Nena Daconte

Drawing its name from a figure appearing in one of Gabriel García Márquez’s novels, the Spanish project Nena Daconte revolves around singer and songwriter Mai Meneses. Her reflective songs, built around guitar and piano, brought the group successive chart-topping singles and platinum-certified releases, among them the 2008 album Retales de Carnaval. Over time the outfit turned inward, yielding the contemplative Sólo Muerdo Por Ti in 2013 and the 2019 set Suerte…, while the 2020 single “Hojas Secas” introduced electronic elements into Meneses’s work.

Meneses, who competed during the second season of the television program Operación Triunfo, composed and tracked Nena Daconte’s debut album He Perdido los Zapatos in 2005, recruiting Kim Fanlo—encountered on the same program—as arranger and producer. During those sessions the act secured a deal with Universal Music Spain, which issued He Perdido los Zapatos in March 2006. Its lead single “Idiota,” produced by Carlos Jean, gained substantial radio play and soon appeared in remixed form. Follow-up “En Que Estrella Estara” reached the top of the Spanish Billboard Chart. By November the album had earned gold certification. Nena Daconte also received the Premio Ondas for Best Spanish Breakout Artist of 2006 and earned a nomination for MTV’s Spanish Act of the Year Award.

After devoting most of 2007 to touring behind the debut, Meneses delivered Nena Daconte’s sophomore effort Retales de Carnaval in September 2008. The record featured “Tenia Tanto Que Darte,” another number-one hit that ranked as the year’s best-selling Spanish single. Later releases “El Aleph” and “Ay! Amor” both reached the Spanish Top 20, and Retales de Carnaval attained platinum status in 2009. For the subsequent album Una Mosca en el Cristal, Meneses partnered with producer Alejo Stivel; the project yielded two Top 40 entries (“No te invité a dormir” and “Perdida”) before an acoustic tour of Spain in 2011. The next year Meneses contributed to the track “Pero Si Tú No Estás,” adopted as the theme for the Spanish series La Fuga.

Aiming for fresh sonic territory on her fourth album, Meneses enlisted producers Javibu Carretero and Manuel Colmenero. Issued in 2012, Sólo Muerdo Por Ti drew inspiration from lullabies she had written for her son and centered on a darker, guitar-driven palette. Once promotional commitments ended, Meneses relocated temporarily to Dallas with her family. She resumed activity under the Nena Daconte banner in 2018, collaborating once more with producer Paco Salazar—who had previously worked with her on the 2010 track “I Just Call You Girl”—to create the 2019 EP Suerte…. Their partnership continued with the October 2020 single “Hojas Secas,” which layered dance rhythms and electronic textures onto the project’s established style.