"It’s about making good music and that’s what I want to do.”
Logging into Zoom on a Friday night, seldom does it happen that I’m greeted by someone situated 4,500 miles away, basking in the glorious weather of the Orange State. With its natural gleam radiating from the excitable face of Yendry Fiorentina, the Dominican artist cryptically describes here whereabouts, “I’m in Miami to record work with some people...”, let’s see if I can try and weedle some more information from her on this later.
The up-and-coming artist has briskly made a name for herself, now listing an impressive highlights reel of destinations she’s due to attend over the coming weeks: “L.A. next week, then Barcelona for a fashion job, then Miami again in April.” In spite of the intrepid nature to Yendry’s currently demanding schedule, the responsibility and onus to travelling in a pandemic is never too far away, recounting one too many intrusive Covid tests for her liking.
But travelling has always played a part in the young Dominican’s life, being born in the Dominican Republic and shortly thereafter moving to Italy with her mother in search of a better life. However, Yendry adds a sizeable caveat to this shift in lifestyle, adding the visible difference of skin tone, hair and language from that of her roots. Whilst Yendry adopted quickly as a child to the Italian language and culture, she ultimately pays a stark homage to her mother for paving her future as a first generation immigrant in a frictional society, “our parents had to take the easier jobs in order to give us opportunities.”
As she extends this homage to her latest single 'Se Acabó', Yendry’s admiration for her mother continues - drawing a clear lineage to her interest in music. Conceding that reggaeton is ultimately “the music of the streets”, she was also surrounded by a hoard of other Latin American genres introduced at an early age by her mother, including salsa, bachata, and merengue. Picturing these influences allows me to neatly fit the pieces of Yendry’s puzzling music in my mind, however, even more so once she includes her step-father's Western influences such as The Bee Gees, Whitney Houston and George Michael.
“The performance really changed my whole career.”
The final third factor for Yendry’s musical upbringing neatly completes this puzzle. As she describes, the “golden years” of MTV shaped her creative knowledge, incessantly watching the likes of TLC, Destiny’s Child, and Blur (as well as throwing in Outkast for good measure), she remains adamant on MTV’s influence during this period, “the whole scene influenced us in what we’re doing now.” If anything, this plethora of influences provide an interesting case study into Yendry’s varied repertoire - a splash of bachata, a sprinkle of Whitney Houston, and a coveted dusting of TLC, help form the product of Yendry.
But this product is something we’ve yet to see perform on stage due to the pandemic so, like many, my personal introduction to Yendry came from her remarkable performance on the reputed YouTube channel, Colors. Stated as one of her first goals for this project, it took all but a few months to receive the call to perform (with an understated response: “Of course I’m coming guys!”). With a spotlit focus on the artist’s voice, stripped of staging or dancers, Yendry's voice, expression and confidence struck me as a standout package amongst their litany of performers. So, too, did many others, as the performance quickly garnered over 1 million views to audiences around the world, leading Yendry to conclude with a wry smile on her face, “the performance really changed my whole career.”
With the growing platform supporting Yendry, she’s recently taken to social media to lend her voice to racially-charged topics, perhaps re-addressing the racist and abusive rhetoric thrown toward herself and her mother in Italy. Speaking personally, Yendry identifies as Afro Latina, however, a lot of people in the Dominican Republic “deny those roots'' for themselves - forcing Yendry’s hand to start these pertinent conversations from her own family table. Ultimately, it’s these “universal connections” Yendry wants to exploit, “even if it’s not comfortable for Latin people”, in search of a more harmonising way for Dominicans to accept their African roots and improve inter-racial relations. Nevertheless, she remains adamant that the new generation are “starting to accept their skin tone, African rhythm and traditional music”, which invariably acts as a shining beacon of light for what the future may hold.
“I just do what comes out, it’s about making good music and that’s what I want to do”
Speaking of a bright future ahead of us, I finally return to my interrogation of Yendry’s whereabouts in Miami, in which she concedes that a new single will be released soon and a new EP is also on its way. My invariably emotions get the better of me once Yendry describes the opportunities of an EP, alluding to “an Afrobeat song...an Aphex Twin song”, and truthfully, anything could currently happen for the up-and-coming Dominican artist at this enticing intersection of her career.
While some may challenge the diversity of her current repertoire, Yendry’s self-serving response proves refreshing, “I just do what comes out, it’s about making good music and that’s what I want to do”, a stark reminder for days gone by where greedy record labels would decide when, where and how frequently artists would record, tour, eat and breathe. With an inconceivable number of opportunities laid out for Yendry within this pandemic and beyond, we’re undoubtedly with you all of the way - akin to a songbird we’ve set free during our lockdown slumber to disseminate positive messages to the world.
Yendry's latest single, 'Se Acabó', is out now and can be found here.
To check out the latest from Yendry, follow her on Instagram here.
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