus the 2006 motion picture Rojo, La Pelicula. After settling in Mexico City in 2007 she adopted the stage name Mon Laferte; following a 2009 struggle with thyroid cancer she put out Desechable in 2011. In 2012 she served as judge and mentor on the Chilean edition of The X Factor’s second season, Factor X. She also lent her voice to the hard-rock outfit Mystica Girls on MetalRose (2012) and Gates of Hell (2014). Throughout this period she sustained her solo trajectory with Tornasol in 2013 and Mon Laferte, Vol. 1 in 2015. On La Trenza (2017) she worked alongside Enrique Bunbury, Juanes, and Manuel Garcia; the album reached number 13 on the Latin Pop Albums chart. Its opening track, “Mi Buen Amor” with Bunbury, secured the Latin Grammy for Best Alternative Song.

While touring extensively worldwide, Laferte navigated the conclusion of a lengthy relationship. The separation prompted her to compose material drawn from her romantic history, distilling intimate particulars from her own experience. The resulting Norma was tracked live in a single day at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles. Released in fall 2018, the record marked her initial concept album, comprising ten pieces that trace successive phases of love across cumbia, son, danzon, salsa, bolero, and bachata. Produced by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and performed by thirteen musicians simultaneously without later overdubs, it appeared exactly as captured.

Norma claimed the Latin Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album in November of the ensuing year. The honor was eclipsed by her red-carpet demonstration: Laferte parted a long black coat to reveal her bare torso bearing the phrase “En Chile torturan violan y matan,” a direct allusion to the October mass protests against economic disparity and for civil rights sparked by subway-fare hikes. That same night she unveiled the urbano collaboration “Plata Ta Tá” with Puerto Rican artist Guaynaa, containing the line “This generation has the revolution, with their cell phone they have more power than Donald Trump….” Guaynaa’s verse urges, “Go out, go out/go fight, go fight/Let’s make the world listen.” At the close of January 2020 she issued the acoustic Sola con Mis Monstruos, an unplugged survey of signature songs capped by her reading of Edith Piaf’s “La Vie en Rose.” The standalone single “Biutiful” earned a Latin Grammy for Best Rock Song.

Laferte also works as a visual artist. Nearly seventy of her pieces formed a solo exhibition at Mexico City’s national Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico that shuttered shortly after opening because of the pandemic. She withdrew to Tepoztlán, fifty miles distant, and ultimately remained. In September she inaugurated the Morelos gallery to showcase her own output alongside that of fellow Mexican creators. Late that autumn a documentary on ranchera icon Chavela Vargas—who passed her final years in the same tranquil locale—moved her profoundly, given her longstanding regard for the singer.

While adjusting to Tepoztlán and the pandemic, Laferte had continued writing; the documentary supplied thematic direction for her subsequent album. In January 2020 she engaged singer-songwriter Vivir Quintana to compose “Canción Sin Miedo” for a Mexico City performance at the Tiempo de Mujeres, Festival por la Igualdad honoring International Women’s Day. The resulting duet between the two artists circulated widely prior to its festival debut. “Canción Sin Miedo” later accompanied the closing credits of the Netflix documentary The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo, which recounted the story of Juárez mother Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, slain while pursuing justice for her daughter Rubí Frayre.

That September Laferte offered the ranchera “Que Se Sepa Nuestro Amor,” a duet with traditional singer Alejandro Fernandez intended as an affectionate tribute to Mexican culture and its people; she selected him for his stature as the foremost living exponent of Regional Mexican Music. When questioned about accepting the invitation despite frequent refusals, Fernandez observed that “to hear a ranchera song in a voice as passionate and unique as Mon’s does not happen every day.” Rodrigo Robles directed the black-and-white clip, which incorporated footage of Fernandez performing with an all-female mariachi ensemble.

On consecutive days in January 2021 Laferte dropped dual renditions of “Se Me Va a Quemar el Corazon,” one a solitary ranchera and the other backed by banda ensemble La Arrolladora Banda el Limón de René Camacho. The video, addressing gender violence, starred actor Tenoch Huerta. April brought the full-length Seis, whose tracks reflected the sensibilities of artists including Vargas and Toña “La Negra,” plus further pairings with Gloria Trevi, Mujeres del Viento Florido, Fernandez, and La Arrolladora. Beyond a nomination for Best Regional Mexican Music Album at the principal ceremony, she collected four additional Latin Grammy nods across separate categories.

October saw the arrival of 1940 Carmen, ten songs composed and tracked in Los Angeles from March through July. Self-produced, the set constituted her first sustained venture into English-language vocals and functioned as a spiritual travelogue of her four-month U.S. sojourn while restoring live-performance elements. It earned a Latin Grammy nomination in the Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album category.

Laferte re-emerged in November 2023 with Autopoiética, her eighth album. Containing fourteen original compositions, the project combined samples and electronics with conventional instruments, echoing her indie roots even as the songs previewed by advance singles “No + Sad” and the title track displayed a seasoned musical perspective and poetic lyricism.