Mon Laferte's "La Mujer" takes on a whole new meaning thanks to fresh lyrics and a dream collaboration with Gloria Trevi.
"The song is more powerful now," says the Chilean singer-songwriter. "It needed fresh air and I thought, I wanted to sing with another powerful woman and, well, the first one that came to mind was Gloria."
The change in the lyrics is subtle but poignant. It went from "I am that woman of the overdose. I am that woman that you know so well" to "I am that woman. I am your overdose. I am that woman that you know nothing about."
"It's a song I wrote years ago and had stopped singing because I didn't like the lyrics anymore. It was toxic," says Laferte. "But since the pandemic paused many things, I had the time to revisit the song and rewrite certain parts for the new album."
After reaching out to Trevi, the Mexican star kept it honest. "First, I thought, great because I love her work. Mon is transparent and brave," the "Pelo Suelto" singer tells Billboard. "But I am also an artist that has to be honest and transparent with the music that I sing so I needed to hear the song first in order to say yes. When I heard the lyrics, I thought 'Wow.' I thought, 'I am that woman.' I identified.”
Laferte also talked about collaborating with Trevi, an artist whose inspired her music and writing. "I used to sing her songs when I was little, and I was known as Gloria's double at our school because I was the one with the personality that could get away with impersonating her. I wore my ripped tights, would dance with my hair almost sweeping the floor," Laferte shares.
Adding, "I tell Gloria that she has inspired a lot the way I write my songs because they come from an honesty that I learned and found in her songs because as she says, she’s an open book, and that’s how I write my songs too. I’m not telling fictional stories bur rather my life is in each song."
The new version, which premiered Wednesday (April 7), lands on Laferte's sixth studio album, aptly titled Seis, out Thursday. On it, the 37-year-old singer pairs honest, vulnerable and commanding lyrics with corrido tumbado, banda and mariacheño sounds.
Above, watch the highlights from our interview with the pair, where Trevi explains why she said yes to collaborating with Laferte and why both think the label "female empowerment" has turned into a cliché.
